Vital Signs 17, a comprehensive statistical portrait of Baltimore and its neighborhoods, marks 17 years of continuous monitoring of community-based quality of life indicators. The latest edition of the report, published by the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance-Jacob France Institute (BNIA-JFI), tracks more than 100 indicators that take the pulse of neighborhood health and vitality. The …
Since the Federal Opportunity Zones (OZ) where announced in 2017, there has been both welcome anticipation and also not insignificant anxiety about the impact that these kinds of funds could have on Baltimore’s communities. The OZs were announced at about the same time as Mayor Pugh’s Neighborhood Impact Investment Fund, which is great news with …
In September and October 2018, we hosted three roundtable conversations around potential new indicators to include in future editions of Vital Signs. The conversations focused on emerging ideas and data for Sustainability, Economic Growth and Development, and Crime, Safety and Justice. Participants were asked to identify gaps and opportunities in the existing set of indicators, new topics for …
Data-Driven Decision Making in West Baltimore for Smart Technology Planning See the Full Report Smart Cities Data Use Summary Final Draft About the Project Beginning in 2017, the Baltimore “Smart Cities Initiative” led by the University of Maryland’s National Center for Smart Growth through a grant from the National Science Foundation sought to explore how …
Developed by BNIA-JFI in partnership with the Community Law Center and with support from the Abell Foundation, the Baltimore City Open Land Database (BOLD) is a new, interactive online data tool that helps communities track historical property-related information in Baltimore City. The tool encompasses a wide range of property data from citations to tax sales …
Earlier this month I traveled to Atlanta to the Spring meeting of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP). The partnership, led by the Urban Institute, brings together organizations that serve as data intermediaries from cities across the country to share best practices, collaborate, develop tools for data democratization, and advocate locally and nationally for data-informed …
At the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance, our research has shown that we must address and eliminate the disparities among neighborhoods for a more equitable and just city overall. In the wake of the civil unrest that occurred in Baltimore in 2015, there is a critical urgency to ensure that all of Baltimore’s policies and programs …
Giving a ‘voice’ to local context by focusing on quantitative measures of neighborhood trends can help foster collaborative solutions by residents, elected officials, government agencies and other multi-sector stakeholders in order to improve the quality of life in every neighborhood. At the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance, our research has shown that we must address and …
In 2015, as part of a program called the USA Sustainable Cities Initiative (USA-SCI), Baltimore was selected as one of three US cities to pilot implementation of 17 new United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs, adopted by UN member countries in September 2015, form a cohesive and integrated package of global aspirations …
GIS Day This week, on November 15th, the world celebrated GIS Day, a day to celebrate, network, and learn about Geographic Information Systems and geography. BNIA-JFI celebrated the day at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and highlighted some of our work, including GEOLOOM, our new arts and culture interactive map, and our …
