The Boston Indicators Project 2004

The Boston Indicators Project

Civic Agenda

CIVIC HEALTH OVERVIEW

LINKS & RESOURCES

CIVIC HEALTH INDICATORS

1.1	Metro Boston’s Competitive Edge in Civic Health
1.2	High Rates of Social Capital
1.3	Representative Leadership
1.4	High Rates of Voter Participation
1.5	Healthy Race and Community Relations
1.6	Stability and Investment in Neighborhoods
1.7	A Welcoming and Inclusive Environment
1.8	Access to Information
1.9	Strength of the Nonprofit Sector
1.10	Public Support and Philanthropy

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CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

HOW TO USE THIS REPORT

Civic Health: Goals & Measures

Goals

Indicator Measures

How are we doing?

1.1 Metro Boston’s Competitive Edge in Civic Health

	1.1.1 Racial and ethnic diversity	In 2000, more than half of the total population of the City of Boston consisted of African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans, and more than one-quarter were foreign born. About 337,000 newcomer immigrants arrived in MA in the 1990s, accounting for 82% of the net growth in the labor force.
	1.1.2 Massachusetts ranking on the United Way State of Caring Index	The Bay State ranked 6th, up from 21st place in 1992.
	1.1.3 Opportunities for civic discourse in Boston	Greater Boston offers an unusually large number of opportunities for civic discourse, but language isolation can pose obstacles to participation. About 33% of Boston residents speak a language other than English at home.

1.2 High Rates of Social Capital

	1.2.1. Boston residents’ trust in neighbors	Rates of neighborly trust vary across Boston neighborhoods. In 2003, West Roxbury residents surveyed had the highest rate of neighborly trust while Allston-Brighton, Roxbury and East Boston had the lowest.
	1.2.2 Civic engagement and social and racial trust, Boston compared to other cities	Bostonians score high on “diversity of friendships” and “political and civic engagement” but lower on “social trust,” with people of color expressing lower levels of social trust than whites, and Boston scoring behind Seattle and Denver overall.
	1.2.3 Volunteer activity in Boston	Volunteerism in Boston is growing. For example, Boston Cares has more than 6,000 active members – 75% of them new in the past two years and 70% of whom live in Boston – and the number of projects undertaken has increased from 30 in 1992 to more than 1,000 today.

1.3 Representative Leadership

	1.3.1. Leadership of Metro Boston’s top 100 companies, by race and gender	Among the 100 largest corporations in Greater Boston, more than 95% of board members are white and more than 90% are male, while statewide, women fill only 9.2 of the executive officer positions of the state’s largest companies, with more than a quarter of the companies having no women at either the board or executive level.
	1.3.2. Diversity of elected leadership, Massachusetts Legislature and the Boston City Council, by race and gender	Following the 2004 election, the 200-member state legislature includes a total of 56 women legislators in the House and the Senate. The Boston City Council includes two female councilors, or about 15%, three councilors of color, or about 23%, and almost half of the members are under 40.

1.4 High Rates of Voter Participation

	1.4.1. Registered voters and participation rates, Boston	Between 2000 and 2004, voter turnout in Boston increased by 9% overall, with double-digit gains in wards with large numbers of voters of color such as Chinatown, Uphams Corner, Grove Hall, Dudley, and Mission Hill; however, voter turnout remains highest in Boston’s traditional high-voting wards, which are predominantly white.
	1.4.2. Number of contested elections in Massachusetts	The number of contested legislative seats in the Massachusetts declined from 75% in 1990 to 29% in 2000. In the 2004 election, the Republican Governor made a major effort to recruit candidates for seats held by incumbent Democrats. As a result, the number of contested legislative elections increased to just over 50%.

1.5 Healthy Race and Community Relations

	1.5.1. Reported hate crimes by type	The number of hate crimes in Boston investigated by the Community Disorders Unit of the Boston Police Department fluctuated between 224 and 343 per year from 1993 to 2003. The greatest number of hate crimes – one quarter to one-third – are perpetrated against African Americans and those singled out on the basis of sexual orientation.
	1.5.2. Degree of residential segregation in Boston and Metro Boston	Residential segregation declined somewhat in the Boston region between 1990 and 2000. Whites living in the suburbs are the most isolated group: on average, they live on blocks that are more than 90% white, while whites in cities live on blocks that are 70% white. In Boston, African Americans reside on blocks that are, on average, 60% African American.

1.6 Stability and Investment in Neighborhoods

	1.6.1. People living at the same address by number of years and by neighborhood	Residential turnover among homeowners is a characteristic of Boston’s more affluent neighborhoods such as Back Bay and Beacon Hill, particularly among renters, while longer-tenured households are characteristic of Boston’s family neighborhoods.
	1.6.2. Small business loans by neighborhood	Data and analysis to come.

1.7 A Welcoming and Inclusive Environment

	1.7.1 Public buildings and amenities accessible to people with disabilities	In 2004, the Massachusetts Office on Disability surveyed the state’s 351 municipalities to determine whether all of the polling locations in the state were accessible and found that all polling places were accessible in only 19%, with accessible venues overall representing only about 40% of the total.
	1.7.2. Multi-lingual capacity in major public institutions in Boston	The Mayor’s Office of New Bostonians makes interpreters available from the staff of this City department, with translation available in 24 languages.

1.8 Access to Information

	1.8.1 Library books in circulation, by Boston neighborhood	Following a dramatic 25% decline in circulation between 1998 and 1999, circulation at the Boston Public Library was up 5% and up 10% between 1999 and 2000 at the branch libraries, but has not risen since.
	1.8.2 Community newspapers by neighborhood and linguistic group	Boston is one of the few major cities in the US with two competing daily newspapers and a wealth of community and ethnically-focused newspapers.

1.9 Strength of the Nonprofit Sector

	1.9.1 Nonprofits by budget and type in Boston	In Massachusetts, there were about 10,000 nonprofit organizations in 2004, 44% of which had an annual budget of less than $100,000.
	1.9.2 Revenues for Boston’s 20 largest nonprofit organizations	Between 2002 and 2004, more than half of the largest nonprofit organizations saw a decline in revenues in the range of 5% - 10%. However, the revenues of the Museum of Science declined by 40% and those of the New England Aquarium by 63%.

1.10 Public Support and Philanthropy

	1.10.1 In- and out-of-state grants in Metro Boston	Foundations gave about $513 million to Metro Boston organizations in 2002, up 13% from 2000, according to 2004 analysis.
	1.10.2 Public support, all sources, Massachusetts compared to all states	Massachusetts ranked third in “Having” but only 39th in “Giving,” according to the Generosity Index. However, according to the United Way of America, when all sources of support for nonprofit services are calculated, Massachusetts ranks first among all states.
	1.10.3 Assets and grants, Massachusetts’ top 50 foundations	There was a 2.7% increase in grants made by the 50 largest Massachusetts foundations between 2000 and 2002. There was a 6% decline in the assets of the 50 largest Massachusetts foundations between 2000 and 2002, according to 2004 analysis.

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