Over 1.5 million pages of in-depth surveys, reports, and research from more than six hundred North American cities and urban agencies.

Why are city reports important?

Climate change. Immigration. Racial equity. Cities are on the front lines of today’s most pressing challenges and their publications document the ground truth. Few sources have such current, detailed, fact-based information. Rich in statistics, the documents provide practical examples of what policies work, along with hard evidence. From coastal erosion to vehicle emissions, the issues addressed by municipal policies provide a window into historical attitudes, actions, and outcomes.

County of Los Angeles, Public Health Department

 

Challenges

Older born-digital reports are often removed from city websites without keeping copies. The reasons range from political to a simple decision to revamp a website. Other documents are spread across the websites of related organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce, and so can be hard to find. Still other reports have yet to be digitized.

Very few city reports have unique identifiers, indexing, or sophisticated search tools. The materials become hard to find, difficult to examine, and at risk of disappearing altogether.

Our solution

North American City Reports preserves the full text of surveys, budgets, statistical records, case studies, planning documents, training manuals, policy guidelines, reports, and news from the five hundred largest cities in North America. It also includes select materials from hundreds of related agencies and non-governmental organizations. With more than 1.5m documents, it provides a new and typically unmined source for observing policy in action.

The larger cities are monitored for added items weekly, others monthly. A community feature of the Commons platform is an upload tool, and members are encouraged to add reports from smaller cities and other municipal organizations that they would like Policy Commons: Cities to keep safe forever. The result is a constantly growing archive that adds more than 40,000 new reports each year.

 

Report from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, documenting the events surrounding the murder of George Floyd

Current, in-depth, factual and statistical data covering many topics are found in these reports

Topical coverage

  • Animal control and welfare

  • Architecture

  • Climate and environment

  • Diversity, equity, inclusion

  • Education and youth

  • Emergency, fire and safety

  • Energy and utilities

  • Immigration

  • Leisure and tourism

  • Libraries

  • Local history

  • Mental health

  • Police, crime and incarceration

  • Public health and epidemiology

  • Small business and economics

  • Sports, arts and culture

  • Statistics and data

  • Status of women

  • Terrorism

  • Transportation

  • Urban planning

  • Water resources and sewerage

  • Zoos, parks, forestry, and urban agriculture

 

Material you can’t find elsewhere

 

North American City Reports includes items published after 2000 from the well-known Index to Current Urban Documents (ICUD) microfiche series. This captured thousands of reports that have now disappeared.

 

Content Types

  • Annual reports

  • Budgets 

  • Case studies

  • Commissioned reports

  • Planning documents

  • Environmental impact reports

  • Policies and guidelines

  • News and press releases

  • Surveys

  • Statistical data

  • Training and how-to guides


Add and share reports

Registered members can upload and share reports. Within minutes, the documents are indexed, summarized, and available to the Policy Commons community. Bulk uploads of historical reports are made using a spreadsheet.

 

City of San Francisco

Access options

Get immediate but limited access by registering here. Additional content and features are available to institutional subscribers. Choose from the following options: