 Indicator projects designed to furnish current snapshots of metropolitan social, economic, physical, and environmental status while tracking progress and trends over time are among the more powerful emerging tools available to regional stewards. Sometimes referred to as regional report cards, these efforts track statistics on a variety of topics, ranging from public health and housing affordability to traffic congestion and water quality.
Key to the utility of these projects 1) are selecting the appropriate statistics to employ, and 2) aggregating them into indices that permit meaningful comparison among regions, or that facilitate sub-regional comparisons among constituent communities.
Recognizing the potential of indicator projects, the Alliance has included a Thursday afternoon workshop on the topic, featuring veteran innovators in the field from Boston (Charlotte Kahn, Boston Community Building Network, http://www.bostonindicators.org), Chicago (Charles Wheelan, Chicago Meropolis 2020, http://metropolisplan.org) and South Florida (MaryBeth Burton, Catanese Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions, www.catanese.org). Additionally, one of the peer-to-peer sessions on Friday morning will examine the topic in greater depth and establish an ongoing affinity group of Alliance network participants to work collaboratively on a national indicators effort. Other workshops will address urban redevelopment in a metropolitan context, federal policies impacting regions, and the potential of grant-making foundations to stimulate regional action. Due to a logistical problem with our registration website, the early bird registration deadline has been extended to Friday, April 25th. For more information, to view a detailed agenda, or to register on-line, click on the button below.
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