Measuring Progress

MAPC will collect regional indicators on a regular basis to inform the region about current conditions, trends, and changes over time.  MAPC’s system of “Regional Indicators” will not just monitor trends—it will be deliberately designed to influence policy, advocacy, and development decisions.  Each of the 65 MetroFuture goals has specific objectives and each objective will be supported by a specific indicator (or indicators).  In this way, the indicators will help to assess whether the region is moving toward MetroFuture’s brighter future, or away from it.  By pinpointing areas of progress, or lack thereof, regional indicators will support informed decision making and accountability.  No single entity will be able to implement all recommendations of the plan: MetroFuture implementation strategies include recommendations for cities and towns, state government, residents, and institutions.  Indicators will help to pinpoint where additional action or corrective action is necessary by these various responsible parties. 

The Regional Indicators will be available at a variety of scales: neighborhood, municipal, regional and State levels. Nested indicators can help to put conditions in context, explain why a particular condition is occurring, and clarify appropriate “ground” for action. MAPC will periodically release a regional indictors report and make the data and report available online at the MetroBoston DataCommon (www.metrobostondatacommon.org). MAPC has been a long-time partner on the Boston Foundation’s Boston Indicators project. It is our intention to release the regional indicators report in the alternating years the Boston Indicators reports are released. In fact, by design, many of the MetroFuture regional indicators overlap with the indicators used in the Boston Indicators project.