Miami-Dade County Residents’ Priorities in Local Government: Part 1
This is the first in a series of posts about our journey to develop CivicPro with residents’ input.
CivicPro along with CUTGroup Miami and Catalyst Miami surveyed approximately 200 Miami-Dade County residents from every ZIP Code in the county during Mid-April 2017. Please note that there are limitations to the survey due to its design; specifically that residents were surveyed only in English and that the survey was intended primarily to inform the development of CivicPro’s software through a canvass of likely users. Accordingly, we expect the respondents in our sample to be more engaged than average.
In this post, we will discuss the demographics of our sample of residents and their opinions related to local government. Later posts will discuss:
Respondents’ Educational Attainment versus Income
Respondents’ Ranking of Policy Priorities
A Conclusion Comparing Respondents’ Policy Priorities with Government Officials’ Priorities
Regarding the demographics of our survey sample, most respondents have resided in Miami-Dade County for more than 10 years.
Question: How long have you been a resident of Miami?
The average age of our respondents was 38 but the most common age was 30. Likewise, the youngest respondent was 15 and the oldest respondent was 73. This is basically in line with U.S. Census data showing Miami-Dade County’s median age to be 39 years old.
Surprisingly, 85.25% of respondents also reported that they are registered to vote.
Question: Are you registered to vote?
In terms of gender, 62.16% of our survey respondents are female. Even though Miami-Dade County is closer to 51.6% female, this is not such an unusual result. A poll of Miami-Dade residents conducted by Bendixen Amandi in May 2016 had similar demographics (with 56% of respondents being female) and, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a 60/40 split between women and men reflects volunteerism rates across the country particularly well.
Most importantly, the residents in our survey sample reported various levels of satisfaction with local government. About 40% of respondents indicated dissatisfaction with local government, with about 15% of the total being completely dissatisfied. In contrast, only about 25% of respondents experienced satisfaction with their local governments and about 32% were neutral on this point. Less than 4% of respondents were completely satisfied.
When given the opportunity to comment on their level of satisfaction, many respondents voiced concerns about traffic, mass transit, political corruption, and crime. Other respondents spoke more generally:
“I don’t feel the connection with the local authorities”
“...too much emphasis put on tourism and construction”
“The local government is under appreciated in what it does, that said they can do much, much more”
“I’d like to see the local government do more outreach to the community”
As for how our survey respondents obtained their information about local governments, most relied on online news services. However, Facebook/social media and newspapers were also relied upon and with equal frequency when compared to each other.
Question: How do you stay informed about local government issues?