The question is at the bottom of this Aug 16, 2007 Daily Kos thread. The question asks:
Which of these are you most concerned about in your local community?
Of course, someone familiar with surveys would know that the answers should be randomly rotated each time the question is displayed, so that "schools" is not always the first answer. But it's a non-scientific, fun Web question, so it doesn't matter, I guess.
Anyway, with over 6700 votes, "schools" is the top concern.
1. Schools 21%
2. Housing prices 15%
3. Urban sprawl 13%
4. Lack of decent local media 12%
If this question was asked of Toledo metropolitan residents, I don't think our #3 and #4 concerns would be like those above, although they are definitely concerns for our area.
Results for the other concerns thus far:
5. Public transportation 9%
5. City services (road conditions, sanitation, etc.) 9%
7. Taxes 8%
8. Crime 7%
9. Relationships with your neighbors 2%
I wonder if "Relationships with your neighbors" would have been rated higher 30 or 40 years ago?
In our area, "schools" would probably be the top concern or at least in the top 3 concerns. And when schools is one of the most important concerns for someone or for a family, does that dictate what community the individual or family choses to live in or where a child goes to school?
It would be interesting to see a professional survey done of our metro area that asks questions related to local concerns. Along with the overall results, it would be nice to see the answers broken down by community, county, and, of course, the standard demographics.
The number one concern for one community may be something different for another community. The top concerns for Lucas County residents may be something different for Wood County residents.
And then what are the top concerns broken down by the standard demos for the respondents, which I think are:
Maybe add in zip code for "location." You could drill down to see the top concerns for Toledo residents filtered by all the demos. The concerns within a zip code could vary based upon a person's demographics. Compare communities and counties on the same/different demographics. And on and on.
The top concern for one zip code may only get about 25% of the vote. But for another zip code, their top concern could have more than 50% or even 75% of the vote. That would be a glaring result.
And maybe go into finer detail by breaking down the responses within a zip code. I'm not sure what geographical or real estate term is used to delineate small "blocks" of land within a zip code. But if the address of the survey respondent is known, then the longitude and latitude coordinates for that respondent could be plotted on a map. Hopefully, the survey respondents would be evenly distributed within a zip code.
Anyway, a river or stream may run through a zip code, and the top concerns for people living along a waterway or in a flood plain may be different from the other people in the same zip code who live further away from the waterway. Also within a particular area of a zip code, there could be a brownfield or a disproportionate number of vacant homes and buildings, and the top concerns for people living near these areas may differ from the rest of the survey respondents in the same zip code.
Such a detailed stack of data could help with public policy decisions at the micro level for city, township, and county officials and help non-profit orgs in their decision making processes. And if not, the data could be something for the curious, statistical types. I mean, what are the top concerns for Elmore residents compared to Monroe residents? What are the top concerns for Toledo-43614 compared to Toledo-43607?
Is a new bike path along Miami Street one of the top 10 concerns for East Toledo residents who live in that area? Is it a top 20 concern? Forget about the rest of Toledo for a second even though that's our tax money being used. What are the top concerns for Toledoans living in the area of that new bike path? Maybe for another area of Toledo, such a project is important. But is it important enough? How does it rank per zip code?
What are the top concerns for residents living around the Southwyck Mall area? Do we just assume Rob Ludeman knows what's important? The government has been talking about redeveloping Southwyck for years, but is a new Southwyck Mall one of the top short-term and long-term concerns for residents in that zip code?
Maybe taxpayer money could be better spent on something else in the Southwyck zip code that would improve the area enough that private investors would be impressed and decide on their own to handle the Southwyck redevelopment without the need for additional taxpayer money. Obviously, Toledo is not learning from past "successes" like Portside and the Erie Street Market.
created by jr on Aug 16, 2007 at 12:33:25 pm
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current date: 20-Nov-2008 1:15 P.M.