I want to share another site with you that provides some good information on Christiansburg. City-Data.com has been able to provide some information that has been difficult to obtain from the town, such as # of employees. Granted, the information is not all the most current (number of town employees is from March of 2002). Here are some samples of what you can find:
Near the top is a chart showing home sale from 2004 through 2008 by quarter. The step decline in home sales during this period is clear.
Just below that is this section
For population 25 years and over in Christiansburg
- High school or higher: 81.9%
- Bachelor’s degree or higher: 25.1%
- Graduate or professional degree: 9.1%
- Unemployed: 2.2%
- Mean travel time to work: 20.0 minutes
It appears that a lot of people live in Christiansburg but do not work here. All the more reason for the Town to take a close look at transit options.
The next section shows how much higher Christiansburg is than the state average for the number of building permits per 10,000 in population. It also shows how much lower these buildings are in cost compared to the state data.
The concept of a standard curve is totally blown away when you look at the next chart set where household income and home values are addressed.
The next section shows the most common types of industries (two separate charts for males and females). A quick glance causes me to think that without construction and education jobs this area would collapse quickly. Since both of those are affected by the current economy, once can anticipate that the money needed to run government is going to have to come from somewhere. (Also, retail sales, meals, and lodging are all likely to be hurt hard and all those user fees the town has been relying on are dying up.)
One thing I’ll point out is that the chart for crimes has two lines for each entry. The second line is simply a calculation of what the actual crime rate (number in first line) is projected to be in a population of 100,000 people (which Christiansburg is a long way from). That provides you with an estimated number to be able to compare to larger population areas. A look at the actual numbers for the years provided made me go to the citizen’s website to look at current numbers for this year…scary. Let’s hope the current trends don’t continue. By clicking on one line of the crime data, say ‘thefts’, the chart directly below will show how Christiansburg compares to U.S. averages. It is also noted that the number of police officers here is lower than the U.S. average.
3/4 of the way down this page is the list of town employees. It is noted that in 2002:
- there were 40 police officers at an average annual salary of $38,000
- Parks and Rec. had 10 full time people at an average annual salary of $34,181.
- total government employees = 187 with average annual salary of $30,841.
No need for me to tell you what I see. I’m hoping that you will take a look and tell me what YOU see. Each of us will have different approaches to understanding this information and what it means to the town as a whole. I look forward to your comments.
By Carol Lindstrom On February 9 at 3:07 PM
