Understanding Communities—Their History and Current Conditions

Conducting Walking and Windshield Surveys

A “walking” survey typically involves choosing a location that is an active area of the community (e.g., preferably a business district) and walking through the area during the daylight hours. A “windshield” survey involves driving through the community to get a visual picture of the community. Exactly as the name implies, the organizer drives through the assigned neighborhood and observes and notes what is visible through the windshield.

Typical windshield surveys will give the consensus organizer an overall sense of the neighborhood’s physical conditions, including the condition of the housing, public amenities (e.g., parks and community centers), institutions, or businesses in the area. The physical appearance of a community tells one part of the story and may help fill in gaps that census data do not reveal. For example, you might have census data that show the percentage of homeowners or vacant units in a community, but a visual picture of the neighborhood tells you the condition of the housing. Second, census data may be a few years old, so it’s important to observe demographic patterns. For example, the census may indicate that 10% of the population is Hispanic; however, when you drive around the neighborhood, it appears as if there are more Hispanics in the neighborhood than indicated by the census data. Housing markets and conditions can also change rapidly, particularly in areas affected by gentrification. A windshield survey can be done on a regular basis to determine the status of buildings in a neighborhood. Typically a set of criteria will be determined up front, so that each time the survey is done you are comparing “apples to apples.” For example, government agencies may rate exterior building conditions on a scale of 1 through 5, with 1 being excellent condition and 5 being condemned. By understanding the government’s system, you can examine the ratings on specific buildings, and conduct your own windshield survey to keep up-to-date information on their condition. Community organizers use windshield surveys throughout the organizing process to supplement data and gain important observations about the community.

While windshield surveys have their place, the best way to get to know a neighborhood is to explore it on foot. By walking around the neighborhood, the consensus organizer gets a feel for the community and will naturally meet people along the way. An easy way to do this is to begin by visiting business establishments in the area. You might be surprised at what you will learn about the neighborhood by having lunch at a local café or getting a haircut at the local barbershop or hair salon. You might also find that people you meet at these establishments can help you make connections to residents and other groups.

When conducting the windshield and walking surveys, it is important to use safe practices. If possible, conduct the surveys with at least one other person. It is also a good idea to conduct the surveys with a neighborhood resident, or at least get feedback from people who live and work there (for example, homeowners, clergy, neighborhood leaders, or local business owners) about when it is safe to explore the neighborhood. In addition, contact local community police officers to ask for their advice about when it is safe to explore the community. You should also consider conducting the surveys during daylight hours if you are alone. For example, if you do your tour on a sunny Saturday afternoon, you are likely to see and meet more people. Consider visiting other public spaces where people might congregate, such as a public park, the neighborhood library, or the schoolyard at the beginning or end of the school day. All are great spots to observe and meet people. You may also want to start by attending a public meeting in the neighborhood first, to get feedback from residents about conducting the surveys.

Organizers for the Neighborhood Development Program of the Family Service Association in Dayton, Ohio, once worked in a neighborhood where mistrust was so high it was impossible to have house meetings. Local institutions also had mixed reviews, and all were nonsmoking establishments. One of the community organizers held many of her first organizing sessions in the local laundromat and a doughnut shop. The owners of both businesses were open to the organizer and residents having meetings at their places of business because the organizer had previously built relationships with these owners during a walking tour of the neighborhood. Another community organizer from the Dayton program loved basketball, so he would always look for a pickup game in neighborhoods he was working in. He was able to meet many people right away, and have fun too! One of the other organizers had a sweet tooth. If the neighborhood had a bakery, candy store, or ice cream parlor, that’s where she went first! A neighborhood tour can be fun. As you meet people in the community, your comfort level will rise and you will find yourself naturally spending more time on the block level. Remember to make your first interactions count and build on people’s strengths. Don’t be alarmed that within a short time of your being in the neighborhood, everyone will know who you are.

Gathering and Understanding Census Data

Table 6.1 describes the major types of census data that a consensus organizer might gather in Step One of the community analysis, including the overall demographic characteristics of the neighborhood, and social, economic, and housing characteristics. Make sure you get as up-to-date information as possible from the U.S. Census Bureau and local government planning, housing, community development, and social service departments. The Census Bureau Web site (www.census.gov) allows users to get census track as well as block level data, making it much easier to get specific neighborhood level data. In addition, you may want to compare data over time to illustrate changes that may have occurred in the neighborhood.

RESOURCES: www.census.gov; local government planning/community development departments.

Table 6.2 provides a series of questions a consensus organizer might ask as he or she analyzes the data. This data, combined with the information obtained through walking and windshield surveys, interviews, news clippings, and Web sites, should help to paint a picture of the community.

Using Geographic Information Systems in the Community Analysis

Geographic information systems (GIS) can help community organizers track their initiatives better, as well as make this information more accessible to residents and other key stakeholders they are working with. GIS allows organizers to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, display, and integrate spatial (e.g., geographic) and nonspatial data (e.g., administrative data such as census data; Maguire, 1991). For example, information on housing conditions, population characteristics, land use, neighborhood institutions and assets, social services, and public safety can be stored and analyzed using GIS (Coulton, 2005).

Consensus organizers can use GIS to map and plot the data collected through the community analysis. Mapping helps create a visual snapshot of the neighborhood that is easy for everyone to understand, from financial stakeholders to residents at a neighborhood meeting. For example, a simple color-coded map depicting homeowners’ properties and rental properties can convey a statistic more quickly than presenting raw numbers. Mapping also becomes a strategic tool in community organizing efforts. For example, Figure 6.1 displays hypothetical information a consensus organizer could collect from his or her initial round of interviews for the community analysis. Figure 6.1 displays the areas of greatest concerns to residents, including housing conditions, crime, and out-of-school youth. Each home in the area is coded to indicate the priority concern of each resident whom the organizer has interviewed. As the organizer continues to develop relationships in the neighborhood, other patterns may emerge; however, the initial snapshot is helpful in building connections among residents regarding common concerns and working with residents to develop initial solutions to address their concerns. For example, Figure 6.1 demonstrates that residents on Catalpa, Ravenwood, Shelton, and Auburn Streets are concerned about crime. Perhaps this is an area where the organizer can begin to bridge relationships between residents and help them develop a small project, such as a neighborhood watch group, to begin to address crime issues.

Figure 6.2 demonstrates another example, using census data to plot information about children in the neighborhood. The map displays households in the target area with children under age 6, school-age children, and no children. Using this data, the organizer may be able to help residents work with agencies to target programs more effectively. For example, organizers from the Family Service Association in Dayton, Ohio, used a similar map to work with residents to target school-age children for summer programs being offered in their neighborhoods as part of a redevelopment effort. Instead of a generic mailing, a map was developed to display the homes where youth lived who were eligible for the program. The agency developed a door-knocking campaign to get the word out about the program, targeting the homes with eligible children. These strategies produced a tremendous response, and the agency was extremely successful in generating participation in the program.

While data collection and GIS mapping are ongoing strategies that can help inform the organizer’s work and the development of specific organizing strategies, nothing replaces information gathered in “real time.” Neighborhoods are fluid places where change is constant. It is important for the organizer to continue to build relationships as a primary method for gathering information on changes in the neighborhood as they occur, and for uncovering new concerns and issues that residents care about.

Table 6.3 Strategic Questions for Step One of the Community Analysis

Name and Boundaries: What is the formal name of the neighborhood/community? Is there a nickname? Do residents call the neighborhood a different name from city officials? If so, what name do they call the neighborhood? What are the boundaries of the neighborhood? Are the boundaries contested? If so, how? Are they determined by natural or manmade markers, or are they more psychological? Are they determined by differences with neighboring communities (e.g., in racial or ethnic composition, income, or housing stock)? Is the neighborhood isolated or is it linked to a larger community in a significant way? Explain.

History and Current Conditions: When was the neighborhood founded? Who were the first immigrants or its earliest inhabitants? Who are the most recent immigrants? How has the population changed over time? What historic events have occurred in the neighborhood? What effects have they had on the community (positive and negative)? What prior efforts (by government, agencies, institutions, and/or other community groups) have occurred in the neighborhood? What impact did they have? How do people feel about those efforts? What are race relations like in the community? What perceptions do insiders and outsiders have about race relations? What is the employment rate? Is it high, low? Where do people work and how do they get there? Are there visible public transportation outlets? What types of families live there? Are there a lot of grandparents raising grandchildren? What is the major political party? Is it active? Are people registered to vote? Do they vote?

Gathering Places/Sense of Community: Where do people seem to gather? Are there playgrounds or parks or other places people meet? What activities take place there? What kinds of crowds do they draw? Is there a strong sense of continuity and identification with the locale? Are there formal and informal mechanisms for communication? Is there a sense of community? Is the neighborhood transitory, fragmented, or more cohesive?

Resources, Institutions: Institutions and Organizations: What major community institutions and organizations are located in or very near to the neighborhood, including schools, hospitals, major employers, large community centers, public libraries, cultural organizations, religious organizations, and the like? What are their service boundaries? Housing: What type of housing exists in the community? Is it mostly composed of single-family units, apartments, townhouses, public housing, or some other type? Are homes mostly renter- or owner-occupied? What condition is the housing in? Are there a lot of vacant units? Commercial District: How active and diverse is the commercial district? Is there one or two major employers? Is it identified with the neighborhood or removed from it? Do many residents work there? What kind of commercial activity is there? Is it a gathering place for residents? Is there a lot of foot traffic? Is there adequate parking? Are there many vacancies and boarded-up storefronts?

Step One of the Community Analysis: Palm Beach County Development Team

The Consensus Organizing Demonstration Program (CODP) grew out of Mike Eichler’s work with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) in the Mon Valley, Pennsylvania and in Houston, Texas (Eichler, 2007). LISC is an intermediary that raises funds nationally from foundations and corporations for community development. LISC uses these funds to match funds that are raised locally by corporations, financial institutions, and foundations. The CODP was designed to test the consensus organizing model in other areas of the country and expand the national community development industry into places where it had not previously existed (Chaskin, Brown, Venkatesh, & Vidal, 2001). The three initial CODP sites included Little Rock, Arkansas, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Palm Beach County, Florida (Eichler). Eichler assisted LISC in selecting these cities by making a series of site visits to conduct a preliminary community analysis, speaking with residents and other individuals familiar with low-income neighborhoods in the area, including corporate, government, social service, and philanthropic leaders (Gittell & Vidal, 1998). The two most important criteria for inclusion in the program were “demonstrated need for community development to give the program credibility, and a pool of motivated prospective volunteers with leadership potential—to permit the program to achieve the desired scale” (Gittell & Vidal, 1998, p. 71). In addition, the potential sites had to have corporate sector leaders who would support the initiative with their time and resources.

Worksheet 6.1 Community Analysis Step One—Community History, Culture, and CharacteristicsInstructions: Select a neighborhood (one you live and/or work in). What knowledge do you have about the neighborhood? What areas do you still want to learn about? Please complete the following table and describe something you know about the neighborhood’s history and characteristics and what you would still like to know.

Name of Neighborhood: ________________________________________________________

You can find some of the above information at the following locations:

• City or county planning departments, local libraries, organizations, chambers of commerce
• U.S. Census Bureau, community and organizational Web sites
• Interviews with community residents, businesses, organizations, and agencies
• Walking and windshield surveys

Suggestions for Students

Students completing this assignment could use it for a number of purposes, including:

• To assist your field or internship agency to reach out to a neighborhood they currently work in, and/or a new neighborhood to develop and/or expand programs and services
• To assist a community organization located in the target neighborhood to reach out to the community to engage new members
• To become involved in a neighborhood organization located in your own community.

Suggestions for Practitioners

Practitioners could use this assignment for a number of purposes, including:

• to develop community-based programs in the neighborhoods you are already working in,
• to engage and develop relationships in a new neighborhood, and
• to expand current programs in existing and new neighborhoods.

Use the following questions to write up an overall summary of your findings, including:

1.

What tentative inferences or conclusions can you draw from the information you have gathered so far? __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________

2.

How does the factual data (i.e., census data) compare with what you observed? __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________

3.

What do you think are the potential strengths of the community? __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________

4.

What are some of the issues that residents and other community stakeholders might want to address? __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________

5.

Are there important institutions or organizations that you should consider in addressing community problems? If so, which ones? What makes these institutions important? __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________