Flooding Survey

 The city is seeking help in identifying locations prone to flooding in the city and has posted a survey here. I cited the intersection of Willow and Illinois as well as Illinois and Cherry. I thin the Mill Street underpass may flood as well but I stay away from there as much as possible. 

Park Survey

 The city is asking residents (and interested parties) to complete a survey regarding perception and use of the parks and other recreational facilities in the city. One focal point is the establishment of new parks and recreation spots. I indicated I would rather see the city spend its resources on maintianing and upgrading the ones already in existance before building new ones, although, given the success of Slabz Skatepark, installing an outdoor one is something the younger residents would appreciate.

Heat Island Study

The  Greater Egypt Regional Planning and Development Commission with assistance from the City of Carbondale is conducting a heat island study of Carbondale and are asking for people to complete the survey. You can take the desktop version here.

I would just hope that something happens as a result of the survey and it does not just get tossed on a back shelf

Carbondale Community Survey

If you would like to fill out the Carbondale Community Survey seeking feedback on " City services, community programs, employment opportunities, and activities that interest you and your family", here is the link . Sould take 15 to 20 minutes to complete and everyone likes giving city government their opinion. You can also take it in Spanish here.

Gun Violence Survey

 The city has asked SIUC to conduct a survey of perceived and actual gun violence in Carbondale. You can take it here.  Will take about 5-10 minutes to complete.

I was rather surprised to see the city asking the university to undertake something like this. Usually the city prefers to go with an outside consultant, despite the fact that they have the resources of a major university for the asking.

Staying In Illinois

Caught on the news this morning that a new survey says 61% of of Illinois residents would like to move somewhere else. primary reasons given were high state taxes, state government and better weather. However when asked if they had taken any specific steps to do so, only 25% of those said they has done something such as looking for a job in a different state or listing their house for sale. Sounds like more of a case of wishful thinking.

City Survey

The city makes grants available for rehabilitation of older homes in the community and is surveying residents to find out which area of the city it should target for the next block of available rehabilitation grants. However, if someone comes to your door over the next month asking you to fill out a survey, probably not a bad idea to ask them for identification.  From the press release.

In an effort to continue to bring grant funding to the community, the City of Carbondale will be conducting a housing survey in northeast Carbondale to help determine a target area for future rehabilitation grants.

City staff will be conducting door-to-door surveys from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. now through November.

The survey will consist of demographics and economic and housing-related questions that are required by the state for housing rehabilitation assistance. Surveys will take approximately five minutes to complete.

All of the information gathered will be used solely for statistical analysis and will be kept confidential in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-579). Residents are encouraged to participate.

If you would like more information about this program or to be added to a mailing list for future housing grants, contact Carbondale Senior Planner Travis Taylor at (618) 457-3233 or ttaylor@explorecarbondale.com.

Paul Simon Public Policy Institute Survey Presentation

Caught the Paul Simon Public Policy Center's survey presentation at the Varsity Center for the Arts tonight. I got a round count of just about 100 people with the vast majority of them sporting a silver head of hair.  You can catch the full presentation on the Center's website but a couple of interesting takeaways.

Illinois as a whole has grown more liberal over the past 10 years or so with increased numbers approving of medicinal and recreational marijuana and abortion, both with restrictions and without. The attitude showing the greatest change owe was that of gay marriage, which went from less than a 30% approval rating to well over 80% of the state approving either marriage or civil unions, in less than 10 years.

Just under half of use want to cut any state programs to balance the budget, with public pensions the largest target, but still only 49% of respondents wanted to cut them. More popular was raising revenue, with 75% opting for a millionaires tax and lesser percentages opting for other methods such as a graduated income tax or increasing the gas tax. We like our programs, we just want someone else to pay for them.

1000 people were surveyed, with a margin of error of about 3.1%

Mike Bost Survey Email

Received an email from Rep. Mike Bost's office this morning. One of the things it contains was the results of a survey Rep. Bost conducted of constituents last week about admitting Syrian refugees:

For our most recent survey, I asked if you believed the United States should stop the flow of unscreened Syrian refugees across our borders.  Your response to this question was an overwhelming “yes” at 85 percent and just 11 percent of you answered “no.”  As I have mentioned previously, I couldn’t agree more – that’s why I voted to stop Syrian and Iraqi refugees from coming to America until there is an upgraded screening process in place that ensures we can identify individuals who pose a threat.

The point that bugged me about the original survey was the term "unscreened", indicating  that refugees from Syria would be admitted to the US with no screening, which is not true. 

However, no one wants unscreened refugees entering the country. Given the biased wording of the question, it surprised me that 11% actually responded "no".

Jackson Williamson County Survey

Looking over a copy of the Jackson/Williamson County Survey conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute this spring. Lot to go through here and I plan to over the weekend but right off the bat, less than 15% of residents of the counties believe that current local business conditions are better than they were a year ago. 

This despite the fact that the economy both nationally and in the state have slowly improved since the recession kicked in and 2/3 of those responding said that the state, as a whole, is generally on the right track. In fact, only 7% of those responding rate the counties as an excellent place to live.