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name: wprdc description: Query Pittsburgh's Western PA Regional Data Center (WPRDC) — 363+ datasets covering property assessments, air quality, 311 requests, jail census, overdose data, permits, violations, and more. Run SQL queries against live tables without downloading. Use when user asks about Pittsburgh/Allegheny County public data, property lookups, civic data, or regional statistics. version: 1.1.0 homepage: https://data.wprdc.org metadata: emoji: 📊 tags: - pittsburgh - civic-data - wprdc - ckan - property - public-data - allegheny-county

WPRDC - Pittsburgh Regional Data Center

Query 363+ datasets from the Western PA Regional Data Center. Property assessments, air quality, 311 requests, jail census, overdose data, parking, permits, violations — all queryable via SQL without downloading.

Quick Start

# Search for datasets
<skill>/wprdc.py search "property sales"
<skill>/wprdc.py search "air quality" --org allegheny-county

# Get dataset info
<skill>/wprdc.py info property-assessments

# List resources (tables) in a dataset
<skill>/wprdc.py resources property-assessments

# See field schema
<skill>/wprdc.py fields assessments

# SQL query (the killer feature!)
<skill>/wprdc.py query 'SELECT "PARID", "PROPERTYADDRESS" FROM @assessments WHERE "PROPERTYCITY"='"'"'PITTSBURGH'"'"' LIMIT 5'

# Quick parcel lookup
<skill>/wprdc.py parcel 0028F00194000000

# Download a dataset
<skill>/wprdc.py download property-assessments --format csv

Commands

search <query>

Search for datasets by keyword.

Options:

• --org <name> — Filter by organization (e.g., allegheny-county, city-of-pittsburgh)
• --group <name> — Filter by topic group (e.g., health, housing-properties)
• --limit <n> — Max results (default: 10)
• --json — Raw JSON output

info <dataset>

Get detailed information about a dataset, including description, resources, and metadata.

resources <dataset>

List all resources (tables/files) in a dataset with their IDs and queryability status.

fields <resource>

Show the field schema for a resource. Use shortcut names or resource IDs.

query <sql>

Execute SQL queries against live data. This is the power feature!

Important: Column names must be double-quoted because PostgreSQL is case-sensitive:

SELECT "PARID", "PROPERTYADDRESS" FROM @assessments WHERE "PROPERTYCITY"='PITTSBURGH' LIMIT 5

Use @shortcut notation for common tables (see Shortcuts below).

Options:

• --json — Raw JSON output
• --table — Format as ASCII table

parcel <pin>

Quick property lookup by parcel ID. Returns address, assessments, building info, and last sale.

<skill>/wprdc.py parcel 0028F00194000000

download <dataset>

Download a resource to a file.

Options:

• --resource <id|name> — Specific resource
• --format <csv|json|geojson> — Preferred format
• --output <path> — Output filename

orgs

List all organizations publishing data.

groups

List all topic groups (categories).

shortcuts

Show available query shortcuts.

Query Shortcuts

Use @shortcut in SQL queries instead of long resource IDs:

Shortcut	Dataset
@assessments	Property Assessments (584K parcels)
@sales	Property Sales
@311	311 Service Requests
@permits	PLI Permits
@violations	PLI Violations
@overdoses	Fatal Accidental Overdoses
@jail	Jail Daily Census
@air-quality	Air Quality
@fishfry	Fish Fry Map

Example:

<skill>/wprdc.py query 'SELECT * FROM @overdoses WHERE "death_year"=2024 LIMIT 10'

Before Querying, Ask Yourself

1. Scope: Is this City of Pittsburgh only, or all of Allegheny County?

   • PLI violations, 311, permits → City of Pittsburgh only (90 neighborhoods)
   • Property assessments, overdoses, jail → All of Allegheny County (130 municipalities)

2. Freshness: When was this dataset last updated? Run info <dataset> first.

3. Fields: What columns exist? Run fields <resource> before writing SQL.

4. Size: How many records? Start with LIMIT 10, expand once you know it works.

NEVER Do

• NEVER use CAST(), ROUND(), AVG(), or other SQL functions — WPRDC blocks them. You'll get "Access denied: Not authorized to call function". Do aggregation client-side.

• NEVER query without LIMIT on large tables — Assessments has 584K rows. Queries timeout. Always add LIMIT.

• NEVER assume county-wide coverage for City datasets — PLI violations, 311, permits are City of Pittsburgh only. Aspinwall, Fox Chapel, Mt. Lebanon = separate municipalities, not in the data.

• NEVER trust "under maintenance" datasets — County plumbing inspections, housing inspections, food facilities are currently broken. Check info first.

• NEVER forget column quoting — UPPERCASE columns need double quotes ("PARID"), lowercase don't (case_year). Wrong quoting = cryptic "column does not exist" errors.

• NEVER use wildcards on unindexed text — LIKE '%something%' on large tables will timeout. Be specific.

Common Errors

Error	Cause	Fix
409 CONFLICT + "column does not exist"	Unquoted uppercase column	Add quotes: "PARID" not PARID
Access denied: Not authorized to call function	Used CAST/ROUND/AVG	Remove function, process client-side
Timeout / no response	Query too large	Add LIMIT, narrow WHERE clause
Empty results	Filter mismatch	Check exact string values with a broad query first
"resource not found"	Wrong resource ID	Use resources <dataset> to get correct ID

SQL Tips

1. Quote UPPERCASE column names — PostgreSQL is case-sensitive:

   SELECT "PROPERTYADDRESS" FROM @assessments  -- ✓ uppercase needs quotes
   SELECT case_year FROM @overdoses            -- ✓ lowercase works without quotes
   

2. GROUP BY works, but not aggregate functions:

   SELECT "PROPERTYCITY", COUNT(*) as cnt 
   FROM @assessments 
   GROUP BY "PROPERTYCITY" 
   ORDER BY cnt DESC 
   LIMIT 10
   

3. Check fields first — Column names vary wildly between datasets

Coverage Map (Critical!)

Dataset	Coverage	Municipalities
Property Assessments	All Allegheny County	130 municipalities
Property Sales	All Allegheny County	130 municipalities
Fatal Overdoses	All Allegheny County	By zip code
Jail Census	All Allegheny County	County facility
911 Dispatches	Most of county	111 of 130 municipalities
Air Quality	All Allegheny County	Monitor locations
PLI Violations	City of Pittsburgh ONLY	90 neighborhoods
PLI Permits	City of Pittsburgh ONLY	90 neighborhoods
311 Requests	City of Pittsburgh ONLY	90 neighborhoods

If someone asks about Fox Chapel, Aspinwall, Mt. Lebanon, etc. → Only county-wide datasets apply. No PLI/311 data for suburbs.

Organizations & Topics

Use orgs and groups commands to explore. Major publishers:

• allegheny-county (143 datasets) — assessments, health, jail
• city-of-pittsburgh (126 datasets) — 311, permits, violations

Example Queries

# Property lookup by parcel ID
<skill>/wprdc.py parcel 0028F00194000000

# Search by address (use SQL)
<skill>/wprdc.py query 'SELECT * FROM @assessments WHERE "PROPERTYHOUSENUM"='"'"'251'"'"' AND "PROPERTYADDRESS" LIKE '"'"'%PASADENA%'"'"''

# Overdose trends by year
<skill>/wprdc.py query 'SELECT case_year, COUNT(*) as deaths FROM @overdoses GROUP BY case_year ORDER BY case_year'

# Filter by neighborhood (City of Pittsburgh only)
<skill>/wprdc.py query 'SELECT "VIOLATION", COUNT(*) FROM @violations WHERE "NEIGHBORHOOD"='"'"'Hazelwood'"'"' GROUP BY "VIOLATION" ORDER BY COUNT(*) DESC LIMIT 10'

# Cross-tab query
<skill>/wprdc.py query 'SELECT combined_od1, race, COUNT(*) FROM @overdoses GROUP BY combined_od1, race ORDER BY COUNT(*) DESC LIMIT 20'

Known Issues (as of Jan 2026)

• 311 Data stopped updating Feb 2025 — new system transition
• County Plumbing Inspections — under maintenance
• County Housing Inspections — under maintenance
• County Food Facilities — under maintenance

Always run info <dataset> to check last update date before relying on data.