Looking for love in the wrong place

Re: “Looking for love? Plenty of singles live in these Victoria neighbourhoods,” June 5. Looking for love using City of Victoria’s Open Data Portal? Your potential paramour is likely to be long gone. Census data on the number of singles residing in Victoria neighbourhoods are seven years old. You want current census data by city and neighbourhood? Use Censusmapper.ca.

Looking for demolition data, number of licences to occupy newly built residences issued, or the total bike or car-share permits allocated? Good luck. Building-inspection records online, like the city of Vancouver? Forget it. Victoria’s “open data” story is less a “work in progress” and more a window-dressing exercise.

Want to know how many rental households have been renovicted to accommodate new housing? Neither city nor province collects the data.

If city hall cherishes openness, transparency and accountability, why does it operate like a closed shop? No council voting record available online — why not? How do citizens scrutinize council decisions? Why are documents paid for by taxpayers not released without a costly, lengthy freedom-of-information request process?

Why is a citizen’s right to know, and right to participate in the democratic process, regarded as inconvenient or unnecessary by public servants?

If love is a two-way relationship built on trust, it’s in short supply at city hall.

Victoria Adams Victoria