Looking to meet singles? The City of Victoria can help.
You might want to spend more time in Fairfield, according to the city’s new open data portal. Fairfield has 6,140 singles — the highest number in the city — followed by James Bay with 6,050 according to census data included on site. (See the map here)
Single women outnumber single men by more than 35 per cent in both Fairfield and James Bay. In fact, downtown and Harris Green are the only two city neighbourhoods with more single men than single women.
Overall, according to the data, there are more singles in Victoria than couples. Only two neighbourhoods, Gonzales and Rockland, have more people in married or common-law relationships than singles.
The singles census data are just a small piece of the offerings on the city’s open data portal — which has just undergone its first major enhancement since the original catalogue of data was launched in 2013.
Everything from the location of drinking fountains to development applications to demolitions is available through the portal.
“It represents a major step forward for us in terms of public accessibility to the city’s open data,” Bill Eisenhauer, director of engagement, recently told councillors.
Victoria is ranked 29th of 61 participating Canadian cities by the Open Cities Index, he said.
“Victoria is the only municipality in the region included in the rankings, it’s important to note, and we are only one of a handful that even makes the list,” Eisenhauer said.
Edmonton is ranked No. 1.
Victoria’s original catalogue had about 300 data sets but they were available only in a list. The improved portal maintains all the raw data but has a better search function, better navigation, graphing and mapping, staff say.
Councillors praised staff for the initiative.
“This is absolutely for people who are data geeks but it’s also for everybody else,” said Coun. Marianne Alto, noting that moving away from the “list model” makes it extremely accessible.
“I think we really need to appreciate the fact that the work that’s gone into this has moved the city dramatically forward in its commitment to transparency,” Alto said.
She said she chuckled to find the singles map at the top of the census data.
“In addition to it being fun, this is the way that regular people find out about what’s going on at the city as a corporation and as a manager of services and as a place that they live.”
Mayor Lisa Helps called the enhancements “thrilling.” “It’s great to see us kind of catching up and coming into the 21st century, coming into our own.”
Helps suggested staff host workshops to help residents learn about the portal.
