General Information
Mission: The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) serves as a catalyst for regional progress by focusing leadership, attention and planning resources on key regional issues.
This is accomplished through professional planning initiatives and the provision of objective information. In addition, it is made possible through the involvement of the community in collaborative partnerships that encourage healthy economic growth compatible with the environment, improve the region's quality of life and provide opportunities for leadership development.
History
Cooperation among local governments in the Atlanta region is a long-standing tradition. ARC and its predecessor agencies have coordinated the planning efforts in the region since 1947, when the first publicly-supported, multi-county planning agency in the United States was created. At that time, the Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC) served DeKalb and Fulton counties and the City of Atlanta. Since then, ARC membership has grown to its current size of 10 counties and 63 municipalities.
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Platforms for Progress
In 2002, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) and the University of Georgia Carl Vinson Institute of Government conducted a statistically significant survey that wove together the ideas and insights of residents in the Atlanta region to create the region’s Platforms for Progress. The 22 goals that resulted from the survey encompass five areas of focus — community involvement, regional prosperity, education, air quality and transportation and environmental sustainability.
Specific indicators have been selected to measure the movement toward these goals. ARC has committed to publishing an annual Platforms for Progress report to gauge the region’s progress towards achieving our goals.
Specifically, Platforms for Progress is designed to:
- Identify and articulate what citizens in the region value and what they see as goals for the region.
- Foster public awareness and education about critical issues.
- Create common ground for civic dialogue and collaborative strategies.
- Encourage regional thinking.
Through the annual progress reports, we hope to provide information that can be used as tools to guide public policy and help decision-makers and community leaders define what ‘quality of life’ really looks like in our region.
Ultimately, Platforms for Progress is intended to inspire action on the challenges and opportunities facing the region. We hope to stimulate the region’s capacity for innovation and leadership. We also invite your evaluation of the information and your suggestions for additional ways to measure regional progress in future reports.
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Benchmarks for the Future
A primary function of an annual indicators report such as this one is to gather enough
information to establish benchmarks – starting points – for future measurements. In other
words, we cannot measure how far we’ve come (or regressed) year-by-year on various
issues until we know where we stand right now.
Using quantifiable, measurable data – not merely anecdotal evidence or opinions – Platforms for Progress seeks to assess our current status on each of the 22 regional goals illustrating the CREATE Community theme. Our 2004 indicators report offeredthe first set of benchmarks in this endeavor.
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Methodology
To enrich and complement the original CREATE Community survey performed in 2002, ARC commissioned an additional minisurvey in spring of 2005. Conducted (like the previous survey) by telephone by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, this public opinion poll sought input from 803 residents in the 10-county Atlanta region. The sample was proportionally stratified to provide appropriate representation by county throughout the region, and the poll has an error margin of about 3.5 percent.
The data were weighted slightly to give a more accurate representation of the regional population’s gender, race and age.
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