West Side Community Indicators Project --2012 Baseline

The West Side Initiative Community Indicators were developed in 2013 to monitor community changes on the West Side over the next ten years. This effort to create and monitor indicators began following the West Side Community Plan and the formation of the West Side Initiative, which was created to bring to life the objectives and strategies set forth in the plan. For the purpose of this project, indicators are defined as evidence that helps us assess where we stand and where we are going with respect to our values and goals. This report contains baseline data on key community indicators related to strategy areas such as housing, land use and community economic development. Future data collection and analysis with respect to the baseline data in this report can be used to measure the ways that characteristics of the West Side change over the years. Leaders of the West Side Initiative can use this data to assess the impacts of their efforts and to adapt their strategies in response to changes. The report also includes documentation of the process used to select indicators. This project will be of particular interest to other neighborhood and district council groups interested in tracking indicators that are related to community planning goals.Conducted on behalf of West Side Community Organization. Supported by the Kris Nelson Community-Based Research Program, a program of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) at the University of Minnesota