Albany's SeeClickFix Program

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We had a false start in February 2026 when we wanted to examine the SeeClickFix data.  We were distracted by other projects and stopped the work.  We’re glad that we waited.  When we pulled updated data at the beginning of August 2026 we noted the SeeClickFix usage has gone up dramatically in 2026.  Through July 2026 we are on pace to see a 4x increase in usage between 2025 and 2026. 

What can we tell beyond the reporting volume?  Let’s find out. 

There are approximately 7600 SeeClickFix reports, of which approximately 3200 are from January 2026 through July 2026.  For our analysis we are primarily examining the 2026 data.

We placed a copy of the SeeClickFix data in Excel format in this Google Drive folder.  The original data is in the sheet Albany_SCF_Data_Aug26_work and other sheets contain various pivot tables used for analysis.  If you review the data and have any questions, email us at albanydatastories@gmail.com.

Issues are reported everywhere across the City and there are occasional reports outside the City limits .  The map above shows the locations of all 3215 SeeClickFix reports.  

And we can look at the Winter & Snow SeeClickFix report locations between January 27th and 31st and note reports spread throughout the City and several clusters in Downtown and Center Square. 

Of the 3215 SeeClickFix reports filed in 2026, 2/3 of reports (67%) have been closed.  93% of reports submitted in January are closed as of July 31st.  47% of reports submitted in July are closed as of 7/31.

Is there variability in closure rates across the City?  A friend of Albany Data Stories pointed us to this article regarding Portland Oregon’s.  The report “...presented data demonstrating that complaint-based enforcement disproportionately affects communities of color and neighborhoods vulnerable to gentrification.”  While the report’s commentary and conclusions aren’t an exact overlap with our SeeClickFix study it had us thinking about follow-on analysis that we could perform.

If the 2026 closure rate is 67% is there any variability in closure rate by neighborhood?  We picked out neighborhoods that had significantly higher or lower closure rates.

Significantly Higher closure rates than average:

• Center Square - 79% closure rate
• Park South - 78%
• Delaware Avenue - 78%
• West Albany - 77%
• Arbor Hill - 74%
• Whitehall - 73%
• Buckingham Lake - Crestwood - 73%

Significantly Lower closure rates than average:

• Lancaster - 42% closure rate
• Dunes - 53%
• Pine Hills - 58%
• Downtown - 59%
• Second Ave - 60%

We’re not drawing any significant conclusions from this.  The types of reports, the description of the reports and when the reports were filed since the beginning of 2026 would all be factors that we would want to analyze.  However, we would want to watch closure rates by neighborhood to see if the patterns repeat themselves.

There are always interesting odds and ends to study, for example…

Does the length of the reported issue correlate with Open/Closure status?

Closed SeeClickFix reports average 153 characters of text.  Open SeeClickFix reports average 176 characters of text.  There’s nothing wrong with keepin’ it brief but we doubt that the brevity of the submission drives whether an issue is more likely to get closed.

Does adding a picture help with getting SeeClickFix reports closed?  56% of SeeClickFix reports come with a picture.

SeeClickFix reports with a picture had a 66% closure rate.  Without a picture attached?  68%.  Again, there aren’t any serious findings from this analysis; there are many reasons why the data could land where it does; perhaps having a picture correlates with the complexity of the problem.  However it would be worth asking the responding agencies how a picture does or doesn’t help.

We came to four conclusions from this analysis:

1. SeeClickFix usage is expanding dramatically and that’s a good thing.  
2. SeeClickFix appears to provide transparency and accountability related to the issues, their details and how the issues do or don’t get closed.
3. SeeClickFix lets any citizen find and understand the issues that other neighborhoods and citizens face that may look very different from their issues
4. We have a set of baseline statistics that we can use in the future to understand how our City, its quality of life and infrastructure issues, and the City’s response time to those issues improves or not.

Have an idea or a question for how we can analyze the SeeClickData?  Ask us on social media or drop a note to AlbanyDataStories@gmail.com.