City of Charlottesville Neighborhood Planning Needs Survey, 2006

DESCRIPTION: Citywide survey of Charlottesville on quality of life issues, especially those concerning their neighborhood. Principal investigator, Thomas Guterbock of the Center for Survey Research. The Institutional representative for the City of Charlottesville in the development of the survey was Mr. Jim Tolbert, Director of Neighborhood Development Services.

• PDF of the Final Report for 2006, Click Here
• PDF of the Final Report Appendices, Click Here
• Powerpoint Presentation, Click Here
• Sample: 1000 randomly selected directory-listed Charlottesville households targeted by neighborhood
• Sponsor: City of Charlotteville
• Principal Investigator: Thomas Guterbock, Ph.D.
• Click here to visit the City of Charlottesville website
• results presented to the City Council at a public meeting in 2006.

BELOW IS TEXT PROVIDED TO OUR INTERVIEWERS TO GUIDE THEM IN ANSWERING INQUIRIES DURING THE COURSE OF A TELEPHONE INTERVIEW

RESPONSES TO QUERIES

Why should I participate?

The City of Charlottesville makes decisions based on the results of this study.  This is your opportunity to voice your opinions and to make suggestions to the City on what you think is important.

How did you get my phone number?

We used a random-digit dialing method in order to get a statistically valid sample.  Your number had the same chance of being picked by our computer as any other working residential number in the City of Charlottesville.  We do not know your name or address. In addition, some numbers were drawn from the local telephone directories.

Why do you want to talk to the person with the next birthday?

The method allows us to make sure that every adult in each household has the same chance of doing our survey.  We know that people in the same household don’t always have the same opinions.  If we always talked to the first person answering the phone, we would not get a truly representative sample of City residents.

Why didn’t you ask me about ....?

To keep the interviews from getting too long, we are asking certain questions the City of Charlottesville feels are most relevant to the population in this year’s survey. If you have something that you think needs to be added to the survey, we can make a note of it and suggest these for future surveys.

Who is sponsoring the survey?

This survey is sponsored by the City of Charlottesville. The questions were prepared by the City’s Neighborhood Development Services.  The results will be presented to the City Council at a public meeting in the Spring 2006.

Why are you calling me from the University of Virginia?

The City asked the University of Virginia's Center for Survey Research to conduct this survey to be sure that the results are objective and scientific. Our interviewers are UVA students or UVA temps, so you can give your honest opinions about the City’s services.

What about confidentiality?

The results from all our interviews will be put together in a statistical report.  No one we interview will be identified in the report and no telephone numbers will be given to the City.  We dialed your number at random.

Why do you want to know my address?

We want that information so we can compare neighborhoods to see if there is a problem in a particular area that the government should give more attention to.

I still have questions, who can tell me more?

If you'd like to know more, you can contact the Neighborhood Development Services at 434 970-3182, you can talk to my supervisor now, contact Tom Guterbock or Robin Bebel at the Center for Survey Research (434) 243-5222 or 1-800-CSR-POLL (277-7655).  I can have someone get back to you if you prefer.

How can I get the results?

In the spring, results will be presented in a written report to the City Council at one of its public meetings.  Also, watch for newspaper articles about the survey.  It will be posted on CSR’s website, which can be located at http://www.virginia.edu/surveys and on the City’s web at:  http://www.charlottesville.org.  Also if you are interested in the issues of the comprehensive plan please visit http://www.charlottesville.org.