Welcome to HackLB/code_enforcement

This repository is intended to mirror the Current Open Cases of Long Beach Development Services' code enforcement records. We opted for JSON as a more convenient format for consuming and analyzing code enforcement records, and git in order to maintain a historical record including changes over time to each case record.

This project is an activity of HackLB.

Using this repo

Clone it and go

You may easily clone or download the contents of this library using any git client (including the Github Web interface) to begin working with code enforcement records in JSON format. The records are contained within the _data directory, organized by district number, with each code enforcement record stored in a separate JSON file named according to its case number.

Maintaining your own mirror

If you'd rather download the city's current records yourself, I've included the same script update.py I wrote to maintain this repo. Here's what you need to know.

Requirements

1. Python 3.5+ (it should work on Python 2.7 but I haven't tested it)
2. Several Python packages installed with pip, documented in requirements.txt

How to Use update.py

1. make a Python virtualenv for this project
2. pip install -r requirements.txt to satisfy dependencies
3. ./update.py

The script will create a _data directory if it doesn't already exist, and then save current JSON records in subdirectories. If you delete the contents of _data before running update.py you will get only current records.

Contributing to this repo

Pull requests are welcome - if you have an idea for an improvement (for instance, porting update.py to another language) you're welcome to make it and open a PR, or open an issue first for discussion.

Sample record

A typical record is shown below for reference:

{
    "address": "3424 64TH ST",
    "case_num": "CEAC224978",
    "description": "GARAGE BURNED AND THE DEBRIS IS STILL THERE; JUNK CARS IN YARD, AT LEAST ONE OF WHICH IS BURNED FROM THE GARAGE FIRE; JUNK IN BACK YARD. PEOPLE LIVING IN RV IN BACKYARD ON LEFT SIDE PLUGGED INTO HOUSE",
    "district": 9,
    "last_insp_date": "08/26/2016",
    "last_insp_type": "Pre-Citation Inspection",
    "start_date": "10/29/2015"
}