The start of a new year is a good time to ask a question of those we elected in November or or who have been hired into new positions of importance — how do we judge success for the city of Warren and Warren County as a whole?

Those who pay attention to what happens in the local halls of government know there will be no shortage of things to deal with in 2026 – riverfront development in Warren, a contentious school building in Youngsville, new and old events that seek to boost tourism and local businesses, the first year of new tax assessments following a year of anger over the countywide property tax reassessment, helping keep EMS response reliable in a rural county like ours and hundreds of other topics that will pop up on meeting agendas.

But as we look to deal with our declining population, which both city and county officials say is the biggest issue facing both the city and the county, we should look at metrics outside of mere population gain or drain.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recently suggested three such metrics for Pittsburgh’s new mayor that, in our opinion, should be tracked locally: city population under 18, housing starts of all kinds and business formations.

Increasing the city’s population of city residents under the age of 30 is a worthy goal for both the city and county. We are already pursuing some policies that can help, like the city’s focus on improving parks through community partnerships. As of the 2022 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, 31% of the county’s population is under the age of 30 while 33% of the population is over the age of 60. One of the keys to reversing our population loss is to increase the percentage of the population that is under the age of 30, and that means creating the types of job opportunities and community amenities that will attract young families who will want to live here. That includes the Warren County School District, by the way. As we work to keep the district financially viable, school officials need to do their part to make sure the Warren County School District is offering a quality education.

Increasing housing starts is another key statistic to track. We’ve heard plenty about the lack of housing, and the city and county are pursuing a housing study that will guide local housing policies in the future. Tracking new housing starts is a good way to make sure that the region has the housing needed to help attract new residents or keep current residents from moving elsewhere.

Finally, tracking business starts isn’t helpful for just bigger cities like Pittsburgh. Boosting new business starts helps promote vitality in our central business districts, creates jobs and helps rebuild a viable local economy. We can try to attract big companies here, but that’s proven to be a difficult nut to crack. We’re better off doing all we can to keep current companies here and creating an environment that allows new, locally owned companies to open and thrive. We can do that in part by making sure permitting is as easy as possible, that we aren’t actively chasing away developers and that we identify possible niches for new, locally owned companies and do everything in the power of government and its non-profit partners to help those companies thrive.

Of course, tracking a few metrics doesn’t mean our problems will be solved. There’s a lot of hard work that goes into increasing the number of younger Warren residents, housing starts and business starts. But if we are going to commit public money to something like Warren Worx, then we should have bona fide ways of measuring whether that money is being spent well. In our opinion, this is one way to do just that.