Ghost of Midnight
… about neighbors, community and Front Porch Forum
Burlington community engagement survey results
#BTV #VT – Burlington’s Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO) just released the results of a new survey that shows that “sense of community” is highly valued by Burlington citizens. About 44% liked their neighborhood because of friendly neighbors and a strong sense of community. And 10% said that an even stronger sense of community would improve their neighborhood more.
The average respondent (588 total) uses Front Porch Forum, is an English-speaking homeowner age 30 to 60, lives with one other adult and no children, works full-time, and has an annual household income greater than $50,000.
Some other tidbits…
Q: How did you find out about your Neighborhood Planning Assembly?
38% Front Porch Forum
22% Word of mouth
5% Newspaper
35% Other
Q: What do you like about your neighborhood?
52% Proximity to amenities
44% Friendly neighbors/strong sense of community
Lots of other options
Q: What would you change about your neighborhood?
13% Less traffic and speeding
11% Nothing
10% More connection to neighbors
Lots of other options
Q: Are you subscribed to Front Porch Forum?
93% Yes
Q: Which (other) social media do you use?
92% Email
69% Facebook
33% YouTube
21% Twitter
17% Google+
4% None
1% LinkedIn
Several others listed
Q: How did you find out about survey?
69% Front Porch Forum
10% CEDO e-newsletter
4% NPA
4% Friend/co-worker
3% Facebook
2% email
2% Bulletin board
1% Twitter
1% Service provider
0.2% Business
Q: Languages spoken in household?
99% English
6% French
4% Spanish
16 other languages selected by respondents
Q: Rent or own your housing?
30% Rent
70% Own
Q: Number of adults (18 or older) living in household?
20% 1
66% 2
9% 3
3% 4
1% 5
0.4% 6-7
Q: Children under 18 in household?
68% 0
14% 1
14% 2
2% 3
1% 4
Q: Your age?
1% Under 18
18% 18-29
34% 30-44
32% 45-61
13% 62-74
3% 75 and over
Q: Your employment?
58% Work full-time
16% Work part-time
11% Retired
5% Student full-time
4% Unemployed
2% Self-employed
1% Disabled
1% More than 1 job
1% Attending school and working
1% Stay-at-home parent
0.4% Student part-time
0.2% Sabbatical
Q: Your annual household income?
13% Less than $20,000
12% $20,000 to $30,000
10% $30,000 to $40,000
10% $40,000 to $50,000
14% $50,000 to $65,000
9% $65,000 to $80,000
15% $80,000 to $100,000
15% More than $100,000
5 comments
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Ghost of Midnight is an online journal about fostering community within neighborhoods, with a special focus on Front Porch Forum (FPF). My wife, Valerie, and I founded FPF in 2006... read more
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Michael,
It has been a long time since I have commented, I am sure you have not missed me. I came by, as friend forwarded to me a note that showed FPF finally combined all of the Williston forums into one, something I asked for years ago. After 7+ years, a 20% penetration in Williston, interesting.
More importantly, the data from this survey, very disappointing and very heavily skewed, frankly. When I would use the forum and comment back to you, one core issue was the ‘numbers’ espoused by the social media types, and what it really meant. Back in the day, if data from a survey posted on Facebook talked about Facebook use, you would have been all over it.
How can you support a result that says “the average respondent uses FPF” when 68% found out about the survey from FPF. That would be like a survey of 100 people, 75 reached by phone and saying 75% use the phone. If you want real data, you need a real sample set. The data simply shows a cross section of people using FPF, nothing else. Of course the average user in this sample set uses FPF.
More interesting is that 38% knew of the meeting from FPF but 68% knew of the survey. So, analyzing why that is the case would be even more interesting. Are emails read? Was the Survey announcement big and bold and the meeting not? A true analysis of that would be very interesting.
Yes, I am qualified to write this comment, having just prepared and analyzed a worldwide survey in my field with 3rd party critique. We found the results by channel (email, Twitter, Facebook) to show a statistically significant difference in results.
Mitch
Hi Mitch… CEDO might be interested in your critique of their survey. As always, we’re flattered by your attention to our humble FPF.
Michael,
I am confused as to whether you re-interpreted the data or not. For the question regarding how people found out, your data above uses the whole sample set and (correctly) states 69% – where the printed percentage is 82%. While the number of FPF subscribers uses the printed percentage of 93%, where out of the sample set it is not 93%.
It is great data for FPF, local advertisers know exactly the FPF demographics now.
Mitch
hi Michael, is there a report from this survey, do you happen to know, has anyone done any analysis? the link just offers stat results.
Hi Kevin. I’m not aware of any analysis. I’d love to see it.