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Metro Context Tools: State of the Centers

Metro Context Tools are web-based visualization tools that map various physical characteristics to describe the built environment of a given geographic area.

Metro's State of the Centers report uses a context tool to help measure progress in creating the type of regional and town centers envisioned in the 2040 plan for future growth.

View the State of the Centers context tool

By scoring seven performance measures in each center – such as parks, bike routes, sidewalks, and access to transportation and services – the context tool creates a composite score to provide perspective on the relative strengths and weaknesses of an area tracked over time.

The performance measurement scores for an area are displayed as heat maps or spider graphs, illustrating the character of a place and allowing for visual comparisons from center to center.

Learn more about the State of the Centers report

Context tools can be used to help planners, community groups and businesses provide a sense of scale for identifying high-performing or underserved urban areas compared to a goal or desired outcome.

The visual representation of data created by the context tool provides an at-a-glance community profile to help support the decision-making and consensus-building necessary for policy development.