Neighborhoods/Community Building

In October 2010, the DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) became one of 21 recipients of a US Department of Education Promise Neighborhood planning grant. The Urban Institute partnered with DCPNI to act as the data analyst and local evaluator of this ambitious initiative. The Needs Assessment and Segmentation Analysis are intended to provide a timely understanding of the needs of the community and to inform the continuum of strategies developed by DCPNI and their workgroups.

Funding and investing in infrastructure are not only about finding adequate resources to meet the demands of citizenry, but rather requires understanding of how infrastructure fits into the broader functions of government. This brief examines the key role of pricing infrastructure projects and how the total cost of a project (including lifetime maintenance costs) should be included in funding decisions. Current federal and state policies often encourage new building rather than maintenance and care of existing infrastructure. The role of public-private partnerships in infrastructure projects is also sometimes more about political rather than economic considerations. The author presents options to better coordinate infrastructure financing and payments across levels of government.

This document describes the Business Patterns series source data set and the summary indicators from this set that are included in the UI data file. It also discusses technical issues associated with preparing the Business Patterns data.

NeighborhoodInfo DC, an Urban Institute project, has amassed a data warehouse measuring the health and vitality of Washington, DC neighborhoods. This fact sheet is the first publication in our effort to extend our analysis to the council districts in Prince George's County, Maryland. The following information summarizes selected population and socioeconomic changes in Prince George's County between 2000 and 2010 using the latest tract-level 2010 U.S. Census population data and the 2005–2009 American Community Survey. We provide countywide averages, as well as the individual changes in the county’s nine districts.

While much has been written about the decline of central cities, very little research has examined the problem in their suburbs. This report focuses on the suburbs of older industrial cities and how best to address the challenges they face. Using census data, literature review, and four in-depth case studies, the authors provide a detailed portrait of the underlying forces shaping distressed suburbs. It highlights a range of best practices used in case study cities for fostering growth and reducing poverty. These lessons can be instructive both to local leaders working to turn their cities around and to the federal policy makers supporting them.

The Moving to Opportunity demonstration (MTO) was launched in the early 1990s to evaluate the impacts of using housing vouchers to enable low income families to escape from high-poverty neighborhoods and move into low-poverty communities. This brief uses data from the most recent survey of MTO participants to explore patterns of residential mobility, including the extent to which families gained and sustained access to high-opportunity neighborhoods. Although MTO enabled families to escape from the most severely distressed neighborhoods, few enjoyed sustained access to high-opportunity neighborhoods, despite the provision of targeted vouchers and mobility counseling.

Public concern about blighted properties has swelled in New Orleans, and residents are rightfully concerned. Although blight has declined substantially since 2008 thanks to billions of federal housing dollars, as of 2010, New Orleans still had 43,755 blighted homes or empty lots. This report includes a review of economic and housing trends that are affecting blight, a broad set of principles to help guide various efforts to eliminate blight in New Orleans, and an analysis of neighborhood housing markets. Finally, this report provides recommendations for maximizing the potential of available resources for eliminating blight, including how neighborhood organizations can supplement public efforts.

The aging of the baby boomers represents a demographic tidal wave that will profoundly affect housing needs and living arrangements in the coming years. The authors examine three possible scenarios for the projected number and mix of households in New Orleans in 2020. But regardless of the scenario, the increase in households headed by elderly will greatly surpass the increase in any other household type. This report concludes with strategies for attracting new residents to the city and ensuring we meet the housing needs of aging residents, including the desire of many seniors to stay in their homes as long as possible.