Aldermanic menu money · Data & methods
Every number here is in a public file.
The menu-money pages are built from one open dataset: every project line the city has posted since 2005, cleaned, categorized, placed on the map, and linked back to the city document it came from. Use it, check it, cite it.
The dataset
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- menu_line_items.csv: one row per project: ward, year, item, location, cost, category, coordinates, and the source PDF.
- ward_year_category.csv: dollars and share of spending per ward, year and category. This is the table behind "Ward 40 spent 24.6% on sidewalks".
- ward_year.csv: totals per ward and year, with the approximate allotment.
- menu_projects.geojson: the projects as map features.
- infrastructure_menu.csv: unit prices by item and year, each with its source and confidence label.
Everything is on GitHub, with the full methodology. Releases are numbered and never change after publication, so a citation to a release always points at the same numbers.
Where it comes from
- 2012 to 2023: the annual menu postings published by the City of Chicago Office of Budget and Management.
- 2024 onward: OBM's quarterly menu reports. These are cumulative, so each year uses its latest report. The newest year is marked partial until its fourth-quarter report is out.
- 2005 to 2011: earlier OBM postings, scraped by Ward Wise Chicago volunteers.
Each row links to its PDF on chicago.gov where the city still hosts it.
What to watch for
- Shares describe choices, not results. A ward that spends little on sidewalks may have newer sidewalks, a different program paying for them, or different priorities.
- Ward boundaries moved in 2015 and 2023. "Ward 40 in 2012" is not the same ground as Ward 40 today.
- Costs are nominal. A block of resurfacing costs more every year (see the price list), so flat dollars buy less over time.
- Categories come from item names. A few items could reasonably sit in two categories. The rules are published.
- About 5% of projects aren't on the map. Either the location text is unreadable, or the geocoded point landed outside the project's own ward and was discarded. They still count in every total.
Citing a specific view
Every menu-money page has a Cite this view box. It gives the page's exact URL (filters included) together with the release, so a reader can open the same view and download the same rows.
Found a problem?
Open an issue on GitHub with the row's id, or write to us via the About page. Corrections go into the next release and are listed in its changelog.
Credits
Line-item extraction for 2005 to 2023 by Sean MacMullan and contributors (ward-wise/data-analysis). Early scraping by Jake Smith and John C. Ruf. The original menu-spending visualizer by Ward Wise Chicago.