The Citizen Survey

That subject line kind of sounds like it should be preceded by the phrase "Harry Potter and...."
But seriously, folks...

We received our copy of the 2005 Citizen Survey from the Office of the City Auditor last week or so. After the thrill of being "randomly selected" wore off (feel free to burst our bubble of exclusivity by waving your own copies around), Mrs. V set out to fill it in.

There are 28 questions, and the ubiquitouos "optional" gender/age/ethnicity section. it starts off with crime, asking about general safety, break-ins, whether we know our neighborhoos police officer (no), and runs to utilities, parks, traffic. Our answers are generally positive. I should make a few notes though:

1. If I could "write in" an answer I'd make a comment about the speed of traffic down 35th, especially on weekends and after the bars close. I'd lobby for an additional speed bump, except for the fear of some idiot catching air and putting a bus in my yard.


2. I read the "police blotter" in the Community Connection with much amusement. However I have noticed that in the last month or so the calls have been less of hte cat-in-a-tree variety, and there have been some shots fired calls. Some of this is due to summer - all the police officers I've ever known say that summer brings an escalation of crime - but hopefully our neighborhood will remain as safe-feeling as it is now

A few notes about the survey. Last year there were six neighborhoods (including Multnomah) selected. This year, the survey states that they are collecting answers from ALL neighborhoods in the city. Results will be posted on the City Auditors website at some point in November 2005 (link above).

Results from the 2004 Survey are here (2.7 MB PDF)