Combine Feature Classes while combining data of combined features

Question

Hello! I have created a hot street map of gun crime in the city. There are certain street blocks that are separate features - 300 and 400 block with 15 and 24 incidents respectively, for example. I would like to combine neighboring street blocks (there are a number of streets with 2 street blocks that emerge as hot streets) with data. The merge tool does not work - it will not combine the total incident count it will only allow you to choose which metric to keep. Is there a way to do this?

Thank you!!

SM2 · Answer

Okay I figured it out if anyone else ever has this question: add a field (we will call it "BlocksCombined") to the attribute table with a common value between each feature you want to combine. So if you only want 300 and 400 blocks rather than 300 + 400 + 500, place the same value in "BlocksCombined" and dissolve based on "BlocksCombined".

SM2 · Answer

The dissolve tool works better. I was able to dissolve all features based on street name (so all blocks combined). However, I am looking to select which blocks to combine manually. I do not see how this can be done if anyone knows?

SM2 · Answer

That does not combine the incident count related to each feature. I must have a total count with the incidents from both street blocks