2000115-Strengthening-Communities-with-Neighborhood-Data

234 Strengthening Communities with Neighborhood Data
Staff at the J. McDonald Williams Institute believed measurement was
the way to raise awareness among a broader audience. By creating a new
measure, the Wholeness Index, which captured disparities among different
parts of the city, the institute could help define the scope of the
problem and track progress as responses were developed (Martin and
Bray 2006). The institute defined wholeness as a situation in which “each
person in a city enjoys an equally productive and satisfying life, regardless
of where in the city he or she lives. In a whole city, residents of every
part of town have an equal opportunity to achieve financial success, are
equally self-sufficient, and are equally active in political and civic life.”
The Wholeness Index was composed of 12 individual quality-of-life
indicators, including health, housing, education, and other indicators
of resident opportunity. Each measure was presented in color-coded
maps with explanations of its significance. The disparities in quality of
life between the northern parts of the city and the troubled south were
consistently pronounced, whether the measures related to jobs, poverty
rates, homeownership rates, housing quality, or education. The summary
index measure made it easy to communicate the cumulative effects
of disadvantage across the various domains (figure 6.2).
The report was updated in 2007 and 2008 to track changes in the
indicators (Bray 2007; Williams 2011). For example, the 2008 report
showed improvements in the index that reflected better outcomes for
South Dallas. Each report was widely disseminated, and the results were
highlighted at an annual conference with hundreds of policymakers,
researchers, and advocates. In addition to high-profile keynote speakers,
panels of experts and practitioners examined specific issue areas.
The report findings and coverage kept the focus on neighborhoods
that were historically shut out of opportunity and reinforced the concerns
of major community stakeholders like the Dallas Morning News
(DMN) editorial board, which played a major role in helping to elevate
these issues in the city’s 2007 mayoral election. With input from qualitative
interviews with community members and civic leaders, they formulated
candidate questionnaires that focused on issues of disparity and published
the results for voters to review. In the fall of that year, the editorial board
formally launched the Bridging Dallas North–South Gap project, “a crusade
to address the longstanding economic and quality-of-life disparities
between the northern and southern halves of the city.” 16
Tom Leppert won the mayoral election. His address at the 2008 Williams
Institute conference recognized the importance of understanding