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

Poor Grades for a School �Contract�
After years of litigation, the city is getting some additional state money for education. Now the disagreement centers on what to do with it.
(Published: 2007-07-16)

Grading Neighborhood Parks 2007
Conditions at New York City�s neighborhood parks vary widely, and overall, they are in worse shape than last year, according to survey by the group New Yorkers for Parks. The commissioner, however, calls the report card a case of �grade deflation.�
(Published: 2007-05-23)

Data to the People
In an on-line chat with Gotham Gazette, Gale Brewer discusses how technology can improve access to government.
(Published: 2007-05-07)

Jittery Wall Street, Calm City?
(Published: 2007-04-16)

Language Barriers Silence Immigrant Tenants
Housing services don�t reach many of the immigrant families that need them most.
(Published: 2007-04-10)

A �Customer� Survey for the City
City officials may be in for some surprises when they ask New Yorkers what they think of public services in the city.
(Published: 2007-04-29)

New Bills -- Government on the Web, Parking, and Illegal Hotels
(Published: 2007-03-26)

Women of New York City
Women in New York City are much more likely to be single, earn more money, and have more education than women living in the rest of the United States. In most fields, New York men out-earn New York women, but in three fields, it's the reverse.
(Published: 2007-03-20)

Housing�s Impact: Need For New Research
How important is housing to a child�s success at school? Does housing stability affect people�s health? The MacArthur Foundation has committed $25 million to conducting new research, Joe Lamport writes, �aiming for a more profound shift in how people think about housing.�
(Published: 2007-02-22)

Confronting the Congestion Crisis
Councilmember Gale Brewer on how city officials should keep traffic in city streets from grinding to a complete halt.
(Published: 2007-02-12)

Reorganizing the Schools (Again)
After four year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is reorganizing the schools again, but do the changes address the problems that still persist in the city�s public schools?
(Published: 2007-01-23)

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)

Special Ed: Needs Improvement
The Department of Education says it has strengthened services for students with disabilities, but a new state report gives the city�s program low marks.
(Published: 2006-10-09)

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)

Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, Then and Now
The news of the proposed sale of two of the last bastions of middle class housing in New York City, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, prompted Andy Beveridge to look at the demographics of the residents in 1950, and see how they changed by 2000.
(Published: 2006-09-14)

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)

Transit Riders � More For Work, Fewer For Fun
Bruce Schaller analyzes recent census data to show that, while more New Yorkers are taking public transportation to work, fewer are taking the bus or subway for fun.
(Published: 2006-09-12)

Noise In New York
By many measures, noise (especially from nightclubs and car alarms) has become New Yorkers� biggest concern.
(Published: 2006-08-31)

What New Yorkers Are Like Now � First Results of the American Community Survey
Andrew Beveridge looks at newly released census data � which reveals that there are more educated New Yorkers, fewer black people in the city, a slower increase in immigrants, etc. � and the new American Community Survey from which the information comes.
(Published: 2006-08-29)

The Homeless Pledge
The mayor is promising to reduce by two-thirds the number of homeless people in New York City by the time he leaves office. But advocates are skeptic.
(Published: 2006-08-22)

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)

Counting The Empty Buildings
Joe Lamport details a new effort to find all the empty buildings in the city, in hopes of turning some of them into affordable housing.
(Published: 2006-07-19)

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)