Agenda - Council - 02/09/1988 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

.'$ Survey ';~Contlnued from Page 1 (90 percent.) ..tor of community development for The city found out that half the .1 Cottage Grove, which is finishing residents favor development of a ;its first survey done by an outside municipal golf course, which has firm. . led the city to start a feasibility And using an outside firm to poll study on the proposal. The popular- . residents also removes any appear- ityof swimming among residents . ance of bias in the results, accord- also has prompted the city to in. ",ing to Ken Vraa, park director for elude a man-made swimming lake ",Eagan, which recently picked De- in its plans for a new community' cision Resources to do a survey on center. park issues. And demographic information _ "A good thing about a survey culled from telephone interviews like this is it's a random sample so of 400 people from a population of you don't get an extreme from peo. slightly more than 20,000 residents . pIe who are really happy, or are showed the presence of a "two- really unhappy," Roseville admin- tiered society" between long-time istrativeassistant Ron Moorse residents and newcomers. ' said. The survey, which has an error Just as in the business world, factor of plus or minus 5 percent, government officials say they need reports th~t r~cent newcomers market research to find out what now are more lIkely to be better- the consumer wants so they can ..... educated, . have white-collar . '~spend their liniited tax money on > make more money and are . what is most desired.' .. ed from farther away to move to "We're all in the service busi:Inver G!ove H~ights..Those that ness. The question is how well are ;-. ~oved 10 preVIously were more_ delivering services," Shoreview,c: lIkely. to be. blue-collar and from Richard Wedell said. '.'You,:z:;;the nelghbonng su~urbs of West be trapped doing something > ,Paul and South St. Paul,. the same way you did before, but to the survey. . . your population is changing." The study also found that reSI- A survey done by government dents who live~, i~ the cit~ for six for residents also "passes some of to 20 y~ars dId not lIke the .. the influence back down to the con_changes In development and new- . . comers." . sumer of government serVICes" 10- . "It's like 'we've been discovered stead of b~r~aucrats saying, 'Y~ so to speak by other people from know ,,!hat s rIght for ~he people: other walks of life," Inver Grove acco.rdmg to Pa~l Rle~esel, VIce Heights Mayor William Saed said presIdent f~r Mld-~ontment Re- of the recent immigration of white- search, .a MinneapolIs market re- collar professionals. But he said he se:rch ~lIn~. , . hasn't noticed any alienation be- l thmk It s an effort to fmd out tween different groups of people in where. ~our re~idents are, rather the city. . than Sit .1~,YOU~ Ivory tower and try " In Roseville, Decision Resources to guess, said !3ruce Anderson"got generally positive results in a Inver ~rov~ Heights parks and survey in the spring to see recreabon director. well the city responded to the con- Anderson said Inver Grove cerns raised in a 1979 survey and if Heights hired Deeisi?n Resources any new concerns have cropped up. in 1985 to sun:ey residents. on haz- Moorse said responses from the ardous waste ..ssu~ and. hired the city's growing number of senior company. agam t~IS sprl~g ~o get citizens who say they want to. con- info~atton to gu~de the CIty s new tinue to. live in their homes may parks and recreatton department. prompt the city to look' at pro- The results ranged from how grams to help the elderly maintain many residents don't play basket- their houses. ball (88 percent,. making it the In Shoreview's case,. a survey in .<least popular. participant. sport) . to . the spring also showed the commu- . how many thmk the quahty of hfe . nity was generally. satisfied with in the city is."good" or "excellent" city services. . ~"