Measuring and accountability and how newspapers can focus attention and foster action

Newsday is the newspaper of Long Island and Queens, with an NYC edition. Last week, they ran two articles about the state of small parks in the various boroughs, vis-a-vis the large well-known parks such as Bryant Park, Central Park, and Prospect Park (all of which have excellent and powerful "Friends" organizations).



This article "Fans say city's smaller parks could use some extra tender, loving care - funded by Parks Department" actually lists the phone numbers of the parks commissioner for each of the five boroughs of the city!

"Time to think small: When it comes to funding parks, the city and wealthy donors focus too much on signature facilities while little parks suffer, a report says" is a story about a report from New Yorkers for Parks that profiles the parks in each City Council District, and compares policies, maintenance, resources, etc. between neighborhood parks and the big city parks.
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This reminds me during the Strategic Neighborhood Action Planning process 4 years ago, that I suggested that a similar inventory of public assets in our cluster be conducted, but it wasn't.

+ Maybe three years ago (or more) the Baltimore Sun did an amazing article--it started on the front page and then took two full inside pages--where first they called the Parks Department and reported a number of problems such as broken benches, etc. Then they went back one month later and checked what happened. As you can imagine, not much did occur. And they ran big photos on it. Since then the Parks Department management in Baltimore has been transformed.

+ This is why I like "The Fixer" column in the Toronto Star as well as the "Urban Warrior" column in the Philadelphia Daily News. Both bring attention to problems in the city, name names, and follow up.

In the book In Search of Excellence, Peters and Waterman make the point that "what gets measured gets done." That's why I like the public reporting aspects of Baltimore's Citistats program, and "The Fixer"column such as this example, "Car no longer up the creek".

After. Car being hauled away from Etobicoke Creek in Toronto, after being reported in the Toronto Star.

A beat-up old Toyota that was abandoned in Etobicoke Creek was quickly hauled out, after the City of Mississauga learned about it in a Fixer story. In last Saturday's Star, an article about garbage in local streams, rivers and ravines included a photo of the Toyota, marooned near the east bank of the creek, a few hundred metres north of Eglinton Ave. (See "Garbage everywhereToronto's rivers, streams and waterways reveals a mind-boggling collection of trash.")

We were alerted to it by an email from a reader, who said he noticed it last winter. Of the astonishing array of trash we found in the water, the car was by far the biggest.

Before the article in the Toronto Star. A picture might not be worth 1,000 words, but it can get things done. (Note: the Post did this for a little while in the "District Extra" section but they stopped focusing on it soon after starting.)

Washington Post? DC Government website?

This map of results of an evaluation of Baltimore's Solid Waste program shows that all is not rosy in the alleys of Baltimore. But this map is from the Citistats program, and certainly this data will be used to improve the program, not make excuses.