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· Setting RCOPC's Agenda
Community organization leaders, community residents, university faculty, financial institutions, business, foundations, financial intermediaries, and government representatives participate on a Community Advisory Board which works with RCOPC to identify priorities based on the West Side Park Community Action Plan. Together, RCOPC and the Community Advisory Committee create RCOPC's evolving Work Plan which is divided into seven project areas: Comprehensive Planning, Community Organizing, Neighborhood Revitalization, Economic Development, Affordable Housing, Health Care, and Education. The Community Advisory Board was initially composed of Neighborhood Empowerment Council committee chairs; it was expanded during RCOPC's second year to include a broader array of representatives. By bringing together this diverse group of people, the Community Advisory Board provides networking opportunities for community organizations to develop links to resources including financial, political, and technical assistance outside of their neighborhood. The Community Advisory Board also functions to increase social capital within the neighborhoods providing opportunities for community organizations to work together to identify common problems and develop common solutions.
CUPR developed an asset map for West Side Park that includes data from the city of Newark including land use, vacancy status, sale price, and assessed value of all properties in West Side Park. RCOPC conducted a complete census of structure and property conditions in approximately 130 square blocks in West Side Park to add subjective assessments of structure and property conditions, property abandonment, rehabilitation potential, and structures in need of demolition to the data provided by the city. CUPR faculty and staff and two housing interns teamed up with five VISTA volunteers from IYO to complete the housing census. For each tax parcel, data were collected on street address, land use type, building condition, sidewalk/street condition, vacant lot condition, occupancy status, and number of units in the structure. RCOPC provided maps to community organizations based on this data set. These data are available on this web site for download and for use with ArcView, a mapping program.
RCOPC developed an interactive mapping server to provide data over the Internet using only a Web browser-no GIS software is required. Users can view maps of West Side Park and Newark, change visible map layers such as census tracts, parcel maps, enterprise communities, congressional districts, state assembly districts, condition of buildings, location of vacant lots, and query the data sets on-line. West Side Park Parcel Map (View with Microsoft Internet Explorer)
To enable community organizations to use the community asset data directly, 16 community partners from six West Side Park community based organizations participated in a three day ArcView geographical information systems training. RCOPC helped these community organizations acquire copies of ArcView GIS mapping software from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and RCOPC provided each community partner with a CD-ROM with the full data set and parcel map.
The Spring 1999 Community Development Studio of the Department of Urban Planning and Policy Development created a West Side Park Social Services Directory. Using a mail and telephone survey, followed by field interviews, the Studio created a directory of 21 social service organizations and 78 churches in West Side Park that provide after school programs, continuing education and training, recreation and meeting facilities, computer training, childcare, and or other social services. West Side Park Asset Mapping of Social Services (.PDF | Slide Show) |
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