New and Important

Urban Strategies Council is pleased to announce the launch of InfoAlamedaCounty, a new online data warehouse and mapping service. InfoAlamedaCounty and InfoOakland (our Oakland-focused data warehouse and mapping service launched in 2003) strive to promote social equity and empowerment of residents and community-based organizations in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color in the Bay Area through increased access to good data, assistance in gathering and analyzing data, and collaboration in using data as a tool for promoting positive social change.

InfoOakland and Urban Strategies Council have just released a new report detailing homicides in Oakland during 2006. The report contains information on the victims and suspects as well as the date, time and location of the homicides.  View the report.

The first neighborhood level report, Homicides in the Lower San Antonio, is now available. (PDF, 1.8 MB)

The second neighborhood level report, Homicides in West Oakland, is now available (PDF, 1.2 MB).

We have released a supplemental report on the involvement of parolees and probationers in Oakland homicides, available here (PDF, 100k)

HUD has recently released the document Analysis of the Oakland, California Housing Market. The report finds that, while job
creation has been sluggish and the unemployment rate has increased to 6 percent as of July 1, 2004 (the current date used in the report), the housing sales market remains very strong.

The report is available as a free download from HUD USER at http://www.huduser.org/publications/econdev/mkt_analysis.html

Our projects seek to engender informed activism in Oakland's neighborhoods. Through our online resources, trainings, and direct data support we help committed people and organizations work more effectively for community improvement. As a collaborative, InfoOakland brings together nonprofit organizations, public agencies, higher education institutions, and other entities dedicated to our common mission.

How To Use This Site

The Oaktown Datahouse (Data & Maps) contains all kinds of information for you in many different forms. In the Map Room you can get data from an interactive map of Oakland and even create your own neighborhood maps. The Map Room is based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. If you are new to GIS or to internet mapping you may want to review our Map Room Tutorial.

The Oaktown Datahouse also has a collection of ready-made Popular Maps as well as Profiles of important issues chocked full of charts, graphs, tables and statistics. You can print out a map or a Profile or you can just copy and save the parts you want and insert them in your own proposals, outreach materials, and presentations.

The section on Data in Action explains how the strategic use of good information can strengthen community improvement efforts. Links and Resources point you to other sources of data and other organizations working on these issues.

We are always working to improve these online resources in order to make them more useful to people building safe, healthy, and vibrant communities in Oakland. Let us know what you think by sending us some feedback.

If you would like to take part in a usage survey for neighborhood information systems like ours, please visit this site and help to make these valuable services even more relevant... (Survey site)