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Using Data for City and Regional Strategies 223
the interest of being neutral may not explicitly tie indicators to policy
recommendations.
Although community indicators projects are emerging across the
country, only a few drill down to the neighborhood level. The number
of projects that include subcity indicators has risen as a result of the
technological and organizational advances described in earlier chapters.
Several of the most prominent examples are hosted by National Neighborhood
Indicators partners (see table 6.1). This chapter’s second case
study describes in more detail the role of the Wholeness Index in raising
the profile of inequities between North and South Dallas.
Merrick and Martin’s essay accompanying this chapter describes the
Regional Equity Atlas sponsored by the Coalition for a Livable Future and
developed by the Institute for Portland Metropolitan Studies at Portland
State University in Portland, Oregon. The Atlas reinforced the inclusion
of social equity in the regional policy conversation around access to open
space. The Coalition for a Livable Future’s neighborhood data and maps
supported the advocacy for a new vehicle for funding to address the inequities
that the Atlas revealed. In a separate examination, Merrick contrasts the
origins and design of the Equity Atlas to the later-developed Greater Portland
Pulse, concluding that the geographic specificity and explicit frame of
equity facilitated the use of the Atlas data in influencing policy and targeting
resources. 3
The Boston Indicators Project, implemented by the Boston Foundation
and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, has provided a model
for many other local projects. The project’s organizers recognize the
Table 6.1. Selected Community Indicators Projects
with Neighborhood-Level Data
Location Indicators Project Name Years
King County, WA Communities Count 1997–present
Baltimore, MD Vital Signs 2000–present
Greater Philadelphia, PA area Where We Stand 2004–2010
Boston, MA region Boston Indicators Project 2004–present
Dallas, TX Wholeness Index 2006–2008
Portland, OR-WA metropolitan area Regional Equity Atlas 2007–present
Pinellas County, FL Pinellas Indicators 2011–present
Greater Portland, OR area Greater Portland Pulse 2011–present