City works closely with data to attract retail

This InfoWorld article details how Social Compact works with numbers to paint a clearer picture of city demographics than does the census. The Detroit Economic Growth Corporation is working with the organization to use those numbers to attract retailers to the city.

Excerpt:

The Brookings Institution, involved in a project with the University of Michigan to come up with strategies for downtown development in Detroit, last year invited Social Compact to gather and analyze data and researchers found that the median income was closer to $59,000 than to the $40,000 reported in census figures. They found a higher home ownership rate than indicated by the census and that the median home value of neighborhoods studied also was substantially more, says Olga Savic, director of strategy and external affairs for the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation.

"The picture was better than what conventional sources of information might suggest, and it really helped to validate the work we're trying to do to attract retail to the area," she said. Savic is passionate about her love of Detroit. Of course, she's paid to be. But on the other hand, even though the renaissance underway in Detroit is often held up as an example, there is still an untoward, and unfair, stigma attached to the city because of unemployment, riots, and the penchant some residents used to have for setting things on fire.

"People can have a really good life here," she says, adding that she believes over the next three years of her organization's contract with Social Compact, "we'll be able to recast this image of Detroit as a place where people really want to be."

Read the entire article here.