Street-Level Surveys

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Street-level surveys enable community organizations to easily collect neighborhood conditions with the aid of handheld computers and digital cameras. The conditions collected are easily recorded while walking along the sidewalk. We collect both assets (positive conditions) and deficits (negative conditions). These street-level data provide important clues about the basic look and feel of the community. Asset examples include: safe crosswalks, sidewalks in good condition, and great gathering places. Deficit examples include: litter, graffiti, and abandoned buildings. The street-level surveys are an adaptation of the ComNETsm program of the Fund for the City of New York and the National Center for Civic Innovation - a sister organization of the Center on Municipal Government Performance (CMGP).

Why street-level surveys?
The Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods Initiative (SUNI) works with community members to understand neighborhood conditions, monitor and measure trends in these communities and then act on what is found. Street-level surveys are conducted by neighborhood volunteers through the use of a tool called ComNET^sm (computerized neighborhood environment tracking). ComNET^sm's ease of use, its method of attaching each condition to a city agency or organization, and the ability to easily produce reports for analysis, makes it a perfect tool for collecting this type of data.

^{Youth conducting the Chinatown-International District} ^{street-level survey on July 29th, 2004}

How does it work?

First the survey area is determined, usually along a main arterial or in a neighborhood business district. Second, volunteers are trained on how to use ComNET^sm and then break up into teams to conduct the surveys. Total training and survey time is approximately 5 hours.

Training takes about 2 hours and provides volunteers with the methodology and terminology for following the route, identifying conditions, entering data, and taking digital photographs.

Surveys also take about 2 hours. Volunteers are divided up into teams of 2-3 people allowing for verifiable and replicable results. A digital camera attached to the handheld can also be used by data collectors for further data verification and to help analyzers understand an atypical problem or a neighborhood asset they want to inventory.

Uploading Data is the next step. After the data is collected, the handhelds can be easily synchronized with a desktop computer via the Internet, and uploaded into ComNET^sm Connection, the database hosted by the CMGP's the Fund for the City of New York. This allows users to quickly generate basic reports and charts or export the data into an Excel file for more sophisticated analysis.

Follow ups to the survey include:

Sending time-sensitive data such as graffiti, potholes, or dangerous conditions to the responsible city departments. For statistics on agencies affiliated with found conditions during 2004 surveys, click here.

Presenting the findings to community groups and city departments.

Prioritizing data with community members and discussing next steps for addressing top concerns (either by the community, the City, or a combination of the two).

Maintaining an inventory of positive conditions (assets) of the community for future activities.

What type of information is collected?

The street-level conditions list reflects both the negative (deficit) and positive (asset) aspects of the physical environment of a neighborhood. A few examples of deficits include: potholes, litter, and graffiti, while a few examples of assets include community gathering places, safe pedestrian crossings, and historic buildings. The current (2006) lists of assets and deficits are the product of careful reviews of conditions collected by other cities undertaking similar projects, ongoing feedback from citizens and city staff, and lessons learned from the first round of street-level surveys in 2004.