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Evanston staff propose data dashboard, grant database to modernize economic reporting
Summary
City staff presented a plan to shift from spreadsheets to dashboards and infographics for economic reporting, including district vacancy metrics, Placer.ai foot-traffic data and a grant database of committee-approved awards going back to 2010.
Evanston economic development staff told the committee they plan to modernize how the city shares business and market data, proposing dashboards and infographics to replace static spreadsheets.
Paul, a department staff member, said the goal is to "get into this decade in terms of how we present data and try to get away from the ... Excel spreadsheets" and that a midsummer proposal will show a dashboard prototype. He walked members through district-level metrics the packet now contains: total square footage and vacancy measures by district, sample retail figures (downtown retail space described as about 872,000 square feet with a 5.7% vacancy rate at the end of March), and comparative context to larger nearby centers such as Old Orchard (discussed in the presentation as roughly 1.7 million square feet).
Staff also highlighted a plan for a monthly retail space availability report (sourced to CoStar and field observations) and a searchable grant database listing committee-approved grants back to 2010 to increase transparency about awards. Paul said the grant database will help answer questions about past funding and dispel misconceptions about past awards.
Committee requests and timeline: Members asked for historical comparisons (year-over-year and pre-COVID baselines), Ward-based sorting for grant records, public access to the datasets (Google Sheets or a web dashboard), and exit-interview surveys for businesses that leave a district. Staff said the datasets will be publicly accessible and sortable and that an initial survey and pop-up retail outreach are scheduled; staff expects to return with refined metrics and survey results in the coming months.
Why it matters: Better, timely local data can help the council and business districts make targeted policy choices—on leases, incentives and promotions—rather than relying on static packets that become stale quickly. The committee signaled support for a public-facing dashboard and asked staff to continue building the grant archive and monthly retail reporting.
