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August 2013

Mapping the Recovery:
Sentiment Survey of Small
Business Intermediaries
in Chicago

Published by
the Community Development and Policy Studies Division

of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

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Managing Editor
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Contributing Editors
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Emily Engel
Steven W. Kuehl
Susan Longworth
Robin Newberger

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August 2013
In our continuing efforts to support and understand the roles of small
businesses in our local and regional economy, we polled organizations that
provide technical assistance to Chicago businesses. The edition provides detail
on perceptions of these groups, which serve businesses across the city, about the
small business climate pre- and post-recession.
The Fed’s Community Development and Policy Studies division has developed
various polling instruments to gauge conditions in the Seventh District, in
particular those that impact low- and moderate-income populations. We thank
the City of Chicago Department of Housing and Economic Development for
their partnership and assistance in distributing our poll for this study.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicagoand its branch in
Detroit serve the Seventh Federal Reserve District, w
 hich
IOWA
encompasses southern Wisconsin, Iowa, northern Illinois,
northern Indiana, and southern Michigan. As a part of
the FederalReserve System, the Bank participates in setting national
monetary policy, supervising banks and bank holding companies, and
providing check processing a nd other services to depository institutions.

WISCONSIN
MICHIGAN

ILLINOIS
INDIANA

Mapping the Recovery:

Sentiment Survey of Small Business
Intermediaries in Chicago
by Robin Newberger, Susan Longworth, and Daniel DiFranco

Introduction

The poll was designed to answer two questions:

The Community Development and Policy Studies
(CDPS) division of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
distributed a poll to small business intermediaries in the
fourth quarter of 2012 to ask about their perceptions of
small business conditions in their neighborhoods. The
purpose of this poll was to get a better understanding
of the small business climate in diverse neighborhoods
of the city of Chicago. It was designed to capture
perspectives at the neighborhood level, perspectives that
are not observable in aggregated data. The results show
an array of opinions about the small business climate
in neighborhoods across the city, and perceptions of
relative community resilience and vulnerability.
The poll focused on the pre- and post-recession
experiences of businesses in order to understand the
impact the recession had on city neighborhoods, and
how well they have recovered. Respondents were asked
about the business sentiment and factors impacting
the business climate in their communities prior to the
recession compared to the post-recession period. The
respondents comprised nonprofit organizations that
provide technical assistance to (general business advice)
and links to sources of capital for small businesses, as
well as local market oriented business attraction and
retention services.

• What are the perceptions of business conditions
across Chicago neighborhoods and where has the
perceived business climate improved, stayed the
same, or deteriorated since the recession?
• How do characteristics of the neighborhood, or
characteristics of local businesses served by the
small business intermediary agency, relate to an
agency’s sentiment about the business climate?

Polling methodology
CDPS partnered with the City of Chicago
Department of Housing and Economic Development
(HED) for the distribution of the polling instrument.
The poll was sent to 86 business intermediaries in
the city of Chicago during September 2012.1 In
Chicago, the city contracts with nonprofit groups
to deliver business support services. These business
intermediaries provide support services and/or access
to credit and capital to businesses in their service
areas. They receive financial support, in the form
of Community Development Block Grants. The
respondent organizations, referred to collectively
as delegate agencies, fall into three sub-categories

ProfitWise News and Views August 2013
— 1—

based on the type of support provided and by type of
businesses served (see table 1):2

Map 1: Respondent coverage by census tract

• Special Service Area Service Providers manage
Special Service Areas (SSA). SSAs, known as
Business Improvement Districts or BIDs in other
cities, are local tax districts that fund expanded
services and programs through a local property tax
levy. SSA-funded projects typically include: public
way maintenance and beautification; district
marketing and advertising; business retention/
attraction, special events and promotional
activities; auto and bike transit; security; façade
improvements; and other commercial and
economic development initiatives.3
• The Local Industrial Retention Initiative
(LIRI) program provides funding to nonprofit
organizations that support local industrial
corridors with a wide variety of economic
development services. Commonly referred to
as LIRIs, these organizations work towards
job retention/creation, finding solutions for
individual business needs, and making linkages
between businesses and their communities and
coordinate city resources in their service areas.4
• Agencies that provide Commercial Support Service
(CSS) support local commercial districts and
businesses with a variety of economic development
services. Delegates contribute to local job retention/
creation, address specialized business needs,
work to link businesses with their communities,
and coordinate city resources needed in their
service areas.5
The poll was launched on September 5, 2012, and
closed on October 5, 2012. Sixty-four organizations
responded to the poll—a response rate of 74 percent.
The majority of respondents interact with more than
100 businesses per year, giving them deep insight
into local conditions faced by their clients and the
overall business climates within in their service areas.
Map 1 shows respondent coverage by census tract. More
than 75 percent of census tracts (601 of 796 tracts) fell
within the service area of at least one reporting delegate
agency. Most city delegate agencies define their service
areas in terms of a community area or neighborhood,
and the 64 responding organizations covered 62

Survey coverage
Not within the jurisdiction of a reporting agency
0

Within the jurisdiction of a reporting agency
1.5
3
4.5
miles

Table 1: Percent respondents by type of organization
Type of organization

Percent of respondents

SSA

38%

LIRI

18%

CSS

88%

ProfitWise News and Views August 2013
— 2—

Chart 1: Respondent representation by city region
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4

South Side

Northwest Side

North Side

West Side

Far North Side

Far Southest Side

Central

Southwest Side

0

Lower West Side

2

in their community, 67 percent (43/64) responded
that the situation was getting better before the
recession compared to 45 percent (29/64) who
responded that the situation was getting better after
the recession. Similarly, 22 percent (14/64) answered
that the business climate was getting worse before
the recession, compared to 34 percent (22/64) who
answered that the situation was getting worse after
the recession.
The
categories
“optimistic,”
“encouraged,”
“discouraged,”
and
“pessimistic”
connect
respondents’ sentiments across the two periods.
“Optimists” saw conditions getting better both before
the recession as well as three years after the recession.
The “encouraged” respondents saw the business
climate getting worse in the pre-recession period
but improving in the post-recession period. The
“discouraged” respondents had seen neighborhood
business conditions improving before the recession
but saw the climate getting worse in the post-recession

Chart 2: Sentiment count

ProfitWise News and Views August 2013
— 3—

Staying the Same
(negative)

Pessimistic

0

Discouraged

5

Staying the Same

Respondents were asked in 2012 about the business
climate in their service areas before versus after
the financial crisis. Across all respondents, perhaps
not surprisingly, sentiment about business climate
tended to be more positive before the financial crisis
than three years after the crisis. In answer to the
question about perception of the economic situation

10

Staying the Same
(positive)

What are the perceptions of
business conditions across Chicago
neighborhoods and where has the
perceived business climate improved,
stayed the same or deteriorated since
the recession?

15

Optimistic

Some regions were served by multiple, partially
overlapping organizations.

20

Encouraged

percent of the community areas in the city (48 of the 77
community areas).6 Most respondents answered from
the Far North, North and West Sides (see chart 1).

period. And the “pessimistic” respondents saw the
business climate getting worse in both periods.
Most respondents were either optimistic (improving
in both periods) or discouraged (improvement prebut not post-recession), although a large contingent
also responded that conditions stayed the same
after having reported that conditions were getting
better before the recession, reflecting a sentiment of
resilience (see chart 2).
Further, the respondents who had a positive
perception of the business climate before the
recession tended to maintain a positive perspective
after the recession. Of the 43 respondents who
reported having a positive view before recession, 44
percent (19) had a positive view after the recession,
21 percent (9) said climate was unchanged (which
was interpreted as positive), and 35 percent (16) said
climate had worsened in their service areas.
Similarly, the respondents who had a negative view
before recession tended to maintain a negative view.

Of the 14 respondents who reported a negative view
before the recession, 50 percent (7) responded that
conditions had worsened, 14 percent (2) said the
climate was the same as before the recession (which
we consider as a negative response about business
conditions), and 36 percent (5) said the climate was
getting better.7

Perceptions about specific aspects of communities
Respondents were also asked about some of the
specific aspects of their community that have the
potential to impact commercial activity and how
these aspects had changed since the recession.
Specifically, they were asked to comment about
(1) safety and security; (2) foot traffic; and (3) the
availability of a qualified workforce. Charts 3-5
show these responses. Respondents perceived a slight
decrease in safety post-recession. Most respondents
did not report much of a shift in foot traffic, except
for a few who indicated a large decrease. Overall,

Charts 3-5: Change in neighborhood characteristics
35
30
25

Percent

20
15
10
5
0
Decreased Decreased Stayed Increased Increased Decreased Decreased Stayed Increased Increased Decreased Decreased Stayed Increased Increased
a Lot
a Little the Same a Little
a Lot
a Lot
a Little the Same a Little
a Lot
a Lot
a Little the Same a Little
a Lot

Change since end of recession:
safety and security

Change since end of recession:
foot traffic

ProfitWise News and Views August 2013
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Change since end of recession:
available workforce

agencies reported that the qualified workforce
decreased by a little or not all.
Respondents were also asked to rank the importance
of the following five business needs:
•
•
•
•
•

Access to capital
Access to customers
Credit repair
Reliable employees
Relief from fees/licenses

Nearly all respondents (87.5 percent) indicated that
either access to capital or access to customers was the
most important business need in their communities.
Both these needs were consistently ranked as
important, but access to capital was especially
important. Reliable employees and credit repair were
consistently reported as less important (see table 2).

Business condition sentiment by city region
The poll was designed to explore perceptions about
the business climate in different areas of the city.
As maps 2 and 3 (see page 8) show, optimistic and
pessimistic respondents were dispersed across the city.
Perceptions of the business climate were consistently
positive both before and after the recession within
the Central and Near South sides of the city (along
the lakefront), as well as within an isolated pocket in
the Far North, suggesting a certain resiliency within
these communities.
Five organizations reported an improvement in
the business climate after the recession and a
decline before the recession. These “encouraged”
intermediaries work with businesses on the North,
West, and South sides.
The 15 respondents who answered that the business
climate in their service areas had been positive but
turned negative after the recession were located
across the city. The North and Northwest sides
reported declining sentiment in 2012 relative to the
pre-recession period, as did the far southwest side
(areas that changed from blue to red). These areas
of apparent vulnerability extend both northwest and
southwest from the city center.8
Sentiment on the Far South Side was consistently
negative in both periods (areas in red in both maps).

Can characteristics of the neighborhood
or characteristics of local businesses be
associated with positive or negative
sentiment about the business climate?
Another purpose of the poll was to explore
relationships between agency sentiment and placebased indicators of business vitality. To examine this
question, we first reconciled economic, demographic,
and lending data – typically provided at the census
tract and zip code levels – with the geographies
served by various delegate agencies.9 Our analysis
also examined sentiment responses with information
on the types of businesses served by intermediary,
in an attempt to consider other place-specific factors
that may affect perspectives on the small business
climate in a given community.
Tables 3 and 4 show average service area characteristics
among respondents who indicated that the postrecession climate was either getting worse “negative”
(24), staying the same “neutral” (2), or getting
better “positive” (38).10 To match sentiment figures
from delegate agencies with census tract data, tract
information reflects the unweighted averages of
data in the census tracts across the respondents who
include those tracts in their service area. In several
cases, there was considerable overlap between service
areas with respect to the census tracts they cover, and
in five instances, two respondents had more than
half of their service area census tracts in common.
Overall, differences in sentiment corresponded to
differences in certain neighborhood characteristics.
Among other things, the table links a more positive
perception about business climate with fewer
low- and moderate-income (LMI) census tracts in
respondents’ service areas while a more negative
perception of the business climate corresponds with
somewhat higher percentages of LMI census tracts.
Further, poverty rates were somewhat higher in the
jurisdictions with more negative sentiment compared
to jurisdictions with more positive sentiment
(although they were highest in the two jurisdictions
where the business climate was reportedly the same
both before and after the recession).

ProfitWise News and Views August 2013
— 5—

Table 2: Ranking of business needs (n=64)
Most Important

Least Important

Access to capital

48.4% (31)

1.6% (1)

Access to customers

39.1% (25)

9.4% (6)

Relief from fees/licenses

10.9% (7)

10.9% (7)

Reliable employees

2% (1)

32.8% (21)

Credit Repair

0

45.3% (29)

Table 3: Post-recession sentiment by neighborhood characteristics (n=64)
Characteristic

Negative (24/64; 38%)

Neutral (2/64; 3%)

Positive (38/64; 59%)

11

Percent low- and moderate-income (2011)

62.50%

100%

50%

Percent families below poverty level (2011 )

17.50%

23.20%

16.10%

Percent foreign born (2011)

21.30%

13%

20.10%

Percent vacant units (2011)

10.80%

12.30%

12.90%

Percent change home prices (2007-2012)

-48%

-38%

-37%

Percent residences in foreclosure (2012)

8%

8.70%

7.90%

Incidents violent crime per 100,000 (2012)

911

788

974

Incidents property crime per 100,000 (2012)

3418

3812

4286

Percent owner-occupied units (2011)

45.80%

34.50%

35.30%

Sources: FFIEC Census Reports; 2000 and 2010 Decennial Census, 2006-2010 ACS, and Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Calculations; Institute for Housing Studies, Housing Price Index (http://www.housingstudies.org/data/ihs-price-index); Loan
Processing Services; Chicago Police Department.

Table 4: Post-recession sentiment by neighborhood business and lending characteristic (n=64)
Characteristic

Negative (24/64; 38%)

Neutral (2/64; 3%)

Positive (38/64; 59%)

Percent in labor force (2011)

66.40%

67.80%

69.70%

Percent employed persons (2011)

87.60%

84.30%

89.50%

Business establishment counts
(edited): Total, per 10,000 people (2011)12

68.1

41.1

123.3

Tax basis: Total, per capita (2011) ($)

$106,080

$215,086

$167,144

Number of full-service bank branches: Total, per
10,000 people (2012)13

1.89

1.51

3.27

Deposits: Total, per capita (2011)
(Thousands of Nominal $)

$14.16

$16.89

$50.20

HMDA home purchase originations: Total, per
capita (2011) ($)

$942

$1,290

$1,920

HMDA refinance originations: Total, per
capita (2011) ($)

$3,106

$1,387

$5,415

SB loan amount: Annual rev <= 1M, per
capita (2011) ($)

$122

$207

$244

Number of SB loan originations annual rev <= 1M,
per 10,000 people

38

29.4

62.9

Sources: 2000 Decennial Census, 2006-2010 ACS, and Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Calculations; Dun and Bradstreet; Illinois
Department of Revenue; FDIC Summary of Deposits; Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), “Home Mortgage
Disclosure Act (HMDA): Loan Application Register (LAR)”; Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), “Community
Reinvestment Act (CRA): Disclosure Data.”

ProfitWise News and Views August 2013
— 6—

Chart 6: Sentiment on community characteristics by neighborhood income
70

Safety and security

60

Foot traffic

Qualified workforce

Percent

50
40
30
20
10
0

Worse

Better

Same

Worse

Better

LMI

Some findings did not follow anticipated patterns:
service areas with more positive sentiment about
their business climates actually had proportionately
fewer home owners and higher incidence of property
crime and violent crime.14
With respect to other neighborhood characteristics,
positive sentiment from respondents was associated
with service areas that had higher levels of overall
business activity. The service areas of respondents
who reported an improving climate in 2012 were
associated with higher labor force participation
rates, more establishments on a per capita basis,
and greater (taxable) sales revenues (see table 4). In
addition, sentiment was more positive in service
areas with greater banking activity, as measured by
bank branch presence, HMDA originations and
refinances, as well as small business loan activity.
The places served by respondents with a positive
sentiment had a greater number of bank branches
per capita, more small business lending and more
residential lending.
The findings remained similar when removing
responses from the downtown service areas (Near
North, Loop or Near South), which have relatively
more banks and more establishments than other
neighborhoods in the city.

Same

Worse

Better

Same

MUI

With respect to views on specific community
attributes, groups that serve largely LMI areas
responded more often that safety and security had
worsened compared to those who serve largely
middle- and upper-income areas (MUI) (see chart
6). The intermediaries who served largely LMI
areas also reported more declines in foot traffic.
Respondents with mostly MUI service areas reported
little change in safety and security since the end of
the recession, that foot traffic had improved since the
recession, and that there had been no change in the
qualified workforce.

Sentiment and types of businesses
served by the intermediary
In addition to relating differences in sentiment
to neighborhood characteristics, we also sought
to explore whether or not intermediaries’ outlook
differed by the types of businesses they served. The
high proportion (56 percent) of respondents who
indicated serving “a mix” of businesses limited this
inquiry, however. Still, we were able to identify
two subgroups of agencies whose business focus
correlated predictably with their responses. A group
of 12 (19 percent) respondents identified themselves
as Local Industrial Retention Initiative programs

ProfitWise News and Views August 2013
— 7—

(LIRIs) working with manufacturing companies
within designated industrial (non-residential)
corridors. And 19 (30 percent) reported that they
work primarily with retail businesses.
The 12 LIRIs generally reported positive sentiment
about the business climate, even though nine of the
12 LIRIs operated in areas with relatively lowerincome populations. Since the end of the recession,
LIRI agencies also tended to hold a more positive
view of neighborhood safety and security and foot
traffic than non-LIRI agencies (see chart 7, page 9).

than those intermediaries that did not have a retail
focus. Almost 60 percent of the intermediaries that
worked with retail businesses reported a decline
in safety and security during the economic recovery,
a little under half reported a decline in foot
traffic, and over a third reported a decline in the
qualified workforce.

In contrast, the 19 intermediaries who worked
primarily with retail businesses were less optimistic

Maps 2 and 3: Pre- and post-recession sentiment

0

1.5

3

4.5

miles

Pre-recession sentiment

Post-recession sentiment

Negative sentiment

Negative sentiment

Neutral sentiment

Neutral sentiment

Positive sentiment

Positive sentiment

ProfitWise News and Views August 2013
— 8—

The responses from delegate agencies in Chicago
indicate that the broader economic recovery did
not improve (or was not perceived to improve) the
business climate in all neighborhoods across the city.
Some neighborhoods appeared to have recovered
from the recession while others did not. In many
areas of the city that had been doing well prior to
the recession, respondents tended to have a positive
perception of the business climate after the recession
as well. This general perception suggests a degree
of resilience. In contrast, many of the respondents
who had negative views before the recession tended
to maintain negative views, suggesting that they
were neither buoyed by the lead up to the recession
nor advanced by the recovery. A third strand in the
responses included intermediaries who flipped their
sentiment before and after the recession. Most of
these were “discouraged” respondents who had
positive views of the business climate before the
recession but negative views a few years after the
recession had officially ended. A subsequent focus
group held with delegate agencies on the Northwest
Side of the city revealed that many of the businesses
in these communities, which largely comprise small
businesses in the retail, medical, and service sectors,
face shifting consumption patterns with the growth
of new groups of immigrants in these neighborhoods
and the increasing importance of Internet sales. As
long-established business owners accordingly reassess
their markets, and newer business owners familiarize
themselves with financial tools and the process of
bank lending, the recession exacerbated ongoing
trends and existing vulnerabilities within these
neighborhoods, according to discussion participants.
Another finding from the poll relates to the
distinction between sentiment and data in terms
of evaluating the neighborhood business climate.
The analysis here brings together both personal
perspectives from delegate agencies, as well as data
on income, housing, and bank activity, among other
neighborhood characteristics. The results show some
but not all instances of agreement between them.
More favorable income and employment measures
were associated with more positive sentiment,
whereas more favorable housing and crime data
were not associated with more positive sentiment.

One interpretation of this may be that the local
business community is not necessarily sensitive to
these neighborhood characteristics. Another may
be that the poll did not capture all of the most
important characteristics of neighborhoods that
affect the business climate (for example, one focus
group participant suggested examining educational
attainment or evaluating place-making initiatives).
And, another may be that no neighborhood variable
in isolation – crime, housing, demography, or other
aspect of neighborhood life – has a singular effect on
the community. Rather it is the shifting combination
of these characteristics that influence perceptions
about the business climate.
Perhaps of note for a future study by the Community
Development and Policy Studies division is the
association between negative sentiment and lower
bank activity in neighborhoods. Many of the places
that reported a negative sentiment about the business
climate were associated with less banking and
lending activity (the number of banks, credit unions,
non-bank lenders, etc.). Focus group participants
voiced additional frustration over the erosion of
relationships between banks in their neighborhoods
and local small businesses. Participants reported that
many of the large banks with a physical presence in
their communities appear to maintain no formal

Chart 7: Post-recession sentiment by type of
business served
80
70
60
Percent

Summary and analysis of results

50
40
30
20
10
0

Industrial

ProfitWise News and Views August 2013
— 9—

Retail

Service

Mix

relationships with local chambers of commerce. At
the same time, community banks have also decided
that many of the small businesses in these areas are
too high-risk and too small to offer the potential
of a meaningful depository relationship. Where
participants have seen bank interest in supporting
small business activity, the motivation appears to be
obligations related to the Community Reinvestment
Act. Focus group participants acknowledged the
challenge of identifying the right capital sources for
these businesses given low levels of financial literacy,
the abundance of “fringe” – i.e., high-cost – sources,
and the sensitivity of these businesses to interest
rates charged by microlenders. The poll results and
the impressions of focus group participants suggest
that further analysis of local-level bank activity
might be useful to understand perspectives on the
neighborhood business climate.
Finally, the poll responses point to a variety of possible
places where policymakers could focus their support
for local businesses. One set of places includes areas
that may have missed both pre-recession growth as
well as the post-recession recovery. Alternatively,
areas in which business sentiment was positive prior
to the recession but negative after the recovery may
be the places on which to concentrate interventions.
A third possibility is to focus resources on the core
areas of resilience that exist in the central business
district and along the lakefront in Chicago, and build
from this position of relative strength. The policy
implications depend largely on the perspective and
mandate of the interpreting organization. Regardless
of place, focus group participants suggested that
interventions include financing and policy tools to
support the sustainability of very small businesses
(those with fewer than 10 employees), including
community lending incentives, financial education
for small business owners, and the provision of
other information to these businesses. Given the
association between sentiment and (some) indicators
of neighborhood well-being, there is also likely to
be some interplay between the interventions that
focus specifically on small businesses and those that
support other quality of life factors that help create
a strong community. As Federal Reserve Governor
Elizabeth Duke wrote in her forward to Investing
in What Works for America’s Communities,
“Sustainable communities – those that can weather
economic downturns – not only provide decent

housing, but also have the resources to support
individuals and families and to create a dynamic
business environment.” Initiatives to support
small businesses need not be separate from other
community-wide interventions.

Appendix A

Chicago

Far North Side
Northwest Side
North Side
West Side
Central
Southwest Side
South Side
Far Southwest Side
Far Southeast Side

Source: City of Chicago

Biographies
Robin Newberger is a senior business economist
in the Community Development and Policy Studies
division at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Susan Longworth is a business economist in the
Community Development and Policy Studies division
at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Daniel DiFranco is a senior research analyst in
the Community Development and Policy Studies
division at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

ProfitWise News and Views August 2013
— 10 —

Notes
1. An initial invitation letter was sent from the City of Chicago’s Deputy Commission
of the Department of Housing and Economic Development. All follow-up with the
exception of personal contacts was conducted by the Deputy Commissioner
or her staff.
2. Some of the respondents provided multiple services, for example acting as
the SSA service provider in addition to being the CSS delegate. Some respondents
were also their neighborhood’s chamber of commerce. The City also contracts
with delegate agencies that work citywide, serving a particular industry (e.g., the
Apparel Board) or a specific population (e.g., the Lithuanian Human Services Council).
Given the place-based focus of the poll, these organizations were excluded from
the sample.
3. See https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dcd/supp_info/special_
service_areassaprogram.html.
4. City of Chicago, Department of Housing and Economic Development Agency
Directory (page 13).
5. Ibid, page 6.
6. See Appendix A for community areas. Community areas were defined in the
1920s and reflect unofficial divisions within the city. While community areas today
only roughly correspond to neighborhoods, they continue to be used to make
consistent and long-term comparisons between areas of the city.
7. Among the seven who reported that conditions were “staying the same” before
the recession, five reported conditions improving since the recession and two
reported that conditions continued to be the same.
8. Areas in green on the maps indicate places where sentiment stayed the same. On
these maps it is not distinguished whether this reflects a negative sentiment in both
periods, or a positive sentiment in both periods.
9. To relate respondent characteristics and tract characteristics in tables 3 and 4, the
tract characteristics were calculated as unweighted averages for the census tracts
corresponding to the respondents who include those tracts in their jurisdictions.
For example, “the percent in labor force” in table 4 was calculated three times, as
(1) the unweighted average of census tracts corresponding to respondents who
were categorized in the “negative” post-recession category; (2) the unweighted
average of census tracts corresponding to respondents who were categorized in the
neutral category; and (3) the unweighted average of census tracts corresponding to
respondents who were categorized in the “positive” post-recession category.
10. Column categories are based on two questions pertaining to the direction of
business climate. Respondents were assigned to the “positive” category if they
indicated that the business climate was improving in either period, except if they
indicated that the climate was deteriorating in the post-recession period, in which
case they are assigned to the “negative” category. Likewise, they were assigned to
the “negative” category if they indicated that the business climate was deteriorating
in either period, except if they indicated that the climate was improving in the
post-recession period, in which case they were assigned to the “positive” category.
Respondents were assigned to the neutral category only if they indicated that the
climate was staying the same in both periods.
11. A respondent is deemed to be LMI if at least 50 percent of the 2010 population
within its jurisdiction resided in an LMI tract; otherwise it is deemed to be non-LMI.

12. D&B establishment counts are limited to businesses with revenues between $250K
and $1M.
13. Without including respondents from downtown service areas, there were 2.7 bank
branches per 10,000 people in places with positive perceptions of business climate
and 1.9 branches per 10,000 people in places with negative perception. Without
including respondents from the downtown service areas, average per capita deposits
were about $17,000 in the service areas of respondents with positive perceptions of
the business climate, and $15,000 in areas with negative perception.
14. Annual figures between May 2012 and May 2013.

ProfitWise News and Views August 2013
— 11 —

2014 National Interagency
Community Reinvestment
Conference
Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chicago, IL 60601

More information
http://www.frbsf.org/communitydevelopment/events/2014/march/
national-interagency-communityreinvestment-conference-chicago/

ProfitWise News and Views August 2013
— 12 —

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