So I just got home from the 2012 Bicentennial Citizens Summit, and I feel like the citizens of Columbus just gave Mayor Mike some new marching orders…loud and clear.
About 1,4000 citizens participated in the event which employed the use of live wireless voting technology. It was essentially a 1,400 person focus group, where people really didn’t have the opportunity to sway others’ opinions. The consultant asked questions about Columbus, present and future, and people chose their response live. After each question, people got 10 seconds to vote, then the results were instantly displayed.
From my standpoint, the citizens’ unanimously identified transit being a HUGE missing piece. Maybe even the single most important issue facing Columbus.
Here are some actual results (I apologize if I didn’t get the exact wording right, but I was scrambling to jot things down while paying attention and voting)…
- When asked to identify the best way to improve our existing neighborhoods, the #1 response was “walkability and transit”, which recieved 39% of the vote.
- When asked what sports related activity you’d like the city to invest in, a huge majority decided that multi-purpose biking and pedestrian trails were the best route to go.
- When asked, “What is holding Columbus back?”, 25% took the majority vote and said that “transportation issues” were our nemesis.
- Finally — and this one was the icing on the cake — When asked what was most important for improving public transit in Columbus, drumroll please…
A whopping 45% said that we should investigate rail-based transit on our way to the Bicentennial!!!
The crowd broke out into clapping, cheers and WOOTS! when the results were displayed. I’m fairly certain that this was the largest majority of the evening, and also received the most vocal response to support it. Good show everyone!!!
And Mr. Mayor, for the record, you’ve got your marching orders now. Let us know if we can help.
Thanks for posting this Eric. I was really interested to hear about the outcome of the event.
What were the demographics like? I would expect a greater percentage of younger people than normally show up to public meetings due to the technology-based format.
Maybe it’s our generation that will lead a push towards sustainability, cities, and alternative transportation.
It was pretty diverse, both racially and by age.
They did a, “what’s your age” question at the beginning, and I’d say that the peak was evenly spread from 25-55 with outliers on either side.
I think everyone recognizes the need for less dependance on cars and more emphasis on sustainability. Even the guy at my table whose singular focus was on the economy realized that “green technology” would provide the most sustainable jobs. He just couldn’t figure out how to make us a center for green jobs. I threw the experiences of Portland his way (good transit policy and green building codes) and he seemed to like it.
I agree that there was strong sentiment toward improved transportation infrastructure. I’m not sure we gained much “wisdom” from the event, however, as we were primed to believe. I wrote about this on my blog:http://waterbugblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/citizen-summit-and-desire-to-destiny.html
Our table came up with some consensus about a headline about Columbus 10 years from now:
“Columbus Sustains Itself:
City cultivates homegrown creativity to make it one of America’s most livable cities”
I was expecting that rail & transit would have a good showing, but I never expected it would show up not only so strongly, but across such a wide segment of questions and responses. This was a clear message to the Mayor and all city leaders that people want more transportation choices and that a more diverse transportation system enables all of the rest of the desired goals to happen…. improved neighborhoods, air quality, health, schools, business development, etc.
I was especially pleased to see how many attendees grabbed streetcar posters and held them up as the rail & transit poll results came up.
BTW: Most of those posters are the product of several high school students at The Graham School on Indianola Avenue. They had some adult help, of course, but these same students showed up at the Summit and took part in the polling. This gives me hope for our future.