After reading a discussion in the Cleveland Uptown thread about comparing the services and amenities in the lifestyle  center Crocker Park in suburban Westlake to Uptown and other urban neighborhoods, I got an idea....

 

I think UO should have its own "neighborhood score" for Greater Cleveland locales. It should start with us coming with evaluation criteria and a scoring process for each criterion. And if someone suggests walkability, how do you define that? Do you count the number of restaurants or banks or libraries or other assets per square mile? Or do measure the population density? Or safety ratings based on what resources?

 

Then where do we post and who keeps it fresh?

Lets set the criteria and define "neighborhood" boundaries first. 

"Walkability" should have a defined radius.  I would put it at 1 mile (which is what I believe walkscore uses).

 

Access to public transportation has to be a big factor

 

I would assign the highest points as far as amenities for walkability to necessities, such as grocery store and pharmacy.

 

Points should be slightly lower for things that appeal to everyone, albeit not a 'necessity', like the library, parks, a movie theatre, 24 hour businesses, dry cleaners/laundrymats.

 

Points should then be slightly lower for perks, such as dining, coffee shops, entertainment (pubs, movie theatres), and general retail.

 

I would also give something for foot traffic, police patrol, diversity (people, businesses, and residences).

 

I've said it before, but using the above criteria, Cedar-Lee might be the most balances neighborhood IMHO.  It has a little bit of everything (including a 24 hour CVS/pharmacy) and not too much of anything.

 

 

^I agree with your weighting of amenities, though I would go with a smaller walking radius. Half a mile is often used for measuring transit catchment areas, FWIW. Ideally, it wouldn't even be as-the-crow-flies radius but rather a half mile walking distance radius...though that would require some serious GIS work.

Well for population density I know that Little Italy is the densest area in the city. Trailed by Shaker Square, Ohio City, University Circle, and Tremont.

 

Gold Coast, Coventry, and Cedar Fairmount lead for outside the city. And denser than any Cleveland neighborhood. All three of those areas can take the #1 spot depending on what you define as the neighborhood barriers. One thing to note is that the Gold Coast lacks the direct amenities that the other two neighborhoods have(restaurants, bars, shops, grocery store, etc.).

I think in ranking transit we should consider frequency. For example, more points if the nearest transit stop is a 24 hour bus or rapid stop. I wouldn't give high scores for transit that runs every 40 minutes and stops at 9 p.m.  I think a neighborhood park is pretty important for health and well being. I agree that necessities like grocery stores and pharmacies rank higher than an area with a lot of bars and restaurants.I really don't get why certain neighborhoods have a lot of restaurants but lack even a medium sized grocery (like Tremont).  I think Steelyard commons is too far by foot to count in the walkability for groceries.

Well for population density I know that Little Italy is the densest area in the city. Trailed by Shaker Square, Ohio City, University Circle, and Tremont.

 

Gold Coast, Coventry, and Cedar Fairmount lead for outside the city. And denser than any Cleveland neighborhood. All three of those areas can take the #1 spot depending on what you define as the neighborhood barriers. One thing to note is that the Gold Coast lacks the direct amenities that the other two neighborhoods have(restaurants, bars, shops, grocery store, etc.).

 

Where is that info?  That would be nice to see and where are the downtown nabes in comparison?

^ I did the math myself. What other areas are you interested in?

I think the trick is finding firm metrics that could be checked on an annual basis, once the "measures" have been established. The worst thing ever would be people getting in an e-fist fight over which nabe is the best ... which we are known to do :) And the last thing we need is another "Forbes ranking" with questionable methodology ;)

 

With a lot of "squishier" indicators, you'll probably be looking for proxies for what you're really trying to measure. For instance, with walkability, you can use an existing aggregator like WalkScore, or using a proxy like "% walking to work / taking public transit to work", or using pedestrian/bike counts. Other potential measures are crime rates, median housing values, median rents, ethnic diversity, age diversity, residential and commercial vacancy, educational attainment ... Could go on and on.

 

One of the tricky things is finding data that's available not only for the city neighborhoods but also for the suburbs ... and ideally, data sets that are also being tracked in other Ohio cities. For instance, I've been able to find a whole lot of crime stats for Cleveland neighborhoods, but I haven't found that stuff for the suburbs. The other challenge is finding data that's updated regularly; if you're using data that's only updated at the neighborhood level in the decennial census, that's going to be tricky.

 

For really squishy stuff, we're actually trying something new in North Collinwood ... we're annually surveying residents, workers and visitors about their perceptions of the neighborhood across 29 different indicators. Is the neighborhood generally clean? Is it a good place to raise kids? Do you think you'll still live here in 5 years? Is the neighborhood getting better or worse? We just started this in the fall, so in the first year, we're basically just "grading" these indicators as Good (60% or more respondents agree), Fair (40% to 59.9% agreement) or Bad (less than 40% agreement). We're also doing cross-tab comparisons - Do residents have different perceptions than visitors? Do people living on the east side of the neighborhood think differently than people on the west side of the neighborhood? How about people under 40 v. people over 40? Over time, we'll be able to track changes in perception. So, for instance, you can have a "creativity curve" that shows whether people think the neighborhood is becoming a more or less creative place over time. I would loooooove to see this used throughout the county so we can start to make side-by-side comparisons and nerdy new maps (like an "authenticity" heat map that shows the pockets that people think are the most/least authentic :o)

 

Full report is available at http://www.cultureforward.org/Reference-Desk/Research-Library/Neighborhoods/Picturing-Collinwood-2011

^ I did the math myself. What other areas are you interested in?

I did the math myself. What other areas are you interested in?

  I'm just interested in your methodology and what borders you used for each area?  You state little Italy is the most dense neighborhood as its a sub-neighborhood of University. Did you use the whole ward for Shaker-Buckeye, Tremont and Ohio City?  If so then your information is skewed to Little Italy.  Did you use Shaker Square (not including Larchmere or Buckeye) as the information for Shaker Square or did you use the entire Shaker-Buckeye ward?  Also did you use the streets located in Shaker Hts., that are apart of the SS neighborhood?  For Little Italy did you use just LI or did you us the entire University ward?

 

I hope that makes sense.

For Little Italy I used just Little Italy, not the census tract which contains far more and definitely gives misleading data.

Ohio City I used the core which I consider everything in-between West 25th, West 44th, Lorain and Franklin.

Tremont I used the triangle, or north half of Tremont only.

I had two different methods for Shaker Square. One was Buckeye to Larchemere, East 121st to Coventry(City of Cleveland only, so its does not follow streets exactly)

The other method included everything north of Larchmere to Fairhill. Both give you very similar densities.

 

If you have a different suggestion for Shaker Square since you know it best, then Id be glad to do different borders.

For Little Italy I used just Little Italy, not the census tract which contains far more and definitely gives misleading data.

Ohio City I used the core which I consider everything in-between West 25th, West 44th, Lorain and Franklin.

Tremont I used the triangle, or north half of Tremont only.

I had two different methods for Shaker Square. One was Buckeye to Larchemere, East 121st to Coventry(City of Cleveland only, so its does not follow streets exactly)

The other method included everything north of Larchmere to Fairhill. Both give you very similar densities.

 

If you have a different suggestion for Shaker Square since you know it best, then Id be glad to do different borders.

''So you used S. Moreland and Van Aken portions of Shaker Square?  You have to use the homes right behind my crib.

For Little Italy I used just Little Italy, not the census tract which contains far more and definitely gives misleading data.

Ohio City I used the core which I consider everything in-between West 25th, West 44th, Lorain and Franklin.

Tremont I used the triangle, or north half of Tremont only.

I had two different methods for Shaker Square. One was Buckeye to Larchemere, East 121st to Coventry(City of Cleveland only, so its does not follow streets exactly)

The other method included everything north of Larchmere to Fairhill. Both give you very similar densities.

 

If you have a different suggestion for Shaker Square since you know it best, then Id be glad to do different borders.

''So you used S. Moreland and Van Aken portions of Shaker Square?  You have to use the homes right behind my crib.

 

Here I threw this together really fast for you

 

http://g.co/maps/sgufj

For Little Italy I used just Little Italy, not the census tract which contains far more and definitely gives misleading data.

Ohio City I used the core which I consider everything in-between West 25th, West 44th, Lorain and Franklin.

Tremont I used the triangle, or north half of Tremont only.

I had two different methods for Shaker Square. One was Buckeye to Larchemere, East 121st to Coventry(City of Cleveland only, so its does not follow streets exactly)

The other method included everything north of Larchmere to Fairhill. Both give you very similar densities.

 

If you have a different suggestion for Shaker Square since you know it best, then Id be glad to do different borders.

''So you used S. Moreland and Van Aken portions of Shaker Square?  You have to use the homes right behind my crib.

 

Here I threw this together really fast for you

 

http://g.co/maps/sgufj

 

N. Moreland, Kemper down to 127 street and over to fairhill is the SS neighborhood.

^ Check the map again. Like that? You kind of confused me. Can you give the your barriers?

^ Check the map again. Like that? You kind of confused me. Can you give the your barriers?

 

that will do.  Lets not get too crazy with this.  LOL

^ Check the map again. Like that? You kind of confused me. Can you give the your barriers?

 

that will do.  Lets not get too crazy with this.  LOL

 

Just trying to improve my data. With the new borders, its population density grew by nearly 2,000. Still second highest in the city