Montgomery Launches Revamped Online Data Portal for City Information
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WAKA) — The City of Montgomery has launched a newly updated online platform designed to provide the public with access to valuable city information, enhancing transparency. It’s called Open Data Portal.
The online portal, originally introduced six years ago, has received a much-needed facelift to improve usability and expand available data.
“Everything in there—you can just download the data without going through the city and requesting this information,” said Tracy Williamson, the city’s operations program manager. “It’s all public information that you can access yourself without paying for it, requesting it, or waiting. It’s there all the time.”
The site features information on economic development, public works, public safety, and city finances. Users can also track neighborhood construction projects, road closures, and analyze city budgets. Businesses can verify which permits they need.
“Another new feature that we’ve linked this time is 911 call data, so you can see the different types and number of 911 calls,” Williamson said.
The project was initially expected to take six months, but the team completed it in less than a month.
“Twenty-eight days—I think. We went from nothing to a full system. That’s amazing,” Williamson said.
Companies considering Montgomery for business expansion can now access population details and economic trends through the portal.
“There’s never been this much development in Montgomery at one time,” Williamson said. “They can use the data to determine the needs of our city and know whether their business is needed here and could fill a void that we might have.”
One of the platform’s standout features is story mapping, which allows users to create personalized maps highlighting restaurants, parks, and attractions.
“So if your family is coming to town and you want to show them places to visit, you can create that through story mapping,” Williamson said. “We would love for everyone to try it out and give us feedback. The plan is to grow the platform based on that feedback, and many more features are already in the works.”
The updated data portal is available at opendata.montgomeryal.gov.
