Leland Avenue Street Fair Photo by VVBOOM

Did you know that parties are important for communities?

I was recently reviewing a tool used to measure the health of the communities. One of the items measured is the number of block parties held in a neighborhood.

Not long after I came to San Francico I participated in the testing of the Healthy Development Measurement Tool. Yes, the name is a mouth-full, but it is to-the-point. Developed by the San Francisco Department of Health, the tool uses a number of metrics to determine if a development, as proposed, will contribute to or harm the health of a community. These types of tools, in the category of health impact assessments, have been getting more traction in communities, in the US and internationally, as residents try to quantify the expected and/or touted outcomes of new development. It gives community members a way evaluate projects in their neighborhood and compare with the rest of the city or even state or national averages.

I was looking through the tool recently and discovered that one of the metrics (called indicators in the tool) is “Number of neighborhood block party permits”. This indicator comes under the Social Cohesion portion (called elements) of the tool.

The SF tool also has measurements of items like average proximity to a large grocery store, amount of park space per person in a neighborhood, and electricity usage per household among its 125 indicators. The tool also gives residents a snapshot of the existing conditions in their neighborhood using quantifiable data. This can be useful for advocacy work. The San Francisco tool has maps that people can use to compare one neighborhood to another.

Back to the block party measurement: I found it a really interesting way to measure the connectedness of community. I remember visiting a friend in Washington DC and her housemate was busy organizing a block party for their street. I imagine a lot of coordination and communication is required among neighbors. I have helped with our neighborhood street fair, but in the explanation of the indicator they specifically exclude these. The focus is on an event small enough to get people to met their neighbors but that also requires some bureaucratic logistics and planning to get a street closure permit. Usually these are all volunteer efforts, while a street or neighborhood festival may have paid staff leading the work.

Leland Avenue Street Fair Photo by VVBOOM

I wanted to learn more about the start of the friend’s DC block party, so look for a follow up post with an interview.

Is there a regular block party that you attend or help organize? How has it brought your community together?