Selected Findings from a Telephone Survey of Adult Residents of Bloomington-Normal

 

Principal investigator:

Greg Shaw, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Political Science

Illinois Wesleyan University

P.O. Box 2900

Bloomington, Illinois 61702

 

 

Phone: 309-556-3658

Fax: 309-556-3719

e-mail: gshaw@iwu.edu

 

November 15, 2005

 

Between November 8th and November 11th, 2005, 326 randomly selected adults were interviewed by telephone concerning their opinions on a wide variety of local and national political issues and personalities. This document reports selected findings. A discussion of the survey methodology appears at the end of this document. Questions should be directed to the principal investigator, Greg Shaw, at the Department of Political Science, Illinois Wesleyan University, at 309-556-3658.

Do you live in Bloomington or Normal?

Bloomington   71%

Normal           28

Refused           1

The following questions on BloomingtonÕs ice arena were asked of Bloomington residents only (N = 233)

 

How closely have you been following the building of BloomingtonÕs downtown ice arena? Would you say you have followed it very closely, somewhat closely, not too closely, or not much at all? (N=232)

Very closely                17%

Somewhat closely       36

Not too closely           26

Not much at all           20

DonÕt know (vol)        1

 

(asked of one-half of respondents -- BALLOT A) The city of Bloomington is considering requiring the Ice Arena to pay its workers what is called a living wage. The living wage is just over $9 per hour, which should allow a person to rent a one bedroom apartment in the city. It is thought this could help reduce poverty in the area.  Do you agree or disagree that the city of Bloomington should require the Arena to pay employees a living wage? [IF AGREE/DISAGREE, ASK: Is that strongly or only somewhat?]

Strongly agree             46%

Somewhat agree          24

Somewhat disagree      10

Strongly disagree         12

DonÕt know (vol)        8


(asked of one-half of respondents - BALLOT B Š N=94) The city of Bloomington is considering requiring the Ice Arena to pay its workers what is called a living wage. The living wage is just over $9 per hour, which should allow a person to rent a one-bedroom apartment in the city. The living wage is about $3 over minimum wage and may place a financial burden on the Arena.  Do you agree or disagree that the city of Bloomington should require the Ice Arena to pay employees a living wage? [IF AGREE/DISAGREE, ASK: Is that strongly or only somewhat?]

Strongly agree             43%

Somewhat agree          18

Somewhat disagree      19

Strongly disagree         15

DonÕt know (vol)        5

 

Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Bloomington City Council has handled the contract for management of the Arena, or havenÕt you thought about this enough to say? [IF APPROVE/DISAPPROVE, ASK: Is that strongly or only somewhat?] (N=187)

Strongly approve                    6%

Somewhat approve                 8

Somewhat disapprove            12

Strongly disapprove               26

DonÕt know (vol)                    49

 

Methodology:

 

The survey was conducted between November 8th and November 11th, 2005. A random, representative sample of 326 adults living in Bloomington-Normal were interviewed by telephone. Overall, the survey results have a margin of error of plus/minus five and one-half percentage points at a 95% confidence level. This means that if 100 surveys of this size were conducted, we would expect 95 of them to exhibit sampling error no greater than 5.5%. Sub-group analysis involves higher margins of sampling error due to smaller samples within those sub-groups.

 

To maximize the likelihood that each household in the sampling frame faced an equal probability of selection, interviews were conducted on four evenings. When interviewers were initially unsuccessful at contacting a given household, up to three subsequent call-back attempts were made. Interviewers selected respondents within household by asking, at the beginning of each interview, to speak with the adult presently at home who had the most recent birthday. This method is very commonly used in the polling industry. The random distribution of birthdays across family member types (fathers, mothers, etc.) ensures random selection of individuals within households.

 

Students at Illinois Wesleyan University worked as interviewers on this project. They were closely supervised by the principal investigator. The facilities of Illinois Wesleyan University were used to conduct this project. Because human subjects (local residents) were involved, prior approval for this project was obtained from the UniversityÕs Institutional Review Board, as required by federal regulation.

 

The principal investigator holds a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University and has been a member of the faculty of Illinois Wesleyan University for seven years. He has worked for the Public Agenda Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan public opinion research organization in New York, where he was involved in the writing and analysis of numerous nation-wide public opinion surveys. He has also conducted five prior surveys of residents in the Bloomington-Normal area over the past few years. He has authored numerous academic journal articles and encyclopedia entries on various aspects of public opinion over the past decade.