The Newtonville Area Council Survey results have been posted online. The Preliminary Survey Report can be found here and Results of the Survey can be found here.
Newtonville Area Council Survey Results are in!!!
by Amy Sangiolo | Aug 13, 2018 | Newton | 4 comments
Wow…a three exclamation point headline! 😉
I look forward to looking at these but before we all get too excited, it’s important to acknowledge upfront that this is an unscientific poll. Just like Village 14; any list serve discussion; or any other unscientific internet poll; it should be regarded as a snapshot of how some people feel but nothing more. (And yes that includes you Colleen!!!)
Two things that stood out on a quick skim of the prelim report and the comments:
1. The respondents were 86% age 40 and older, and 90+% with at least a bachelor’s degree (including 63% with a postgraduate degree). Newton is older and more educated than most, but that’s still really far from representative (especially for this area of the city: 87% of respondents were homeowners! There are lots of renters along Washington St!), and in a way that would pretty obviously skew the results.
2. This isn’t just a Newton problem by any means, but from the comments it’s pretty clear why one of the big challenges of urban planning is bridging the gap between what empirical evidence says will happen (re: both traffic/parking and the economics of real estate/development) and what people feel will happen… the ‘truthiness’ of the situation, if you’ll indulge me a decade-plus old reference.
Question 21 was also really interesting to me: 32% of respondents think that Newton has no obligation at all to contribute towards the overall Greater Boston housing crisis. Even if you’re against the more significant developments, to think that Newton has no housing obligation at all strikes me as either naive or narcissistic.
In addition to what Jonathan states, there are some interesting take aways from this survey. One I want to point out since the city council is considering a moratorium on the type a large percentage selected.
Q40 asks If areas along Washington Street are redeveloped, what would you prefer? There are seven available answers – any number can be selected.
79% selected: Mixed-Use development, a mixture of commercial and residential.
Of course people support types of mixed use in village centers and along Washington St. I certainly do.
What many residents both renters and owners question is high density mixed use that demolishes historical parts of the old villages. Density that is heavily weighted to rental housing and as in the case of MU4 which is out of scale with the village residential neighborhood.