Philadelphia budget data visualization

Post by tedunangst » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 9:53 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #45

smcl wrote: post #22

This is a nice visualisation but it's not clear to me what the purpose of it is - other than the immediate "WOW look how much is spent on Police + Prisons!" that struck me. Or is it simply a "check it out, I know what comprises Philadelphia's budget...". I'm a total outsider so I admit it's entirely likely that this means something to folks living there. But either way it would be nice if there was a little blurb on…

If you had been to Philly recently it would make total sense how much money is spent on police and prisons. They're doing yeoman's work making the city habitable again. EDIT: No offense to Philly, but it's by a large margin the most dangerous city with more than 1 million people in the U.S. And that danger isn't as segregated as it is in say Chicago or New York, making policing harder.

Post by SilasX » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 10:03 PM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #41

tg3 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most cities this also covers revenues, aka tax collection. It would be nice to see the breakdown on how much of the budget is dedicated to collecting taxes to fund the budget.

When you drill down you get to the actual entries in the budget that correspond to the particular thing you are looking at. It was interesting all the Director of Finance salaries of 900K - 1.4M. Seems like a lot of money to pay a civil servant but I may have been misreading the budget item. I was looking at things like this: 192 FICA TAXES 0192 DIRECTOR OF FINANCE - - - 2012 - $1,369,489.56 PPE 07/10/2011 FICA MATCH…

Post by DigitalJack » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 10:33 PM UTC

SilasX wrote: post #54

ChuckMcM wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you drill down you get to the actual entries in the budget that correspond to the particular thing you are looking at. It was interesting all the Director of Finance salaries of 900K - 1.4M. Seems like a lot of money to pay a civil servant but I may have been misreading the budget item. I was looking at things like this: 192 FICA TAXES 0192 DIRECTOR OF FINANCE - - - 2012 - $1,369,489.56 PPE 07/10/2011 FICA MATCH…

Nothing compared to the $15 million it shows as total compensation for the sheriff. (Don't know how to link it; just go to the farthest-right gray square that touches the bottom of the overall rectangle.)

Post by numbsafari » Wed, Jan 23, 2013, 11:16 PM UTC

Shivetya wrote: post #51

ry0ohki wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try running for office in a city with a platform of "cutting the police budget" and see how far you get...

You could end up with the police union buying the house next door to you, staging protests there and posting signs about how dangerous your making the city. You could even end up finding yourself or relatives followed for their protection as well. It is not the public someone who wants to run on that platform has to fear

Post by tedunangst » Thu, Jan 24, 2013, 12:04 AM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #57

jlgreco wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Due-south/south-east are fine, southwest is awful (~15th and west). West is okay provided you don't go further than, say, 40th. North is a warzone aside from the narrow strip following the Schuylkill river. Fishtown is okay. Thankfully the Delaware river provides an adequate barrier between east Philly and Baghdad... err, I mean Camden. You can go as far east in Pennsylvania as you like and be fine. Philadelphia is s…

I'm moving there next year, so this is quite useful information. Thanks.