City Maps Application Cracks Open Tons of Hidden L&I Data

**ArcticSplash** · 08-13-2012, 02:22 PM

L&I Releases Megamaps Covering Many City Departments - Philadelinquency

Bookmark it: phila.gov/map

**AbortedWalrus** · 08-13-2012, 02:44 PM

Holy poo this is AWESOME. I love maps, and getting access to this info so easily is amazing.

**ArcticSplash** · 08-13-2012, 03:14 PM

The data services that drive the map are also there, but the services are geospatial and I've yet to crack it for direct addresses, just rectangles. I might have to do some trickery to fish out the data some other way.

I want to write a rental license checker to put on ZBABot and Philadelinquency to easily answer the question: "Is This a Legal Rental Property?" If yes, it provides the owner detail, if not, it tells you such and also (assuming a neighbor or a tenant is the one asking), provides recommendations on what to do with that information. i.e., a One-Click Button to launch an illegal rental complaint (which sucks in all the property details about the subject parcel), etc... The complaint is perfectly formulated so 3-1-1 basically has nothing to do except forward it to the L&I region it needs to go to.

I'm thinking of a whole basket of tools to help people get a bit smarter about their complaints so City employees have even less legwork to do to handle same complaints.

**ArcticSplash** · 08-13-2012, 04:39 PM

If you click on Location History on something, you'll get a complete 360-degree dossier from L&I about the property.

Here's Club Aura, for instance:

Remember Club Aura From Earlier Today? - Philadelinquency

Can clearly see where the Philadelphia Police actually got involved in the occupancy permit appeal. They don't like having to go corral that place when it lets out after their parties.

**AbortedWalrus** · 08-13-2012, 07:46 PM

Originally Posted by ArcticSplash

The data services that drive the map are also there, but the services are geospatial and I've yet to crack it for direct addresses, just rectangles. I might have to do some trickery to fish out the data some other way.

I want to write a rental license checker to put on ZBABot and Philadelinquency to easily answer the question: "Is This a Legal Rental Property?" If yes, it provides the owner detail, if not, it tells you such and also (assuming a neighbor or a tenant is the one asking), provides recommendations on what to do with that information. i.e., a One-Click Button to launch an illegal rental complaint (which sucks in all the property details about the subject parcel), etc... The complaint is perfectly formulated so 3-1-1 basically has nothing to do except forward it to the L&I region it needs to go to.

I'm thinking of a whole basket of tools to help people get a bit smarter about their complaints so City employees have even less legwork to do to handle same complaints.

I'm a software developer so I can take a look at the services and give you a hand if you're interested.

Edit:

If you make a request like so, to one of my old apartments at 1510 Fairmount Ave, like so:
http://services.phila.gov/ULRS311/Da...1344904641138=

You will get a response body back with an XCoord and a YCoord. "XCoord":2693640,"YCoord":241422

Then another request is made by the site like so... (I had to change http to h//p so the bbs code would stop trying to make it a link it's also inserting some extraneous spaces. No clue)

h//p://gis.phila.gov/ArcGIS/rest/services/PhilaGov/RentalLicense/MapServer/1/query?f=json&returnGeometry=true&spatialRel=esriSp atialRelIntersects&geometry=%7B%22rings%22%3A%5B%5B%5B2693637%2C2414 25%5D%2C%5B2693643%2C241425%5D%2C%5B2693643%2C2414 19%5D%2C%5B2693637%2C241419%5D%2C%5B2693637%2C2414 25%5D%5D%5D%2C%22spatialReference%22%3A%7B%22wkid% 22%3A2272%7D%7D&geometryType=esriGeometryPolygon&inSR=2272&outFie lds=*&outSR=2272&callback=dojo.io.script.jsonp_doj oIoScript66._jsonpCallback

Click this for the response

The bolded section represents the following:
geometry={"rings":[[[2693637,241425],[2693643,241425],[2693643,241419],[2693637,241419],[2693637,241425]]],"spatialReference":{"wkid":2272}}

Taking a look at that, it's making a ring geometry using +/-3 on the X and Y coords returned by the first call.

So you could write some java script to do this work for you, or you can dig through theirs and use the same method, whatever you want, but once you make that second request it will return you a response body that contains the information about the house located at that address, including an "APNO", which you can use to directly open the link for "more information" that comes up when the bubble pops up.

**phillydeveloper** · 08-13-2012, 11:13 PM

Why do you guys care so much whether the LL has a renters license? If he or she isn't renting rooms and the building is up to code, who cares? You must e the type to seek out these units without licenses then try to withhold rent until the LL gets one. Be careful, you may come across a LL that cares more about his money than a renter's license. If you find a good unit just take it.

**mixiboi** · 08-14-2012, 12:56 AM

Originally Posted by phillydeveloper

Why do you guys care so much whether the LL has a renters license? If he or she isn't renting rooms and the building is up to code, who cares?.

Because more likely they are renting rooms and the building isn't up to code....

**mixiboi** · 08-14-2012, 01:29 AM

On the app...I love it, it saves me time on learning more about what is going on in the city...

And you can thank the Office of Information Technology (OIT) for all of this..next up iPhone apps!

**ArcticSplash** · 08-14-2012, 06:02 AM

Originally Posted by phillydeveloper

Why do you guys care so much whether the LL has a renters license? If he or she isn't renting rooms and the building is up to code, who cares? You must e the type to seek out these units without licenses then try to withhold rent until the LL gets one. Be careful, you may come across a LL that cares more about his money than a renter's license. If you find a good unit just take it.

Epic fail.

Why don't you go call L&I and ask them to remove the app if you're so scared of it then. See how you get on.

**boognish** · 08-14-2012, 08:49 AM

This is gold. Thanks for the headsup.

**Sharkfood** · 08-14-2012, 12:01 PM

Originally Posted by phillydeveloper

Why do you guys care so much whether the LL has a renters license? If he or she isn't renting rooms and the building is up to code, who cares? You must e the type to seek out these units without licenses then try to withhold rent until the LL gets one. Be careful, you may come across a LL that cares more about his money than a renter's license. If you find a good unit just take it.

speaking as a landlord myself, it's not that much trouble to get a rental license. I have no respect for the landlords who dodge this requirement; usually, they are the shadier types.

**JakeL** · 08-14-2012, 12:18 PM

Cool to see where development is happening via the construction permits, there's a big swath of them up near Temple. Would be interesting to put in a heatmap to better visualize the trends.

**annie** · 08-14-2012, 03:49 PM

Don't miss the comedy gold that is the gun permit appeals feature. The information is given in all caps so it's like they're yelling at you about their denial.

I WANT TO APPEAL BECAUSE I WAS DISAPPROVED, BUT THE INFORMATION I GAVE WAS ACCURATE NOT UNLESS I FORGOT ABOUT SOME INFORMATION.

WHEN ASKED WHETHER I HAVE EVER BEEN ARRESTED, I ASSUMED THEY WERE ASKING IN THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA. I WAS HANDCUFFED IN DELAWARE COUNTY FOR BEING FIVE MINUTES LATE FOR COURT AND I WAS ARRESTED FOR SHOPLIFTING IN GERMANY.

I AM NOT AN ASSOCIATE OF KNOWN FELON AND I WASN'T AWARE THAT HE WAS A FELON. NO ONE WAS AWARE THAT I HAD A GUN; IT WAS KEPT BEHIND A LOCKED DOOR.

**mixiboi** · 08-14-2012, 07:22 PM

All Caps is a hold over from the telegraph days...But it is still funny...

**darthsinatra** · 08-14-2012, 07:41 PM

"I am not an associate of a known felon. That is, I didn't know he was a felon."

That's the same, right?

**ArcticSplash** · 08-14-2012, 07:54 PM

Originally Posted by mixiboi

All Caps is a hold over from the telegraph days...But it is still funny...

I don't know if they use Hansen to do these appeals, but everything in Hansen is done in all caps.

It's actually a holdover from the IBM System/360-390 days. Data entry is much faster if you ignore case. It was also faster for the computer to search text that way. Case insensitive searches on mixed case are slower if the source text is mixed. Not a problem today but in the old days computing time was expensive.

**mixiboi** · 08-15-2012, 02:10 PM

Awww..they took the gun permit appeals away...guess some people got mad/worried people would know they don't have a gun anymore...

**ArcticSplash** · 08-15-2012, 09:32 PM

I wonder how many people threatened suit for posting the Gun Permit Appeals.

I would imagine someone made some hot calls to gun-lobby groups.

**Jayfar** · 08-15-2012, 09:52 PM

Originally Posted by mixiboi

Awww..they took the gun permit appeals away...guess some people got mad/worried people would know they don't have a gun anymore...

Originally Posted by ArcticSplash

I wonder how many people threatened suit for posting the Gun Permit Appeals.

I would imagine someone made some hot calls to gun-lobby groups.

Metro - New L&I website removes gun permit appeal information after blog backlash

That information was removed soon after Philadelphia Magazine's Philly Post wrote a web post titled "These Philadelphians Want Gun Permits" listing details of some of the more humorous appeals.

These Philadelphians Want Gun Permits | The Philly Post

UPDATE [8/15/12, 5:45 p.m.]: In light of concerns over public safety and in light of the fact that the city has removed Internet access to the information pending a policy review, we have redacted all names and addresses from this article.

**mixiboi** · 08-15-2012, 10:34 PM

Yup..tho its public records..the Police department got involved due to as I thought, people were worried about their safety:

L&I spokesperson Maura Kennedy confirms that the information was removed from the city’s website at the request of the police department. The police referred me to the mayor’s office, and the mayor’s office says it is reviewing the matter.

What a world...But still funny..