City staff demos LEMI mapping tool aimed at targeting economic-mobility interventions

City staff from Austin Equity & Inclusion demonstrated the Levers of Economic Mobility Index (LEMI), an interactive mapping and data tool designed to show structural barriers across Austin at the census-tract level and to help align city programs with local needs.

"This is our 3rd round of engagements with your commission," said Gary Aaron, a senior business process consultant, introducing the tool and its supporting resources. Shivani Datar, a business process specialist, explained that the index and accompanying materials (an interactive story map, technical documentation, and a framework brochure) are publicly available on the city's Equity & Inclusion website and that the technical analysis underlying the index involved vendors including Every Texan and ArcGIS layers.

Datar described core functionality: color-coded, place-based map views of composite and lever-level scores for each census tract; percentile comparisons across Austin's 249 tracts; filters to overlay demographics, age, and disability indicators; and the ability for users to add outside datasets (ArcGIS Living Atlas, GeoJSON) for custom analysis. She confirmed the index includes measures of disability prevalence (percent of individuals with a disability and percent of people 65+ with ambulatory difficulties) drawn from the most recent microdata release (2024). Staff also listed outreach plans: an internal technical session on June 17 and a community session hosted by Every Texan on July 10.

Commissioners asked about margin-of-error handling for census data and described ways council members and policy staff might use the tool for site selection and budget prioritization; staff said the index includes margin-of-error information in its raw data and the city demographer has been engaged to identify local data sources to improve accuracy.

What happens next: staff will continue outreach and training for departments, council staff, and community members and will publish a resource implementation guide by August to support citywide use in FY 2027 planning.