“Physical Philadelphia” Survey Highlights
From late February to early March of 2006, Terry Madonna Opinion Research conducted two polls, one with 604 Philadelphia residents and one with 204 Philadelphia businesses. Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture) commissioned the polls on behalf the Next Great City initiative.
On May 22nd, the poll results were released to the public at an event held at the City Hall Caucus Room. Interestingly, residents and businesses were in almost total agreement in their answers to the polls, differing by only a few percentage points on the majority of questions.
Here are the major findings of the poll:
- Philadelphia’s residents and businesses are being harmed by environmental problems:
- 17% have had a family member miss work or school because of breathing problems
- 21% have had their basement flood after a rain storm
- 29% have had an abandoned property in their neighborhood catch fire or become a source of crime
- 43% have had trouble paying a utility bill
- Philadelphia’s residents and businesses see a strong link between environmental health and economic prosperity:
- 92% agreed that for the city to prosper it must have a cleaner environment
- 78% felt that improving the city’s infrastructure will encourage growth
- Improving the City’s physical environment, including its sewer, water and transportation infrastructure should be important for the next Mayor:
- 85% were more likely to vote for a candidate for Mayor who made these issues a priority
- 56% felt that this was a top or one of the top issues for the next mayor to address
The sample error for the residential survey is plus or minus 4.0 percent and the sample error for the business survey is plus or minus 6.9 percent. Final survey results were weighted to adjust for different selection probabilities and non-response.
For the full results please view the PDFs below.
