What The 'Coolest Political Poll Ever' Really Tells Us
This morning, the Washington City Paper (in association with The Kojo Nnamdi Show) released what they are dubbing the "The Coolest Political Poll D.C.'s Ever Seen." It's hard to argue that claim. Sure, there's a lot of the stock mayoral polling conclusions in the numbers: young, white transplants who think that the city has gotten better over the last four years tend to skew Fenty; older, more entrenched residents who are aching for a change go for Gray. But kudos to the City Paper and WAMU for asking Washingtonians the real questions. You know, like whether people who have spent more than $25 at a restaurant in the last thirty days utilized a city swimming pool this summer. (Turns out it's about half and half.)
I thought I'd pick through the data and find some results of the quality of life questions that struck me as interesting. I came up with five, though I highly encourage everyone to go and play with the data yourself if you've got a spare minute (or thirty).
1) Let's start with the most important one of the bunch. (It is Dallas Week.) There wasn't a single person who identified themselves as a Cowboys fan in the poll -- among several Dallas fans, it should be noted -- who believes Marion Barry should still be in jail. (There's got to be a Michael Irvin joke in there somewhere, right?)
Four more, after the jump.
2) D.C. has always been a city of great transience -- people come, people go. But I found the disparity between different races and the distances from their high school striking. 38 percent of those polled who identified as Hispanic/Latinos currently live fewer than three miles from the high school they attended; only six percent of white people polled could say the same. (On the flip slide, 80 percent of whites polled said they went to high school more than 50 miles away, as opposed to only 20 percent of Hispanic/Latinos.)
3) Here's an interesting one, though the duh factor may be high: those who "Can buy most of what you need within an easy walk of home" feel much safer in their neighborhoods than those who can't. (Hey, whoever wins on Tuesday: keep encouraging small businesses.)
4) Speaking of perceived neighborhood safety, I found it interesting that 16 percent of renters in the District said that they felt "unsafe" in their neighborhood -- that's quadruple the number of "unsafe" responses that came from people who own a home.
5) Finally, here's one that I'm sure our commentariat will enjoy. 74 percent of respondents who said they had biked to work in the last 30 days said that their neighborhood was either "significantly" or "a little bit" better, as opposed to 57 percent of those who didn't ride a bike.
