2000115-Strengthening-Communities-with-Neighborhood-Data

ESSAY
From Tornadoes to Transit
How Data Sharing Has Strengthened
Community Development in the Twin Cities
Jacob Wascalus and Jeff Matson
Currently, the Twin Cities metropolitan region in Minnesota enjoys
an active data-sharing environment that plays an increasingly
prominent role in neighborhood and community development. Many
people and institutions populate this milieu, including the county and
municipal departments that collect, generate, and disseminate community
data and the nonprofit intermediaries that study and apply these
data. Situated in the middle, of course, is the public—the community
activists and neighborhood groups that, to improve their surroundings,
partner with and rely on the active involvement of government departments
and intermediaries. But although community residents have
always sought the betterment of their environments, the ingredients
necessary for successful community change have taken time to develop.
Similarly, the ability of the local government and nonprofit agencies to
respond to pressing immediate needs has evolved.
In May 2011, a tornado with winds topping 110 miles per hour tore
through North Minneapolis, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the
Twin Cities area, and left a four-mile-long path of destruction in its
wake. The twister damaged nearly 1,900 properties—274 of them substantially—and
left hundreds of people homeless. 1
In the aftermath of the storm, officials from the City of Minneapolis,
several neighborhood associations, and various nonprofits turned
to the University of Minnesota’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs
(CURA) to act as the de facto data cruncher and information distributor.
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