Oak Park: listening to its residents

By RICHARD DAY

The Chicago suburb of Oak Park is known as the birthplace of Ernest Hemingway and for its many Frank Lloyd Wright homes. In recent years, it has also become known as a home for controversy. Some recent examples include:

• the village's aggressive policy to promote and maintain a racially diverse community,
• the passage of a handgun ban and the subsequent prosecution of a local merchant who used a handgun to defend himself,
• charges of discrimination in promotion policies and corruption in its police department,
• the closing to traffic of a portion of the downtown for a pedestrian shopping mall and its subsequent dismantling, and
• the village's ranking among municipalities with the highest local taxes in the Chicago metropolitan area.

In the face of these and other controversies, Oak Park surveyed its residents on the recommendation of the public relations firm of Jasculca-Terman and Associates. The village had contacted the firm because it wanted to improve lines of communication between residents and the local government and to maintain Oak Park's image as a desirable place to live. One recommendation for improving communications was to better listen to residents. The resulting survey comprehensively examined the concerns and attitudes of Oak Park residents.

A properly conducted survey of this type gives each resident an equal opportunity to be contacted and to have his or her opinions heard. It is more accurate than public hearings or "straw polls," which tend to be dominated by a vocal few whose opinions are given more weight than their numbers might justify. The survey was conducted by Richard Day Research under contract for Jasculca-Terman.

It should be pointed out that such a survey was a bold move by the Oak Park officials. They were committed to listen to the residents' feelings, even those unfavorable to the village leadership and its policies.

The key finding of the study was that Oak Park residents expressed a high level of satisfaction with their community When asked to briefly describe their village, 48 percent used positive comments ("nice place to live," "good for children") compared to only 2 percent who gave negative descriptions.

When asked what they liked most about living in Oak Park, 47 percent mentioned its proximity to work, shopping, recreation, Chicago, etc. One-third mentioned the people and the quiet, peaceful atmosphere of the village. By a 2-to-1 margin residents said the quality of life in Oak Park is improving rather than declining.

When asked what they liked least about living in Oak Park, the greatest number (22 percent) said, "Nothing." Fifteen percent mentioned high local taxes, and 13 percent mentioned parking problems.

Village policies with favorable support included taxes, the police force and racial diversity. Generally residents we were satisfied, if not overly so, with the value they receive for the taxes they pay. Seventeen percent said they are an excellent value, while 52 percent said they are a good value. Almost 70 percent said they would not prefer paying less in taxes if it meant receiving less in services. The police force was the village service most highly regarded, especially among older white and newer black residents, and two-thirds of the residents said that Oak Park's policy of promoting racial diversity needed to be continued.

Residents did have concerns, however. One is the village's economic development efforts, especially those to bring in more shops and stores. Another is crime. Of a number of issues tested, crime was the most important to 35 percent of of respondents; black and older residents were even more concerned about crime.

The survey also indicated that the village needs programs to encourage citizen participation since over half (53 percent) said that, while they have never served the village in any capacity, they would like to.

Great care was taken in designing the

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survey. Local newspaper editors, village manager Neil Nielsen, members of the Village Board and key village staff were consulted. After revisions and a pre-test, the agreed upon final design used both open-and close-ended questions. Open-ended questions were used at the beginning of the questionnaire to get a sense of the residents' concerns and priorities. These questions solicit answers without influence. For example: In one or two words, how would you describe Oak Park? What do you like most about living in Oak Park? What do you like least about living in Oak Park?

Close-ended questions were used to test specific issues and concerns. These questions covered such items as:

• a priority ranking of issues facing the village,
• the level of satisfaction with specific villageservices and taxes,
• the responsiveness of village government,
• attitudes towards racial diversity and towards the policies used to promote it in Oak Park, and
• evaluation of the current state of economic development in the village as well as future options.

In all, 615 residents were interviewed between October 29 and November 11. Special care was taken to ensure that every resident had an equal chance of being selected: Random digit dialing was used to include those with unlisted phone numbers, selected numbers were called up to four times to reach those seldom at home, appointments were made at the respondent's convenience, and a number of interviews were completed with those who had initially refused to complete the survey. Care was also taken to check that the sample of respondents reflected Oak Park's actual proportion of residents by race, education, region and whether they owned or rented their homes.

Oak Park village officials now know that an underlying consensus exists on most of its controversial issues. They also now have a sense of residents' priorities. With that knowledge, they will be better able to serve the residents.

Co-author of this column with Richard Day is John Ross, and both are with the survey research firm, Richard Day Research, in Evanston.

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