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. ..and, as a new study shows, the younger the mind the better
It's official. Younger people go downtown
often, would like to live there, tend to feel
safe there at night, and aren’t turned off by
street vendors, street musicians or loiterers.
The older you are or the farther away from
Athens you live the less likely you are to
patronize downtown, the more turned off you
are by street musicians and loiterers, the
more you appreciate the bicycle police and
the less likely you are to want to live down
town or use the parking garage at night.
Back in the fall Athens Downtown
Development Authority members were won
dering just what people really think about
downtown. Is the area perceived as safe,
attractive, a community asset, a place to eat.
to shop, to go for entertainment? They
thought they knew the answers to these and
a lot of other questions, but maybe they were
too close to downtown to see it clearly. Then-
Mayor Gwen O’Looney put in a call to Dr.
John Hocking, of the UGA speech communi
cation department An expert in opinion sam
pling. Hocking agreed to set up a survey to
find out how people feel about downtown
while providing a research vehicle for his stu
dents.
Tuesday morning Hocking presented the
results of the survey, conducted by two sec
tions of empirical-research-methods classes
under his and Don Turk’s direction.
The survey consists of 41 questions
aimed at finding out people’s attitudes about
downtown. It elicited responses from 752
people 18 years old or older selected at
random from the telephone book in Athens-
Clarke County and surrounding counties.
One of the most significant findings in the
survey has to do with people’s perceptions
of whether they feel safe downtown. For
instance, the survey elicited responses to the
statement. “1 feel unsafe walking around in
downtown Athens in the late evenings." Of all
respondents, 18 percent strongly disagree.
25.2 percent mildly disagree, 10.6 percent nei
ther agree nor disagree, 25.5 percent mildly
agree, and 20.8 percent strongly agree. So,
43.2 percent of the respondents feel safe
downtown in the "late evening," and 46.3 per
cent feel unsafe. The mean, on the scale of 1
to 5, is 3.059, tending toward agreement with
the statement “I feel unsafe walking around in
downtown Athens in the late evenings."
Interestingly, when the results for this
question are compared between Athens-
Clarke residents and outside Athens-Clarke
residents the mean for out-of-towners goes
up to 3.3036, indicating that they tend even
more strongly toward agreeing that they feel
unsafe downtown at night. For local folks, on
the other hand, the mean goes down to
2.9415, showing that they (we) tend toward
disagreeing that downtown is unsafe at night.
Isn't opinion sampling fun? Wait: there's
more.
Take that same question and look
at the answers according to sex. The
mean for male respondents is AW^KUtYi
2.6140, indicating that male
respondents do not feel unsafe
downtown in the evening. The mean ^ ,ES
for female respondents, on the oth
hand, is 3.3143, a not-surprising confirma
tion that women more than men perceive
downtown as being unsafe at night.
For the real zinger, though. Hocking
divided all respondents into three groups by
age. 18-26,27-46. and 47 and older, \gain on
the scale of 1 to 5 the mean for the younger
group is 2.7090. indicating that younger
people tend to feel safe downtown at night.
The mean for 27-46 year-olds is 3.0809.
showing that they tend toward feeling unsafe
downtown at night, and the 47 and over
respondents, with a mean of 3.4000 definitely
perceive downtown as being unsafe at night.
But, aha! Ask those same groups of
respondents how many times in the average
week they go downtown in the evenings, and
the results are telling, if not surprising. The
mean for the younger group is 2.3893 times
downtown per week in the evenings; for the
middle group it’s 1.1342, and for the older
group the mean number of times downtown
at night is .5687!
Chew on these numbers if you’re trying to
market downtown: young people go there
and see all the other young people downtown
at night and feel safe. Older people don’t go
downtown, so they don't realize how lively It
is at night and tend to think of it as unsafe;
ergo they don’t go downtown at night.
By contrast, all respondents overwhelm
ingly reported feeling safe downtown during
the day. Downtown is perceived as safe
during the day by 86.7 percent of all respon
dents, for a mean score of 4.344 on the 1-5
scale. By similar margins respondents
endorsed restaurants and sidewalk cates,
the downtown shops and stores. College
Square, The Classic Center, the trees
and landscaping, downtown charm
and, to a slightly lesser degree, the
bars, clubs and entertainment.
Downtown Development
Director Art Jackson said that the
results of the survey will be ana
lyzed and will guide the authority in
developing its programs
“Basically, we’re just trying to find out
what the public's image o; downtown is."
Jackson said. "We re dov.n here every day.
and this will give us more of an outside view'
and a better idea of what to try lo do better
in the future.”
Jackson pointed out that the survey
brought out the fact that a sizable number of
respondents answeied that they’re offended
by bad odors downtown.
“We’re already making some changes in
how garbage is collected, and the county is
modifying a curb-spray truck for us." he said.
Jackson said his office has an intern who
will continue to work with the data from the
survey and report to the authority members.
(Pete McCommons)
VALENTINE’S EVENING
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THE GRlW ,
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246 E. CLAYTON ST. • 613-2227
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Randy Andersen Quartet
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Begin Your Lives Together
Where East Meets West
Chef Lamar Thomas
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Spedaf Valentine's 'Menu
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D FLAGPOLE FEBRUARY 10, 1999