city-data-mcp

An MCP server that gives Claude deep access to US public data — demographics, economics, crime, employment, weather, housing, transit, schools, budgets, and more across 30+ cities. Built for government intelligence workflows.

What it does

22 tools that let Claude query, compare, and synthesize real public data from 15+ federal and city-level sources:

Core Data Tools

Tool	Source	What it does
query_city_data	Socrata	Crime & 311 service requests (5 cities)
list_available_data	All	Discover available cities, datasets, and coverage
query_demographics	US Census ACS	Population, income, poverty, education, housing, commuting (30 cities)
compare_demographics	US Census ACS	Side-by-side comparison table for 2-6 cities
query_economics	FRED	Unemployment, housing index, personal income with trends (20 metros)
query_employment	BLS	Metro unemployment rate, employment, labor force (20 metros)
query_national_crime	FBI UCR	State-level crime stats with multi-year trends
query_weather	NWS	Current conditions and forecasts for any US city
query_air_quality	AirNow/EPA	Real-time air quality index (AQI) and pollutant levels
query_housing	HUD	Fair market rents, income limits, housing affordability
query_water	USGS	Water levels, streamflow, and conditions
query_representatives	Google Civic	Elected officials at all levels for any address
query_311_trends	Open311/SeeClickFix	Service request trends and patterns
query_transit	GTFS feeds	Public transit routes, performance, coverage
query_schools	Dept of Education	School district demographics, performance, funding
query_permits	City portals	Building permit activity and trends
query_budget	City portals	Municipal budget and expenditure data
query_traffic	City portals	Traffic safety and congestion data

Intelligence Tools

Tool	What it does
create_census_cohort	Find peer cities by demographic/economic similarity (fast, Census-only)
create_full_cohort	Rich peer cohort using demographics + economics + employment
create_city_briefing	Comprehensive city briefing pulling from all available data sources
map_issue_data	Map a community issue (e.g., "affordable housing") to relevant data across sources
track_city_changes	Track how a city's metrics have changed over time

Quick start

Claude Desktop (local, stdio)

1. Clone and build:

git clone https://github.com/zencity-product/city-data-mcp.git
cd city-data-mcp
npm install && npm run build

2. Get free API keys:

   • Census API (required): https://api.census.gov/data/key_signup.html
   • FRED API (required): https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/api_key.html
   • BLS API (optional, higher rate limits): https://www.bls.gov/developers/home.htm

3. Add to Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "city-data-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/city-data-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "CENSUS_API_KEY": "your-census-key",
        "FRED_API_KEY": "your-fred-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

4. Restart Claude Desktop.

Remote (HTTP mode)

Run as an HTTP server for remote access:

PORT=3000 CENSUS_API_KEY=xxx FRED_API_KEY=xxx node dist/index.js --http

MCP endpoint: http://localhost:3000/mcp Health check: http://localhost:3000/health

REST API

When running in HTTP mode, a REST API is also available at /api/ for non-MCP consumers (dashboards, scripts, other apps):

GET /api/cities              → all supported cities
GET /api/census/:city        → demographics
GET /api/economics/:city     → FRED economic indicators
GET /api/employment/:city    → BLS employment data
GET /api/crime/:city         → FBI crime stats
GET /api/weather/:city       → NWS weather
GET /api/air-quality/:city   → EPA air quality
GET /api/housing/:city       → HUD housing data
GET /api/water/:city         → USGS water conditions
GET /api/representatives/:city → elected officials
GET /api/311/:city           → service request trends
GET /api/transit/:city       → public transit
GET /api/schools/:city       → school district data
GET /api/permits/:city       → building permits
GET /api/budget/:city        → municipal budget
GET /api/traffic/:city       → traffic safety
GET /api/briefing/:city      → comprehensive city briefing
GET /api/changes/:city       → metrics change tracking

Example prompts

• "Create a full briefing on Denver"
• "Compare demographics for Denver, Austin, and Portland"
• "What are the economic indicators for Seattle?"
• "Find cities similar to Boston based on housing costs"
• "Who are the elected representatives for 123 Main St, Chicago?"
• "What's the air quality like in Los Angeles right now?"
• "Show me school district data for Houston"
• "Map the issue of 'affordable housing crisis' to data for San Francisco"
• "Track how Phoenix has changed over the last 5 years"
• "What's the transit coverage like in Portland?"
• "Show me building permit trends in Austin"

Data sources

Source	Coverage	Freshness	Auth
US Census ACS	30 cities (demographics)	Annual (5-year estimates)	Free key
FRED	20 metros (economic indicators)	Monthly to annual	Free key
BLS	20 metros (employment)	Monthly	Optional key
FBI UCR	All states (crime stats)	Annual (1-2yr lag)	Reuses Census key
NWS	All US locations (weather)	Real-time	None
AirNow/EPA	All US locations (air quality)	Real-time	None
HUD	All US areas (housing)	Annual	None
USGS	All US monitoring stations (water)	Real-time	None
Google Civic	All US addresses (representatives)	Live	None
Open311/SeeClickFix	Participating cities (311)	Near real-time	None
Socrata	5 cities (crime, 311)	Near real-time	None
GTFS feeds	Major cities (transit)	Varies	None
City open data portals	Varies (permits, budgets, traffic)	Varies	None

Covered cities

Demographics (Census): NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, Austin, Denver, Boston, Nashville, Portland, Baltimore, Atlanta, Miami, Washington D.C., Minneapolis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Columbus, Indianapolis, Memphis, Milwaukee, Jacksonville, Raleigh

Economics (FRED) & Employment (BLS): NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Houston, Phoenix, Denver, Boston, Austin, Dallas, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Miami, Portland, Detroit, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Nashville, Charlotte

Weather, Air Quality, Housing, Water, Representatives: All US locations (national APIs)

311, Transit, Schools, Permits, Budgets, Traffic: City-specific coverage (varies)

Architecture

src/
├── index.ts              # Server entry (stdio + HTTP + REST transports)
├── cities.ts             # City registry lookup
├── types.ts              # Type definitions
└── sources/
    ├── census.ts         # US Census ACS (demographics)
    ├── fred.ts           # FRED (economic indicators)
    ├── bls.ts            # BLS (employment)
    ├── fbi.ts            # FBI UCR (crime statistics)
    ├── nws.ts            # National Weather Service
    ├── airnow.ts         # EPA AirNow (air quality)
    ├── hud.ts            # HUD (housing)
    ├── usgs.ts           # USGS (water)
    ├── civic.ts          # Google Civic (representatives)
    ├── socrata.ts        # Socrata (city-level crime, 311)
    ├── three11.ts        # Open311/SeeClickFix (service requests)
    ├── transit.ts        # GTFS (public transit)
    ├── schools.ts        # School district data
    ├── permits.ts        # Building permits
    ├── budget.ts         # Municipal budgets
    ├── traffic.ts        # Traffic safety & congestion
    ├── cohort.ts         # Census-based peer city cohort builder
    ├── full-cohort.ts    # Multi-source peer city cohort builder
    ├── briefing.ts       # Comprehensive city briefing generator
    ├── issue-mapper.ts   # Community issue → data mapper
    ├── change-tracker.ts # City metrics change tracking
    └── geo-resolver.ts   # Geographic coordinate resolution

International expansion

Research on extending to UK and Canada data sources is tracked separately. Key findings:

• UK: 12/15 US categories have usable equivalents. Strongest: crime (data.police.uk), water (Environment Agency), demographics (ONS/Nomis).
• Canada: StatCan WDS covers 6+ categories via one API. MSC GeoMet covers weather + air + water in one API.

License

MIT