Data below is captured from IRS 990/990-EZ forms, or in select cases from MA PC charitable tax forms, or an organization’s own published reports. Thus while these columns are likely comparable, they are not necessarily exactly compatible. A few examples of likely subtle differences:
You can download this CSV data file.
]]>While detailed nonprofit finances are often hard to find - volunteer-run organizations don’t often post balance sheets - the IRS and Propublica’s Nonprofit Explorer make it easy to see a high-level overview of nonprofit finances by reading their 990 tax forms.
We’ve built a metadata listing of locally-owned news organizations in eastern MA and in select other places in the US - read on below! As an open source project, we’d love additions and corrections to the data, as well as people to help organize the data and tie it more directly into other data sources. If you’re familiar with GitHub, submit a PR. If GitHub is a mystery, ask us for help: I’d love to teach any local journalists how to use the simpler web-based features of GitHub to build super-simple and zero maintenance websites.
See an alphabetical listing of news sites, or see news sites by state, or download a CSV of just some of the data columns we capture.
For a more comprehensive list of Massachusetts based news organizations, follow Dan Kennedy’s Media Nation blog.
Along with the below listing of organizational data, we’ve collected basic IRS 990 and 990-EZ data from Propublica for all of the non-profit organizations below. Partial raw data for selected orgs available as a CSV file. Note that Propublica’s data extracts may have occasional errors, like on the Carlisle Mosquito’s 2019 filing, which erroneously showed 0’s for all finances (we’ve manually typed in the correct numbers).
If you’re a data vis wizard and would like to help, I’d love to learn how to create better charts. I’m happy to use any low-maintenance, permissively licensed software that can display and export charts to deploy on at static GitHub Pages website. One specific example of a visualization we’d like to show:
for all *.json in data/newsorgs/p990
read all [organization][ein] fields and [organization][name] fields
allow user to select two EINs by selecting their NAME
display a chart comparing finances of the two NAMEs:
for [organization where ein=EIN][filings_with_data]
NAME is series label
categorize by [filings_with_data][tax_prd_yr]
show data fields [totrevenue] and [totassetsend]
Note this includes a selection of Massachusetts based orgs, as well as a number of potentially comparable news orgs across the US. For more data on nonprofit news, see Project News Oasis.
]]>In 2020, Arlington updated the town website system with new software from Granicus. This featured enhanced ADA compliance, better navigation, as well as some better display of meeting agendas. While most old links are redirected, some links from before 2020 may not work; please let us know if you see broken links here.
At the end of 2022, Arlington replaced the property lookup tool with a new assessor database lookup tool, as covered in this Your Arlington article. You can now lookup property assessment and tax records, as well as see newly digitized assessor maps.
Our sister site Menotomy Matters has a step-by-step guide on how to lookup property data.
For hard-to-find town records, there is a simple Public Records Request Center on the town website.
]]>We charted the top 10 landowners by size in each type of zone. For example, in zone B4 - Vehicular Oriented Business, the Mirak family’s various auto properties comprise 13% of all B4-zoned land in Arlington by size, with Noyes Realty LLLC coming in next with 9.8%, and so on. The percentage of All Others (51.1% in B4) is then shown in black for all other smaller holders combined in each zone’s chart.
See Business districts, Industrial or Other districts, Residential districts, or Data Sources. Not shown is the Transportation district (MBTA, mainly) or W/WATER areas (like Spy pond or the Res). Note that the MU - Multi-Use and PUD - Planned Unit Development zones are effectively only single owners. Note, unlike our earlier comparison of the top landowners in Arlington, these charts include the Town of Arlington itself in calculations.
All figures are derived from official data sources from the Town’s GIS department using the lot size of all parcels. Using a simple Ruby programming script, we have analyzed the core ArlingtonMA_Assessor table of all owners of land in town to sum up overall ownership records. Since many commercial properties are owned by trusts or LLC corporations, we have also consolidated beneficial ownership in selected cases for some major property owners in town. Entries in UPPERCASE are exact parcel owners directly in Assessor rolls; entries In Mixed Case are beneficial owners of various companies or realty trusts that we have combined. Note that our beneficial owner research may be incomplete or inaccurate depending on actual ownership structures.
Property size percentage of a zone is calculated against a summing up of all property LOT_SIZE within a zone. Note that comparisons against the separate ArlingtonMA_Zoning file don’t work (not sure why; we’ve asked the GIS department for comment).
]]>Note that the Town of Arlington itself is by far the largest holder of land in town by an order of magnitude, and is not included in the below charts. For comparison, the Town and its various departments (including DPW, Schools, parks, cemetery, public safety, and more) holds 351.63 acres of land (out of ~4,300 acres of land in town total) with an assessed value of over $571,000,000!
See By Assessed Value, By Size (Acres), or Data Sources.
All figures are derived from official data sources from the Town’s GIS department including the most recently assessed value of parcels. Using a simple Ruby programming script, we have analyzed the core ArlingtonMA_Assessor table of all owners of land in town to sum up overall ownership records. Since many commercial properties are owned by trusts or LLC corporations, we have also consolidated beneficial ownership in selected cases for some major property owners in town. Entries in UPPERCASE are exact parcel owners directly in Assessor rolls; entries In Mixed Case are beneficial owners of various companies or realty trusts. Note that our beneficial owner research may be incomplete or inaccurate depending on actual ownership structures.
Property ownership records are public. However data being public and publishing that data are not the same thing. Therefore we have focused our analysis on large property owners only - who are all commercial organizations, non-profits, or major family holdings of commercial developers or landlords. While we would not want to needlessly publish personal information like a home address, analyzing and publishing commercially-focused property ownership helps residents understand the impact that new developments can have on our town.
]]>Using the most recent ESE data for student populations by grade level in 2019 shows likely trends changing the racial and ethnic makeup of the student body in future enrollments as younger classes graduate and move up each year.
Data from MA ESE Student Population by Grade, see also the Education data catalog for other sources derived from MA ESE data. Race/Ethnicity names have been normalized to use full versions from the Staffing data. MA ESE data includes male/female breakdowns for staff and students, as well as other categories for student populations including English Learner, Economically disadvantaged, Students w/disabilities, and High needs. Read the FAQ on MA ESE racial and ethnic classifications.
]]>Using the most recent ESE data for 2019 we can show the disparity in relative percentages of different racial/ethnic categores between the diverse town and student population, and relatively less-diverse teacher/staff population here in Arlngton Public Schools (APS).
See our Education data catalog for sources derived from MA ESE data. Race/Ethnicity names have been normalized to use full versions from the Staffing data. MA ESE data includes male/female breakdowns for staff and students, as well as other categories for student populations including English Learner, Economically disadvantaged, Students w/disabilities, and High needs. Read the FAQ on MA ESE racial and ethnic classifications.
Arlington resident estimated race/ethnicity breakdown comes from US Census Bureau Quick Facts estimates of Arlington for 2019.
]]>Approximate police budgets per capita and as a %age of total budget for Arlington versus comparable towns. For notes on how budget data is calculated, see the Comparable Town Budgets note. This comparison shows both the raw spending in the Schedule A budget for police departments by capita (total residents of a town), and as a percentage of the total town budget. The green line is Arlington’s level.
While not all comparable towns post detailed police staffing numbers, we have gathered approximate staffing levels for most towns. These are sourced from annual reports or budget documents from either the most reecnt posted year or a year earlier. Similarly, not all towns use the same exact categories for “patrol officers” versus other officers, so this is not a strict apples-to-apples comparison. Nonetheless, this is a useful way to compare staffing levels. The green line is Arlington’s number of total police department FTE staff per 1,000 residents.
Download this data as a CSV spreadsheet, or see the specific data sources (page numbers within annual reports or budget documents) in the policing data catalog.
]]>One useful comparison is where towns and cities spend their budget, especially when looking at roughly comparable municipalities. Comparable towns to Arlington (Belmont, Brookline, Medford, Melrose, Milton, Natick, Needham, North Andover, Reading, Stoneham, Watertown, Winchester) are defined in the Town Manager’s Annual Reports. See also a listing of comparable towns websites - with school, police, budget, and more links about each town or city.
This data is drawn from the DLS’ Schedule A figures, which all towns report to the state annually, breaking down expenditures and revenues in broad categories. Note that this is not a completely accurate comparison, because there are some minor expenses that different towns may book under different categories. For example, depending on the town, costs for Crossing Guards may be in the Education budget, or may be in the Police budget category. Similarly, various insurance costs for town employees are sometimes included in a general budget, vs. in departmental budgets. Nonetheless, it’s can still be useful to consider overall comparisons across a towns.
For a more in depth look, see Arlington Visual Budget.
Download this data as a CSV spreadsheet, or find the original source data on mass.gov as reported using standard classifications from the MA Department of Revenue. Or simply view the spreadsheet here!
]]>Although this is not a official project of the town, the group has been working collaboratively with town officials. We plan to expand the data catalog over time based on requests from residents for data they are interested in as well as making already available data more accessible. We’re just getting started, please see our Project Roadmap for future plans. Our goal is making information about town government accessible. We help residents better understand what’s happening by surfacing and visualizing important data about how our town works.
Navigate the site by clicking next through our currently available visualizations, or see the Data Catalog or other open data topics in the left hand menu.
This website is not managed by town government in Arlington, MA; it is run by volunteers who are listed in the Colophon.
This site is for Arlington, MA - if you have a similar site for any other Arlingtons out there, let us know and we’ll link to you too!
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