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Strategies to Improve Communities <br />Figure 2: The Eight Facets of Livable Communities <br />Natural <br />Environment <br />Built <br />Environment <br />Economy <br />Cross -cutting Management for <br />Livability <br />While more and more local governments seek to <br />create livable communities, the management tool <br />they most often rely on is an engine comprising <br />individual departments, each charged with providing <br />targeted services, like police, library, parks, <br />economic development, streets and many more. As <br />much as the directors of these departments sit <br />together at the executive table, they also confront <br />unique service delivery issues that force a focused <br />rather than peripheral view of their territory, so <br />interconnection of work effort is hard to achieve. The <br />difficulty of integrating the plans and actions of <br />individual departments is the reason that local <br />government (in fact any level of government and any <br />large business) struggles to become a finely tuned, <br />efficient and high powered machine. Nevertheless, <br />the delivery of a livable community requires a honed <br />engine with strong connection among all <br />departments because the characteristics that make <br />communities livable are not the territory of <br />individual units (or even the government alone, as <br />noted above). <br />Solutions to local challenges will come most easily <br />from an integrated drive to improve. For example, a <br />high crime rate in a jurisdiction is unlikely to be <br />solved only by police or court action. Crime may be <br />the result of conditions related to jobs, schools, <br />street lighting, community connectedness, public <br />trust, location of parks and more. Likewise, <br />pedestrian friendly streets can be developed best <br />with a partnership of planning, parks, utilities, <br />police, fire, efforts to encourage community <br />Recreation and <br />Wellness <br />Education <br />and <br />Enrichment <br />Community <br />Engagement <br />engagement and participation of the private sector <br />and faith -based organizations. <br />The NCS Helps Manage "Livability" <br />The National Citizen Survey' has been designed to <br />gather resident perspectives about community <br />livability and to report to elected officials, local <br />managers and community stakeholders those areas <br />of livability that are doing well and those that merit <br />improvement. The results of The NCS are reported <br />in eight facets of community livability —natural <br />environment, economy, built environment, <br />recreation and wellness, safety, education and <br />enrichment, mobility and community engagement. <br />For each facet, residents report their perspectives <br />about three aspects of livability — what we call the <br />pillars of community life — the quality of community, <br />quality of services and related resident activities. <br />With The NCS, the vague definitions of livability <br />disappear because the report offers quantified <br />metrics that indicate how livable the community is <br />overall and within each domain. These measures will <br />help leaders identify areas of strength and need and <br />evaluate progress toward improvement. The <br />emphasis on livability makes for a strategic approach <br />to community quality and arms local leaders with <br />critical information they need to help move the <br />community where residents want it to be. <br />© 2014, National Research Center, Inc. Page 5 <br />