Survey on South Orange / Maplewood residential development (school project)

Hello everyone. My son has created a short survey on local residential development as part of his AP Gov/Pol summer assignment.

He would be thrilled if local residents (high school and adult) could spend two minutes filling it out. All responses are confidential. He is hoping to get a significant number of responses in a week or so, so that he can write up his final presentation before school starts.

He has also posted it to the AP Gov/Pol student group, and I've posted it to the CHS Facebook group, but he is really hoping to get a fair number of responses from local adults outside of the CHS community, as well as more responses in general.

Thank you for helping my budding pollster.  (and thank you to the couple of MOL members who I know have already taken it on Facebook)

https://docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLSelGqd38YC0mL.../viewform

(Technical note: the survey requires signing in with an email address, but he does not see the email addresses... simply a security measure)

Done.  Getting down to the wire, right?  But a great topic.

DanDietrich said:

Done.  Getting down to the wire, right?  But a great topic.

Yeah...he wrote his survey later in the summer than many other kids, partially because he wanted to finish catching up from the Dover APUSH mess before he touched any other summer homework.  So he did the six long chapters of learning entire Civil War era by independent study before starting other summer homework. But he seems to be on track to get it done.  Thanks!

I completed the survey. Then I checked "submit." All my answers were switched to "other."

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

I completed the survey. Then I checked "submit." All my answers were switched to "other."

same thing happened to me. I was thinking maybe my phone is hacked or something. 

(Another technical note:  If you're not a Facebook member, you are locked out.)

Wow...thanks for the technical reports.  I've never done a survey in Google Docs (SurveyMonkey user), so will pass on to him that there are tech problems, and some of his answers may be no good.  Thanks for trying! 

mrmaplewood said:

(Another technical note: If you're not a Facebook member, you are locked out.)

I’m not on Facebook, and I wasn’t locked out. I had to sign into Google, though.

susan1014 said:

Wow...thanks for the technical reports. I've never done a survey in Google Docs (SurveyMonkey user), so will pass on to him that there are tech problems, and some of his answers may be no good. Thanks for trying!

I submitted the survey last night, and FWIW everything still looks fine.

I just completed the survey with no problems.  Clicking on the link, I received a message that I was being directed away from Facebook so I don't see lack of Facebook membership as a negative issue with the survey.  Survey was a good first attempt but did not adequately address issues such as accessibility, universal design, and missing middle.  All of these are serious housing issues in our two towns.  

Jaytee said:

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

I completed the survey. Then I checked "submit." All my answers were switched to "other."

same thing happened to me. I was thinking maybe my phone is hacked or something. 

The answers that he has received recently are not full of "others", so I believe responses were recorded correctly (and much appreciated).

mrmaplewood said:

(Another technical note:  If you're not a Facebook member, you are locked out.)

That may be my fault -- I copied the link from Facebook, and they may have added a tracker of some sort.  Here is the original link. Again, thanks for trying.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSelGqd38YC0mLUPf7ItsbekkcIRuV6lu5UCFHuXSWLc1l3ecw/viewform

joan_crystal said:

...Survey was a good first attempt but did not adequately address issues such as accessibility, universal design, and missing middle.  All of these are serious housing issues in our two towns.  

Agreed... I'll pass the thoughts on to him, as they may be useful for his analysis!

Done - here's the direct link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSelGqd38YC0mLUPf7ItsbekkcIRuV6lu5UCFHuXSWLc1l3ecw/viewform?fbclid=IwAR0qeq-H29Mo2oQbClm-U37p6oGooCyTAGoSK49gmX1DojMzBt4SlbW9Hxo

The other was a facebook redirect which isn't needed.  However, the direct link did require me to be logged into google.

Shared with all my YIMBY friends. Fortunately, I don't know that many people, so it won't skew the results too much.

My one quibble is about the phrase "affordable" housing. That term is used too often without being defined. Is it workforce housing aimed at teachers, nurses, and firefighters? (Some percent of area median income.) Or is it section 8 housing for the very poor? People freak out at the notion of affordable housing without knowing what it means. If anyone here attended the recent Maplewood master plan meeting where the Pierson's Mill site was discussed, you know what I'm talking about.

kthnry said:

Shared with all my YIMBY friends. Fortunately, I don't know that many people, so it won't skew the results too much.

My one quibble is about the phrase "affordable" housing. That term is used too often without being defined. Is it workforce housing aimed at teachers, nurses, and firefighters? (Some percent of area median income.) Or is it section 8 housing for the very poor? People freak out at the notion of affordable housing without knowing what it means. If anyone here attended the recent Maplewood master plan meeting where the Pierson's Mill site was discussed, you know what I'm talking about.

When our municipal officials talk about affordable housing, they are referring to a quota of subsidized housing they are required to meet by law.  The population you are referring to is usually referred to as missing middle housing meaning that many communities do not have adequate housing for middle income home seekers such as those you refer to in your post.  This is a problem in both our towns which is exacerbated by high real property taxes.

My son is also taking this class.  Those of you with suggestions and criticisms, please remember that these are High school student summer assignments.  Hopefully all of this will be discussed and analyzed in September, but over the summer the students are working without faculty oversight. I was pretty impressed by the questions asked.

Jaytee said:

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

I completed the survey. Then I checked "submit." All my answers were switched to "other."

same thing happened to me. I was thinking maybe my phone is hacked or something. 

Were those both on phones? It seemed to work fine for me on my laptop. 

DanDietrich said:

My son is also taking this class.  Those of you with suggestions and criticisms, please remember that these are High school student summer assignments.  Hopefully all of this will be discussed and analyzed in September, but over the summer the students are working without faculty oversight. I was pretty impressed by the questions asked.

I'm passing on the thoughtful comments to my son.  He may well end up being a policy analyst, pollster, or political scientist for a living, so I'm happy to give him more to think about, as long as he doesn't go so deep into research that he fails to pull the final presentation together!  Many thanks to all who have responded.