Survey Results Are In

No, not that survey.... You can view a recent press release for the "Let's Build the 202" survey, conducted by HighGround, right here (and read more about the group in my last blog post).... But I'm talking about the informal little community survey that so many members of our community FB group completed last week. Thank you again to everyone who responded.

So did we ask our 60 respondents about the Loop 202, or what? Ha, of course we did! But you'll have to get to know us a little bit before we tell you our deepest feelings about the freeway, so here goes:

Who Took the Survey?

Given that 51st Avenue and Baseline serves as a sort of epicenter for commercial activity in Laveen, we checked our sampling by asking respondents to identify where they lived, based on the four quadrants that extend from this intersection and the streets that form it. Here's our result:

We then wanted to know where people tend to work, and therefore where they tend to commute each day. Here's our result:

*Other = mostly retired or "all over" (or some variation)

Then there are those standard survey questions, like how much do you make, what is your age, and are you a renter or homeowner:

What is Laveen Thinking?

To begin answering this question, I thought it important to start with a question of how Laveen residents view our community, which should echo how we would like our community to be viewed. Here's how resident's answered the question, "With which of the following geographic areas do you think Laveen is generally most associated?"

*Other = a couple of obvious fake responses, not worth examining

Open essay question: "What do you like most about living in Laveen?" Lots of great responses to this one, but it requires further analysis -- perhaps even it's own blog post. For now, let's just say that the clear winners were proximity to downtown and open spaces (often mentioned in the same response).

"What are the three (3) most important issues facing the Laveen community in the next year? (Note: you must select exactly three)"

*Other = police and housing related issues

 So...... Now Can We Talk about the Loop 202?

Okay, fine! Here's what you've been waiting for: "Do you support the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway? More info available at http://www.azdot.gov/southmountainfreeway/"

*15 respondents offered varying explanations. Further discussion to follow.

 Conclusions & Summary

This section should more appropriately be titled "More to Come" -- we have made a great start at developing a helpful community profile, but this leads to a need for further discussion and analysis. For starters, a friend pointed out that by only getting 60 or so survey respondents via our FB group (N=780), my sampling might be a little bit flawed. Good point, but this is also helpful info. What I can guess based on my sample size is that I'm allowing a +10% margin of error; but perhaps, more productively, I can learn about our FB group participants by analyzing how they vary from the overall community profile. For instance, I know that our respondents skew high in income and I can guess that they also skew higher than the community for education. Makes sense, since these are the same folks who are most actively discussing community issues via social media.

What I most importantly gained from this survey is a strong reinforcement of how today's high efficacy Laveen residents feel about the freeway (I think that's the correct jargon for smart and involved folks). I can also deduce that Laveen residents generally understand the economic impacts we can expect from the freeway, given the overwhelming support for transportation infrastructure and economic development (*could be a fluke, but I invited people to respond at a time that the 202 discussion was at the forefront). And finally, we have lots more to talk about after making our appearances at the Loop 202 public meeting tomorrow. See you there. Oh, and more to come.... Stay tuned.