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More people than expected respond to downtown Cape surveySaturday, November 17, 2007Results of the DREAM Initiative survey of Cape Girardeau residents have turned out better than expected. As of Friday afternoon, 413 responses had been mailed back to the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, according to Tim Arbeiter, the chamber's vice president for community development. "That's pretty darn good," he said. Paper surveys mailed to 3,000 randomly selected residents Nov. 3 asked questions ranging from what is already good about Cape Girardeau's downtown to whether more entertainment or other attractions are needed, what kind, and whether the city should add public restrooms. Marla Mills, executive director of Old Town Cape, said she'd hoped to see about 300, or 10 percent, mailed back to the city. A 10 percent return on such surveys is typical. The Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce is collecting the responses and adding answers to an online database. Not all the surveys can be used, however, because some people did not answer all the questions, Arbeiter said. He notes that, the more paper surveys returned, the better analysts can assess the city's options for revitalizing downtown. Information gathered will be added to suggestions made during focus group sessions held earlier this year, as well as questionnaires given to Cape Girardeau visitors. The DREAM survey appeared to hit a glitch this week when a Web site intended for the original 3,000 recipients was posted in an Internet chat room. The city intended to promote the Web site to the public after the paper survey's deadline this week. Arbeiter said responses returned by mail will serve as a backup for those entered online. As of Thursday, 112 responses were entered online. "It's going to be good data to have. I don't know how long it's going to take for all the numbers to be crunched," he said. All Cape Girardeau addresses on record, about 36,000, were put into a computer, which in turn selected the 3,000 homes for the original paper survey. according to Sharon Gotter, a project manager at Unicom-Arc, the St. Louis company running the survey for Cape Girardeau and Missouri's nine other DREAM Initiative cities. Mills said the leak may not have a big impact on survey results. "Because of the timing, toward the end of the deadline, and that it was released to a limited blogging group, I don't think it was a major breach," she said. "It doesn't in any way invalidate the responses we got. We don't anticipate having to disregard those, at any rate." Besides, Mills said, "it shows people are really interested in their community, outside themselves. That's kind of neat." Now, the survey is open to anyone. Mills sent a link out to everyone on the Old Town Cape mailing list Friday; the chamber will include a link in its weekly "Monday Morning Memo" e-mail. "We'll have it out online for a few more weeks," Mills said. The survey is online at www.downtowncapesurvey.org. 335-6611, extension 127 Comments  Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please Login or Create an account first, and then you will be able to flag a comment as objectionable. Please also note that those who post comments on semissourian.com may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
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112+413=525
As of Thursday, 112 online responses represent 21.3% additional responses/information, 413 paper the respondents. The online survey was leaked very late in the process, makes one wonder how many would have responded if given the opportunity (and thought it would make a difference).
The online survey offered no way to verify the the respondents were residences of Cape Girardeau, so the online results may be looked at, but NOT considered seriously.
Hopefully the lesson that will be learned by the City: In the future offer their marketing research using "effective" tools to all their residents and don't forget to have a method to validate who is responding. The interest in our community/responses may be surprising!
Am I comprehending this correctly? Cape was/is trying to discover residents' thoughts and opinions on Cape's needs, but only "...hoped to see about 300, or 10 percent, mailed back to the city. A 10 percent return on such surveys is typical." Is that less than 1% of Cape's population, and would 1% be enough to indicate pubic opinion?
Don't fuss at me! I'm not a statistician (although I did work for one a semester), just wondering...
What makes the paper version any less subject to manipulation. Did they code the paper? Screen the responding cancellation stamp? The only line survey was weakly constructed but it is a start.
Who needs surveys??? Everyone knows what this town needs:
Clean up Broadway. ( get rid of the abandoned buildings and creepy here today, gone tomorrow shops )
Make it a violation for people to who do not keep their property clean... This includes RENTORS. Just because someone rents a home, does not mean he or she not responsible for its appearance...
Open up the downtown shops on Sunday.
I cannot believe the owners of these shops complain about business, but keep their stors closed on Sunday. ...Amazing.
Its very simple.
Just look at Columbia MO vs. Cape Girardeau. The differences between the two downtowns are like comparing an apple with pumpkin. -- Columbia did just recently win "best place to live in America" didn't they??? --Instead of handing out our own surveys, lets just borrow theirs??!!
swan - I suggest that it would be a good idea if before the results of the survey are presented, a thorough explanation of the sampling process and related limitations be discussed, given the outpouring of concern about this event.
I hope the survey administrators and those that contracted for this survey strongly consider this. People tend to get highly concerned and irrationally emotional about things that aren't understood which may affect them.
The math behind probability and statistics has been thoroughly proven.
It boggles my mind just how small of a sample group, on the order of just a couple of percent for a population that numbers in the thousands, can accurately project and model the entire population.
However, the key phrase is 'the effectiveness of randomizing the sampling process' - essentially, if the survey group is not truly random, such as a bias toward the Old Town Cape area, or the wealthier areas of town, or those that live on streets beginning with the letter 'Q', etc., then the survey degrades to nothing more than 'garbage in, garbage out'.
An accurate survey may be a waste in some eyes, however it is a means to take what people 'know', and then be able back it up with actual data and facts so that any future decisions will pass any scrutiny or 'red-faced' tests.