Title: City of Charlotte Neighborhood Quality of Life Study
1City of Charlotte Neighborhood Quality of Life
Study
- Community Indicators Consortium Conference
- December 2, 2005
- Burlington, Vermont
2City of Charlotte
- Located in the Southern Piedmont of North
Carolina
- Population 670,000
- 61 White
- 28 Afro-American
- 3 Asian
- 6 Latino
- 2 Other
- Area 280 Square miles
- 2nd Largest U.S. Banking Center
- Home of NFL Carolina Panthers
- Home of NBA Charlotte Bobcats
- Not considered a race
3What is Charlottes NeighborhoodQuality of Life
Study?
- Purpose
- An assessment of neighborhood social, crime,
physical, and economic conditions for 173
Charlotte Neighborhood Statistical Areas (NSA).
- Statistically derived Stable, Transitioning,
and Challenged rankings for each NSA based on
local variables every two years.
- Serves as a policy tool to determine priorities
and a benchmarking tool to assess effectiveness.
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5What is Charlottes NeighborhoodQuality of Life
Study?
- Background
- Created in 1993 by the City of Charlotte based
on Census Data.
- Redesigned in 1997 in collaboration with the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte based
on locally derived variables.
- Initially focused on 73 inner-city neighborhoods,
but expanded to the entire City of Charlotte and
future annexation areas in 2000.
6How does Charlottes NeighborhoodQuality of Life
Study work?
- Methodology
- City is divided into 173 NSAs.
- Twenty local variables are collected addressing
social, crime, physical and economic dimensions.
- Variables are standardized (Z-Scores).
- Z-Scores are added, weighted and standardized.
- NSA typology Stable, Transitioning and
Challenged is determined by scores relative to
the mean.
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8Charlotte Neighborhood Quality of Life Study
Variables
- Physical Dimension
- Appearance Index
- Substandard Housing
- Homeowners
- Projected Infrastructure Improvement Costs
- Persons with Access to Public Transportation
- Persons with Access to Basic Retail
- Pedestrian Friendliness Index
- Social Dimension
- Persons over Age 64
- Average Kindergarten Score
- Dropout Rate
- Children Passing Competency Exams
- Births to Adolescents
- Youth Opportunity Index
- Economic Dimension
- Change in House Value
- Persons Receiving Food Stamps
- Change in Income
- Crime Dimension
- Violent Crime Rate
- Juvenile Arrest Rate
- Property Crime Rate
- Crime Hot Spots
9How does Charlottes Neighborhood Quality of Life
Study work?
Typology Stable Mean Transi
tioning -1SD
Challenged -1SD
Overall Neighborhood Quality of Life
Weighted Dimensions
Social 30
Economic 10
Physical 30
Crime 30
Aged
Pre-School
Test Scores
Births
Youth
Property
Juvenile
Hot Spots
Violent
Infrastructure
Pedestrian
House Value
Income
Appearance
Housing
Ownership
Transportation
Retail Access
Food Stamps
Drop-outs
Standardized 20 Variables (Z-Scores)
SD Standard Deviation
10How does Charlottes Quality of Life Study work?
Transitioning
Challenged
Stable
11What have been the previous results?
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15What have been the previous results?
2000, 2002, 2004 Quality of Life Studies
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17How have we used it?
City Council Strategy
Charlottes Neighborhood Strategy
Focus Area Plans
Planning
Neighborhood Cabinet
Quality Of Life Study
Strategies Tactics
Identify Needs Measure Results
Budget / Service Delivery
Implementation
18How have we used it?
- Neighborhood typology Stable, Transitioning and
Challenged was recently adopted as the language
for discussing neighborhoods.
- Other non-profit agencies have used the study to
allocate community resources and apply for
grants.
- The study has become the standard for measuring
overall quality of life.
19Lessons Learned
- Labeling neighborhoods is an issue, but policy
makers need a short-cut method for understanding
how to allocate resources and measure success.
- Collaboration is key Joint agency funding and
data collection.
- Improvements in Challenged neighborhoods support
past City strategy and investments.
20City of CharlotteNeighborhood Quality of Life
Study
For more information see our web site at
http//neigborhoods.charmeck.org or
Contact Stanley Watkins, Key Business Executive,
Neighborhood Development at 704.336.3796 or
swatkins_at_ci.charlotte.nc.us