When governmental structure looks like the map above, making any kind of change at a regional level is very difficult.
Each entity focuses on their own issues, and even assets like top universities, research institutions, and excellent K-12 school districts tend to stand alone, isolated from one another.
What if a creative strategy was developed to build regional thinking by providing a tool that measures the quality of life--a tool that would use facts to tell a compelling story to leaders and the general public and also be a credible archival center of data and trends?
In 2002, the Rauch Foundation convened a small group of Long Island civic, academic, labor, and business leaders to discuss challenges facing the region and to create such a tool--the Long Island Index. Since 2004, this annual indicators report has been published by the foundation, measuring the quality of life on Long Island--its economy, environment, communities, education, and governance.
Using a combination of indicator data, maps, comparisons to other suburban regions, and survey data, the Index built successive stories to explain the underlying dynamics as well as future implications. Equally important, research included responses to survey questions about what how Long Islanders felt about specific issues and what kinds of changes they would embrace to address problems.
Long Island’s huge brain drain, for example, which is three times the national average, was connected to the high cost of housing, the lack of rental units and an insufficient number of vibrant downtowns to attract young people. Long Island’s housing patterns and land use typify suburban unplanned sprawl and relate directly to the region’s fragmented government structure and its related excessive property taxes.
With this dynamic analysis of how multiple components interact with one another, the Index attracted enormous attention, whether measured by the hundreds of newspaper articles or the tens of thousands of hits on its website: www.longislandindex.org
Most importantly, the issues explained in the Index reports have been embraced by elected officials, community, and business leaders alike. With a common understanding of the region's problems, Long Island is one step closer to taking the necessary actions to address them.