Survey aims to redefine Cape's downtown

Next week, 3,000 Cape Gir?ardeau residents will get an important piece of mail, according to Marla Mills, executive director of Old Town Cape.

It is a simple survey about downtown Cape Girardeau.

"We see, time and again, the importance of having community input in the way we plan our direction and move forward," Mills said. "It has been very successful in the past."

The survey is one piece of Gov. Matt Blunt's Downtown Revitalization and Economic Assistance for Missouri, or DREAM, Initiative. Cape Gir?ardeau is among Missouri's first 10 DREAM Initiative cities. Old Town Cape Inc. is managing the DREAM Initiative for the city.

An outside firm designed the survey and will assess the results, which will be made public.

Mills said while typically 10 percent to 20 percent of surveys are returned, she's hoping to see a higher return with this survey.

"We made it as easy, as painless as possible," she said.

Heather Brooks, assistant to Cape Girardeau city manager Doug Leslie, said the survey builds on the results of early focus groups. The 3,000 people getting the postage-paid survey were randomly selected. While individual responses to the survey will be kept confidential, the overall results will be made public. PGAV, a St. Louis consulting firm working for the DREAM Initiative, is coordinating the survey.

Brooks said the survey asks how often individuals visit downtown Cape Girardeau and why they go.

"It asks what they'd like to see added or changed or what improvements they think might be needed, general ideas along that line," Brooks said.

Most questions have simple boxes for checking answers, though some offer an "other" category with a line for suggestions.

The only open-ended question is one asking respondents to suggest other improvements to downtown Cape Girardeau, Brooks said.

"We really do want people to talk this seriously," Brooks said. "We want people to fill this out."

Five, 10 minutes

The survey will arrive on a folded piece of paper, with Old Town Cape and Cape Girardeau city logos.

"It shouldn't take long to fill out, maybe five minutes," Brooks said. "Ten minutes if you get interrupted."

Blunt created the DREAM Initiative in 2006 to help Missouri downtowns navigate various community and economic development assistance programs to transform their downtown areas into centers of job creation.

Mills said the responses will play a valuable role to developing the strategic plan for downtown redevelopment.

"These surveys establish a framework for the future direction and objectives of the three redevelopment zones. We also hope to provide a scientific method for validating or invalidating commonly held perceptions and beliefs about Old Town Cape," said Sallie Hemenway, business and community services director with the Missouri's Department of Economic Development.

"It is extremely important to the city that those being surveyed complete and return their surveys as soon as possible," Mills said.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127