1. Who collects this data set? If it’s an organization, which department of the organization? Is there a specific person listed who you could contact?
The Health Division of the Department of Inspectional Services (ISD), which is responsible for developing and enforcing building, housing, health, sanitation and safety regulations mandated by City and State governments. Department of Innovation and Technology as a publisher, can be contacted through email analyticsteam@boston.gov.
2. Why do you think the organization collects this data? Does it specify how it uses the data?
In order to protect public health, Inspectional Services Department (ISD) creates, enforces and regulates food safety codes, and all food businesses must possess a food service permit. This data lists all the restaurants that met the City’s standards to have food establishment licenses. In the database, the business name, DBA name, exact address, restaurant service types, and property ID of the active licenses restaurants are listed.
3. What time period does the data set cover?
The data covers from 2006 to 2020. The first documented restaurant become licensed food service establishments was on December 7, 2006, and the latest one was on January 21, 2020. It covers 17 cities in Boston area, included Allston, Boston, Brighton, Charlestown, Chestnut Hill, Dorchester, Downtown/Financial District, East Boston, Fenway, Hyde Park, Jamaica, Plain, Mattapan, Mission Hill, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, South End, and West Roxbury.
4. What are some questions you have about this data set? (Note: they can be basic like "why is this data being collected?" or very specific like "what does the field BUS_LIC_STATUS mean?")
The data is useful for the people who live in this area if people have any food safety or public health questions about the restaurants they can check with this database first to see if the restaurant qualified or not. However, there is a column called “DBAName” (The operating name of a company) in the file but it is blank for most restaurants. Why they are mostly blank? Moreover, what does the field “dayphn” mean? There are also “Latitude” and “Longitude” in the file, but are the two information necessary for the people who download this database?
5. Who are three types of people you could interview about this data set in order to learn more?
First, we will need to interview The Health Division of the Department of Inspectional Services (ISD) who issued the food permit to know more about the official process because it doesn’t include in the data. How long does it take to have a permit? What’s the process? Will the permit expire? Will there be a regular check with the restaurants? How many percentages of restaurants in this area qualified?
Second, at least one full-time employee must be certified through an accredited food manager program, interviewing with the food manager program’s director to know more about the program’s design is also important. Does the program effectively help the restaurant? At last, interview with the permitted restaurants, we are curious about will this program help them? What’s their feedback for this process?