In addition to updating all Equity indicators and introducing 10 new Equity-related indicators, the State of the Region Progress Report 2002 featured a 64-page narrative exploring the provocative question, “How fair and equitable is the Buffalo Niagara region?”
Context
Though difficult to quantifiably measure, a region's status on issues of equity and fairness is a key indicator of quality of life. Moreover, receptiveness to diversity is becoming increasingly related to success in today's information-based economy, where people and ideas are paramount.
What Equity Measures
The State of the Region seeks to answer the question: “How fair and equitable is the Buffalo Niagara region?” for persons of different age, gender, religion, race/ethnicity, income level, sexual orientation, disability status and geographic location. The project’s Equity indicators address three main, cross-cutting challenges for the region: Equity in resource distribution; Equity in economic and educational opportunity, and Equity in representation and access to decision making. (For a related qualitative analysis and history of Equity issues in the region, please see State of the Region Progress Report 2002: Equity in Buffalo Niagara.)
The Road Ahead
As crucial as this issue is, it is also very complex and hard to quantify. In many instances, data are not broken out by race, income level, age or other equity groups, thereby hindering a comprehensive analysis of the Equity picture in Buffalo Niagara. Moreover, numbers cannot show the attitudes and prejudices which bear upon much of the data. It is the hope of the State of the Region that these Equity indicators stimulate regional dialogue on issues of diversity, discrimination, fairness, resource allocation and equal opportunity.
Equity Indicators - (Latest Indicator Updates)
9.1 Distribution of Poverty — 
(Dec 2002 )
Western New York poverty rates by county, race/ethnicity and age
9.2 Equity in Homeownership — (Dec 2002 )
Western New York's rates of homeownership, home values and level of housing costs according to race/ethnicity
9.3 Housing Discrimination — (Dec 2002 )
Home purchase loan applications and denials by race/ethnicity in Western New York; profile of housing/renter discrimination calls to Buffalo-based Housing Opportunities Made Equal
9.4 Occupational Equity — (Dec 2002 )
Distribution of Western New York labor force by race/ethnicity; comparison of the presence of a minority group in an occupation to that group’s presence in the overall workforce; proportion of minorities in Western New York graduate and professional schools
9.5 Women in Leadership — (Dec 2002 )
Presence of women in leadership positions in Western New York’s private, nonprofit and public sectors
9.6 Interfaith Relationships — (Dec 2002 )
Profile of Western New York’s interfaith-based programs and collaborations; Western New York residents’ perceptions of discrimination and intergroup contact in the region
9.7 Disability and Work — (Dec 2002 )
Number of ADA complaints filed by Western New York residents with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the New York State Division of Human Rights; percentage of Western New York residents with a disability; employment status of working-age residents with disabilities
9.8 Intergenerational Equity — (Dec 2002 )
Number and status of age-discrimination complaints filed by Western New York residents with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; Western New York residents’ perceptions of age discrimination in the region
9.9 Sexual Orientation — (Dec 2002 )
Inventory of the binational Buffalo Niagara region’s services and groups for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) population; perceptions of sexual orientation-based discrimination in the region
9.10 Residential Segregation — (Dec 2002 )
Distribution of white, black and Hispanic populations across the Buffalo-Niagara Falls Metropolitan Area based on an index ranging from complete integration to complete segregation; profile of urban and suburban populations in Western New York
Progress Over Time