ABOUT THE OBSERVATORY
Useful public data.
Stronger public understanding.
The San Diego Prosperity Observatory collects primary-source civic records from every level of government that touches San Diego County and organizes them so journalists, researchers and residents can examine public resources, institutions and community outcomes.
The problem we are solving.
Public records about one county are published by dozens of agencies, each with its own portal, format, naming and update cadence. Answering a simple question can mean a week of downloads before the first comparison. The Observatory pulls those records into one collection with a single record format, keeps the original evidence attached, and makes the whole thing reachable from the assistant or tools you already use.
Coverage is an ongoing, measurable effort. Registered sources, records accepted into the database, reviewed public exports and newly staged packages are separate states. The Sources page and coverage explorer make those differences visible rather than hiding them.
Our standards.
- Prefer authoritative primary sources and preserve citations.
- Keep original evidence, reporting periods and retrieval dates.
- Distinguish documented relationships, possible matches and unresolved questions.
- Keep missing values and coverage gaps visible.
- Separate funding awards, contracts, actual payments and outcomes.
- Apply the same methods across organizations and political actors.
Definitions.
- Prosperity: residents’ quality of life, including housing stability, health, education, economic opportunity and environmental conditions. These are separate measures, not a single project score.
- Source: the publisher or original material from which information came.
- Dataset: a defined collection of records with its own subject, geography and reporting period.
- Record: one source entry, which may repeat or amend information. It is not necessarily a unique person, payment or event.
- Verified export: a file checked against its checksum and stated row count. This does not independently confirm every statement in its source.
- Coverage: what is included and missing. An empty search does not establish that an event never happened.
How research questions help.
Questions and search terms submitted through the connection are stored privately so we can prioritize missing sources and improve access. They are not published as findings, and the feature does not collect entire conversations or visitor identities. Please keep confidential sources and personal information out of submitted questions.
Contact.
A public contact channel has not yet been designated. You can submit a dataset request through the connection; do not include confidential information.