22 GIS HELPS LOCAL GOVERNMENT ECONOMIES GIS Keeps Local Governments Going Budget crises and diminishing resources have become the unpleasant norm for many local governments as they continue to grapple with the economic downturn. Though many said good riddance to 2009, the worst may not be over for cities and counties around the United States. The National League of Cities recently reported that the situation for cities is likely to worsen through 2012. As governments continue to face great challenges, including increased demands for services, many are finding that GIS technology provides ample ways to make the most of the money and resources they have. In the field, mobile workers are using logistics tools to more effectively maintain infrastructure and provide timely service to citizens. In the office, fleet and mobile workforce managers use GIS technology to better manage fuel expenses and carbon emissions, as well as minimize overtime. To bring new revenue into communities, economic development departments are using Web maps and demographic reports to give them the edge when competing for business. These same resources help existing businesses understand their customers and find opportunities for growth. Understanding and visualizing geographic information are critical to most government operations. GIS shows relationships that are otherwise unnoticed, such as how mortgage fraud negatively impacts property assessments in an area, or mechanisms impacting business growth, such as how far people travel for a particular service. From the largest cities and counties to the smallest, GIS gives governments the tools they need to succeed. The following examples show various ways they are going about it. Miami—A Hot Spot for Businesses to Boom Warm days, tropical breezes, and Caribbean and Latin American influences make Miami, Florida, an inviting city. In this unique place, visitors, snowbirds, and a large number of foreign-born residents feel right at home. To help businesses understand this diverse marketplace, the City of Miami’s Division of Economic Initiatives teamed with Esri Business Partner MSF Global Solutions, LLC, to create Miami Sites (www.Miami-Sites.com). This online mapping application gives business leaders around the globe an easy-to-use GISbased resource with valuable site, market, and demographic information. The effort supports the city’s economic gardening initiatives, which aim to grow existing businesses, as well as attract new businesses. Since its launch in fall 2009, the site has become popular across the globe, with 50 percent of its visitors being from outside the United States. “We have entrepreneurs that are very interested in conducting business in Miami and are very competitive—they want to understand the communities,” says Lisa S. Mazique, senior advisor for economic development, City of Miami. “The portal we created is instrumental in providing the information they need.” Creating a customized Web site tailored specifically for the city was a top priority. To do that, MSF Global Solutions used its Site Intelligence tool, ArcGIS Server, and the Esri Business Analyst Online API to build the application and reporting capabilities. “We wanted to deliver one place where entrepreneurs could find reliable intelligence,” explains Mazique. “To make sure that we were adding features and attributes that were important to us, we wanted our own tool, not a cookie-cutter solution. And it had to wrap around a really solid data product.” On Miami Sites, visitors find a detailed map of the area, including up-to-date satellite imagery from ArcGIS Online. Through the dynamic map, they can search the city’s database of available commercial properties according to many factors, such as property type, square footage, and price. Other layers of information include zoning, contamination sites, land use, and historic/conservation. The search results are mapped, and visitors can view details, compare locations, and create reports. The GIS portal also gives stakeholders specific information about consumers in a given location, including income, housing, and market profiles. Detailed demographic and spending reports are accessible through the map or the Community Profile tab. “It will give you a profile of the kind of individuals that live in a neighborhood and help you match your business to a particular market,” Mazique says. “For a business to be successful, it needs to understand the backyard in which it’s playing.” For more information, contact Lisa Mazique, senior advisor for economic development, City of Miami (e-mail: lmazique@miamigov.com), or Marseyas Fernandez (e-mail: marseyas@ msfglobal.net). SRCD vehicle routing in Los Angeles is a dynamic process with parameters that are in constant flux. Los Angeles Dodges Unneeded Expenses with a Smart Routing Solution In the predawn hours, crews from the Los Angeles, California, Bureau of Sanitation assemble in staging areas for assignment details prior to their daily deployment for the removal and disposal of recyclables and waste throughout the city’s vast 450-square-mile service area with 1.5 million residential and commercial addresses. In addition to its regularly scheduled pickups, the bureau’s Solid Resources Collection Division (SRCD) collects bulky items, white goods (including refrigerators and washing machines), and dead animals. This service is scheduled by appointment for the 60 special-collection drivers who field more than 55,000 pickup requests each month. Not so long ago, SRCD crews would meet with their supervisors each morning to map out the day’s routes for special collections, but increasing service demands recently made it clear that the department needed a more efficient method for route planning. After evaluating various systems, the department decided to implement a GIS that includes Esri’s ArcLogistics for point-to-point routing; RouteSmart software from Esri Business Partner RouteSmart Technologies, Inc., for continuous routing applications; and ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Server for mapping, analysis, and geodatabase management. Now, when requests for bulk item collections and container service are received, the details are input into the central database and downloaded to PCs at the various dispatch centers. There, supervisors review the pickup requests and generate route maps before each shift. The maps and any last-minute instructions or route changes are then exported to the crews’ personal digital assistants (PDAs), which they pick up in the dispatch office before beginning their daily assignments. Because ArcLogistics can automatically create and maintain routing folders in collection day order, it is a big time-saver for SRCD. The city also uses GIS to create routes for replacing old trash containers. Using GIS to analyze workload and improve productivity of existing staff saves the city $400,000 per year in salaries. Observes Sal Aguilar, GIS manager at SRCD, “With the automation and optimization of our routing procedures, we have realized a significant cost/time benefit as well as the capability to provide better service to our customers.” Using ArcGIS, Aguilar is also implementing the concept of operational route-based analyses (ORBA) on all (more than 2,500) continuous service routes and neighboring routes to fine-tune the trash pickup balance between them. “We look at the operational parameters of the routes and display them spatially to analyze the relationships between them and determine where improvements can be made,” says Aguilar. Vehicle routing is a dynamic process with parameters that are in constant flux. There is always the potential for unplanned roadway construction, temporary speed limit changes, accidents, congestion, and so on. “I believe that GIS can play an integral role in any routing operation. The ability to take data that has formerly been looked at in a tabular format and can now be spatially referenced, analyzed, then automatically mapped provides a powerful management tool for operational awareness,” concludes Aguilar. For more information, contact Salvador Aguilar, Jr., environmental engineer associate, City of Los Angeles (e-mail: sal.aguilar@lacity.org). Asheville, North Carolina—Placing a Priority on Economic Development The City of Asheville is the largest city in western North Carolina and serves as the regional hub for business and other community amenities. Like many cities across the country, Asheville is concerned about increasing investment and attracting new businesses, as well as retaining existing jobs and companies in the region. To do that, the city has created Priority Places, a Web-based GIS tool that promotes economic development by enabling citizens, business owners, investors, and government agencies to identify optimal locations for their activities (gis.ashevillenc.gov/ mapasheville/priorityplaces). Choosing the right location is an important decision that can ultimately determine the success or failure of any new business. To facilitate the longterm economic growth that thriving businesses can provide, several years ago Asheville began looking for an analytic approach to business siting that would leverage the city’s wealth of economic development data. The ideal solution would be A search for all available properties in the central business district of Miami, Florida.