Among the students in the city and regional planning class that conducted public opinion surveys for the city of Ithaca and for Tompkins County this past semester are, from left, Sam Hammer '99, Tammy Paplow '97, Paul Escala '99 and Matthew Rosedale '98.
A survey conducted this past fall in the city of Ithaca by Cornell students may have an impact on future city planning.
Undergraduate students in a course offered by the Department of City and Regional Planning, "Planning, Power and Decision Making," polled 300 area residents on their perceptions of Ithaca's attitudes toward business and development. They found that 85 percent said the city should be trying to attract new businesses. However, just over half (51.6 percent) said the city does not do a good job of attracting new business.
"This survey provides us with some good feedback on various issues and gives us a context on what areas to pursue with regard to economic planning," said Ithaca Common Council member Susan Blumenthal, who chairs the council's planning and economic development committee.
Students first met with members of the city's Economic Development Task Force and asked if there was a way they could provide some assistance to the panel, such as by researching attitudes in the city on development issues.
"The task force wanted to find out basic information about how area residents felt about business and economic development," said Tammy Paplow, a senior from Denver. "The task force's specific request was for us to gauge consumer preferences or what goods and services people were buying in the city."
Better than 60 percent of those surveyed said they purchased gifts, groceries, pharmaceuticals and house wares from city-based businesses, but more than half said they went outside the city to buy furniture and appliances (55 percent). Almost half (48 percent) said they purchased clothes outside the city.
When dining out, eight out of 10 surveyed said that they patronized restaurants in the city. More than 75 percent said they stayed within city limits to do their banking, dine out or attend some form of entertainment.
Sixty-four percent of respondents said they considered Ithaca to be a good place to be in business. A substantially smaller proportion, 48 percent, felt it to be a good place to start a new business.
Students conducted interviews at Tops supermarket, Woolworth's and on the Ithaca Commons. They presented their findings to senior city officials, members of the business community and downtown merchants at a city hall meeting.
In another survey, conducted by a second group from the class, students polled 200 Tompkins County residents on various issues regarding County News, a publication produced three times a year by the Tompkins County Board of Representatives. The newsletter, which is mailed to county households, contains information on county issues and upcoming government meetings.
According to the survey, 14 percent of those polled said they had read the publication.
"We wanted to get some idea whether people were reading this publication and we were pretty pleased with findings," said Tim Joseph, a member of the Tompkins County Board of Representatives and co-chair of the county's public information committee. "We thought that figure was pretty encouraging."
Some students were surprised by that response to the survey, given the low readership percentage. But Joseph said lawmakers and students view the results differently.
"Students hold a more idealistic notion that everyone should be involved in the county at all levels," he said. "Most of us in elected office would feel that is seldom true. Some people take a great interest in the issues, others do not. They may not have the time or the interest to follow the issues."
The most popular means of finding out about county government activities, according to the survey, was the local newspaper, followed by radio and television.
While the course was not about research methodologies or public-opinion polling, the students' involvement in the community provided them with practical meaning to concepts of power and planning in the city and county.
"The course is about political and professional power, how it is generated and how it is wielded," said Porus Olpadwala, professor and chair of the city and regional planning department, who taught the class. "The surveys built on what we had learned about the bases and uses of power by enabling students to see who was represented and who was not in local decision-making issues."
Sophomore Paul Escala of Los Angeles was concerned by the County News readership survey results, which he said showed the publication was not being well-read among segments of the population that might be most needy of county services. Seven out of 10 readers lived in the city or town of Ithaca.
"It's clear that residents in areas outside of Ithaca are not reading this information," Escala said. "I would hope the county can find a better way to ensure that residents in these rural areas are becoming part of the decision-making process."
No matter how one interprets the results of the two surveys, however, Cornell's involvement in the city and county as an extension of its classroom has been welcome.
"We've received some excellent information and work from Cornell students," Blumenthal said. "We are fortunate to have their abilities as part of our planning process."
On the university's side, Olpadwala was certain of the tremendous value for undergraduates of class-linked involvement in the 'real world.'
"It should be made available to all students as a matter of course," he said, "no matter what their area of study."
Also participating in the course teaching were graduate assistants Ann Griffin and Norma Rantisi.