Gotham Gazette - Measuring Up

Citizens Union Foundation Gotham Gazette

Measuring Up

A new approach to government accountability -- officially called "performance assessment" but more colloquially, compstatmania -- compiles, analyzes and interprets statistics in order to spot trends, gaps and overlaps in city services. It's not magic -- it's hard work, and requires lots of attention to detail and follow-up. On this page, Gotham Gazette looks at this approach to improving city services.

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Stories from Gotham Gazette

Charting New York�s Health
Which New York City neighborhood has the most binge drinking? Which the highest rate of obesity? Which the most deaths from heart disease? The answers are in the health department�s Community Health Profiles. Cari Olson of the health department explains what the numbers tell us and how citizens can use them.
(Published: 2007-01-22)

High Revenue, Obscure Spending
City Hall cannot be blamed for boasting about an increase in revenue to government coffers. But it is rightly criticized for obscuring information about how it spends the money -- specifically, its more than $11 billion in contracts with organizations outside of government.
(Published: 2006-12-08)

The Poverty Commission: Measuring Up?
How many poor people live in New York? How do we determine who is poor? Is that accurate? A member of the mayor's poverty commission answers key questions on the shape of poverty in the city.
(Published: 2006-10-16)

Housing In New York City -- Figuring Out The Big (And Little) Picture
A spate of reports on the city's housing details what most New Yorkers already knew -- but with some surprises, and plenty of mysteries.
(Published: 2006-09-18)

Putting City Hall�s Documents Online
Though city agencies have been required since 2003 to post their official documents online, few are fully complying with the law.
(Published: 2006-09-13)

Parents Grading Schools
An education department official describes the school system's plan to start asking parents, teachers and students how they rate city schools.
(Published: 2006-07-24)

The Web Site, 311, Surveys and Focus Groups
The director of the Mayor's Office of Operations on how the city learns what citizens think.
(Published: 2006-07-24)

The Way in San Jose
An official from the California city explains how it surveys residents and what it has learned from those surveys.
(Published: 2006-07-24)

What Residents Can Tell Government
Citizen surveys can tell government a lot about how well city services are working.
(Published: 2006-07-24)

Beyond 311: Listening to New Yorkers
Talking to citizens can provide government with a better understanding of how satisfied citizens are with city services.
(Published: 2006-07-24)

Taking the Public Pulse
As governments, including New York City's, find new ways to assess their performance, some experts say that officials often ignore a key piece -- what the people who are supposed to benefit from government services think of those services.
(Published: 2006-07-24)

Childstat
A new program called �Childstat� is just one of the reforms that the Administration for Children�s Services is putting in place after the death of seven-year-old Nixzmary Brown. A transcript of an online chat with ACS Deputy Commissioner Jan Flory, in charge of Childstat.
(Published: 2006-06-12)

Grading Students, Grading Schools
Our new series on measuring city services looks at the Department of Education�s new initiative to gauge how the public schools are doing. Will it improve education or just create more tests?
(Published: 2006-06-05)

Hiding Behind the Numbers
Fire department response times are slower. More students are dropping out. It costs millions more to throw out the garbage. The city is hoping, Glenn Pasanen argues, that New Yorkers don�t notice.
(Published: 2006-03-20)

Behind the Dropout Rate
New York still does not have good information about how many students complete high school and how many do not. And that makes it only more difficult to fix the dropout dilemma.
(Published: 2006-03-20)

Parkstat To Fight Crime
Anne Schwartz details a new law that, by requiring the police to report felonies that occur in city parks, will help make them safer � or at least let the public know how safe they already are.
(Published: 2006-01-27)

A Checkup for City Services
New York City government could get a new way take its vital signs with the proposal of CityStat NY. And that's just one way to spot trends, gaps and overlaps in city services.
(Published: 2006-01-23)

Mayor�s Management Report for 2005: Thinner, Less Useful
The mayor�s management report for 2005 presents a picture of �historic progress.� Glenn Pasanen uses independent management studies, constituent surveys, and his own analysis, to come up with an alternative view -- and criticizes the report itself for being less useful.
(Published: 2005-10-11)

The Mayor�s Management Report Skimps On Information About Education And Everything Else
The newly released Mayor�s Management Report focuses endlessly on 311 calls, far more than on the mayor�s other big priority, the overhaul of the $15 billion education department. Indeed, Glenn Pasanen writes, it skimps on information about almost everything.
(Published: 2004-10-06)

Report Card On Neighborhood Parks
Anne Schwartz previews the second annual report card on New York City's neighborhood parks - "a small improvement ... although a quarter of the city's parks still have failing grades."
(Published: 2004-06-23)

Questioning Police Statistics For Crime and Cases Of Misconduct
Jaime Adame reports on recent criticism questioning police statistics in both crimes and cases of police misconduct.
(Published: 2004-04-05)

Lessons For
Glenn Pasanen looks at the results of the election, and at the comptroller's new annual financial report released this month,� and finds "some lessons for more democratic fiscal management."
(Published: 2003-11-11)

Judging School Reform
The new school year promises a rocky start because of� the Bloomberg administration's ambitious new school reforms.� But "New Yorkers should not rush to judgment," advise Raymond Domanicco and Jessica Wolff, who offer 11 questions to ask, beyond test scores, when it is indeed time to judge.
(Published: 2003-09-04)

Compstatmania
Think of a problem facing New York City, and someone surely has already proposed solving it with a variation of "Compstat," one of the most rapidly spreading innovations in America. But how much of Compstat is magic, how much a magic act?
(Published: 2003-07-07)

Private Report Card on Smaller Parks
Anne Schwartz details the results of a survey by New Yorkers for Parks of the city's smaller parks and recreation areas.
(Published: 2003-05-20)

Report Card On The Parks
Spring is here, and Anne Schwartz looks at Mayor Michael Bloomberg's "report card" in parks - in which he measured how he was doing compared to what he had promised to do - and gives him a lower grade than he gave himself.
(Published: 2003-03-21)