May 2022 – Walla Walla Trends Newsletter

Trending News

200 Years of U.S. Immigration to the U.S.

200 Years of U.S. Immigration to the U.S.

Visualization demonstrates the changing status of U.S. immigration

The composition and rate of immigrants moving to the United States has seen major changes and fluctuations over the course of American history. These changes create an understanding of American...
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Washington Campaign Finance

Washington Campaign Finance

Interactive and detailed contributions to Washington politicians

Campaign contributions are a vital part of state and local politics, and much can be learned about the candidate, the election, and the democratic process through their analysis...
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Electric Vehicles in Washington State

Electric Vehicles in Washington State

DOL data details registered electric and hybrid vehicles

A new dataset compiled by Washington state’s data portal Data.WA.gov provides information on all electric and hybrid vehicles registered through the Washington State Department of Licensing...
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Trends in Action

Per Capita Personal Income

Increases in income continuing since 2020
Did you feel like there was more coin in your pocket in 2020? More dollars loaded on your debit card? According to U.S. Department of Commerce data, you should have. As Walla Walla Trends indicator 1.1.1, Per Capita Personal Income (PCPI), lays out...
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Housing Supply by Price Level

Unprecedented lows throughout 2021

Have you recently wondered why Walla Walla’s home prices keep leaping upward? By the end of last year, the median resale value for a home nudged up against the $400,000 mark. That represents a jump of nearly $140,000 over the past two years. What is going on?
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Median Home Resale Value

Walla Walla home prices outpaces the state

By Dr. Kelley Cullen Access to affordable housing can be a boon to a local economy in its ability to attract and keep workers. To the contrary, higher housing prices can deter families from wanting to settle down in a local community. Although lately much of the state, and even...
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Five Questions With: Catherine Veninga

Catherine Veninga
Catherine VeningaCommunity Council of Walla Walla

    Q1) Can you tell us about Community Council’s goals and strategies for 2022?

    This year our efforts have focused on two critical areas:  affordable housing and educational attainment.  We have been working with residents to advocate for the implementation of a number of affordable housing strategies, which were generated through our Affordable Housing Study, released in 2019.  We also support the work of Elevate, a regional cradle to career partnership that works to increase educational attainment by eliminating barriers to student success and building better alignment across the educational continuum. In addition, we have been working to develop our Community Indicators, which are data regarding different aspects of well-being.  We use Community Indicators to engage residents in conversations about the quality of life in our region.

    Q2) How would you describe the use of data by Community Council to inform this work?

    We use data to better understand complex local issues, and to support the work of community members who are advocating for positive community change.  Our work on affordable housing has included the development of a shared set of measurements and data sources for understanding and describing affordable housing challenges in our region.  Shared measurements enable apples-to-apples comparisons and collaborative approaches to problem-solving.  Advocates also use the data to help substantiate cases for specific policies and programs.  With regard to Elevate, we look at achievement data to understand how students are doing along the entire educational pipeline – from pre-kindergarten to postsecondary, and we disaggregate data by location and demographic categories to better focus the partnership’s work.

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