CWAC Neighborhoods
 

The earlier quality of life studies were focused exclusively on the 73 City Within a City (CWAC) neighborhoods. As a consequence the quality of life indices that were calculated did not include wealthier, more suburban communities. A review of Table 3 shows that CWAC neighborhoods remain structurally and socially disadvantaged when compared with the larger community. On almost all of the variables used in the study, the CWAC neighborhoods fall below the citywide norm. 

In this report the CWAC neighborhoods have been treated in the same fashion and subjected to the same standards as all Charlotte neighborhoods. This new research framework will permit citywide bench marking of neighborhood quality of life in the future. Consequently, Charlotte citizens and leaders will be able to track the changes in quality of life across communities and within small geographies. 

While this new framework is overwhelmingly positive, the immediate impact on CWAC neighborhoods is to make them appear as if they have declined in quality of life from the 1997 study. This is not the case. Rather, the new larger-scale study area has effectively raised the standard for inclusion in the stable and threatened categories. Thus, inner city neighborhoods that have been historically disadvantaged are now being measured against new suburban communities. This produces an appearance decline in the CWAC neighborhoods that is not real. 

This relationship is clearly shown when the 73 CWAC neighborhoods are separated from the larger citywide NSA pool, and a parallel analysis is carried out on the CWAC communities using 20 variables. Figure 4 presents the CWAC-only analysis findings. 

A review of these data show that a number of stable communities has grown significantly, from 24 in 1997 to 30 in 2000, and that there has been an accompanying decline in fragile neighborhoods from 15 to 11. Although the number and composition of the quality of variables has changed between the two studies, thus making direct comparison impossible, the strategic shift to stable neighborhoods supports the conclusion that CWAC neighborhoods are making substantial strides in community quality of life. 

Future citywide quality of life indices will, we expect, provide further support for these limited data. 

Table 3. CWAC Data Values Compared to the City of Charlotte  

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