When developing a new
program or allocating funding, we can use data to guide our decisions
and better target our limited resources. For the City of Madison, we
have a lot of timely data but it’s often available only at geographies
much larger than the city or its neighborhoods. What we want is something timely and at the right
geography to let us know what Madison's neighborhoods are like and how
they're doing.
Indicators as a tool. The Neighborhood Indicators Project
is a demonstration of key characteristics and various indicators that
relate to the quality of life in Madison at the neighborhood level. The
goal of the Neighborhood Indicators Project is to:
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Give us a better understanding of our neighborhoods;
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Help us tailor solutions to a neighborhood's particular needs or characteristics;
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Over time, help us see emerging trends; and
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Give us early warning signs of stress so that problems can be addressed quickly, effectively and less expensively.
Indicators are not a substitute for local knowledge
or the personal experiences of residents, but they will provide us with
a more comprehensive view of our neighborhoods. They can help us make
data-driven decisions about service delivery. They can provide us with
a first-scan for deeper issues, show where to drill down for additional
information and flag where to investigate causes. All of this
information can become part of our considerations to increase or
reallocate funding for programs or pursue new policies.
Public input. Our roster of indicators was
developed with over a year of public input that started with the 2006
Neighborhood Conference. The pilot was also featured at the Mayor's
Neighborhood Roundtable in 2007 and 2008 and during sessions with the
Northside Planning Council, East Isthmus Neighborhoods Planning
Council, South Metropolitan Planning Council and Neighborhood Resource
Teams. Input from alders and department and division heads was gleaned
during project overviews and progress reports. The pilot was presented
to several of the Council's standing committees including Public Safety
Review Committee, Board of Education-Common Council Liaison Committee,
Housing Committee, Community Services Commission, and Community
Development Block Grant Commission. The Madison Metropolitan School
District offered guidance on which indicators it felt were most
relevant. During each of these sessions, suggestions and
recommendations were recorded and considered by a work group of City
managers and staff for inclusion.
Privacy and confidentiality. Neighborhood Indicators
will be a useful tool, but we have to balance this desire with the need
to ensure confidentiality and privacy for the residents living in our
neighborhoods. Accordingly, some neighborhood associations may not be
listed because they are too small. In other instances, individual
indicators may identify so few or so many people that you would know
that everybody living in that neighborhood has certain characteristics.
To ensure their privacy, these too have not been added to the
neighborhood profiles.
The goal of the Neighborhood Indicators Project is to
be a useful tool for City staff, citizen committees and members of the
general public. Feedback from users like you will help refine and
improve the package for years to come.
You can share your thoughts by clicking the "Leave Feedback" link above, by sending an email directly to NHIfeedback@cityofmadison.com.
The navigational links at the top of the page allow users to access NI reports and data.
