mySidewalk

mySidewalk is a data platform for local government, public health departments and community organisations, based in Kansas City. It combines federal datasets with an agency's own data and publishes the result as interactive dashboards and reports covering demographics, health, housing, economic and equity indicators. The work it removes is specific. American Community Survey data is the backbone of local demographic analysis and it is genuinely difficult to use correctly: geography changes between vintages, small area estimates carry margins of error large enough to invert a conclusion, and joining it to CDC PLACES or local administrative data requires knowing which crosswalk applies. Most agencies handle this with one analyst who knows how, and lose the capability when that person leaves. mySidewalk maintains the pipeline and surfaces the uncertainty, which is why public health departments doing community health needs assessments are a core customer. The reason budget gets approved is usually a grant. Federal and foundation applications increasingly require demographic and disparity evidence for a defined service area, and producing that credibly under deadline is what the platform is for. That also defines its weakness as a purchase: it produces analysis and presentation rather than operational change, so its value has to be argued each renewal cycle against services with more obvious outputs. Pricing is quoted, but as a public procurement the contract values appear in council and health board agenda materials, and comparable agencies are easy to find.

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  mySidewalkvs

  

  Socrata

  Socrata: Better when the goal is publishing an agency's own open data rather than analysing federal datasets

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  Polco

  Polco: Stronger when the need is resident survey data rather than demographic indicators

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  ClearGov

  ClearGov: Better fit when the transparency need is budget and finance rather than community indicators