![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
ahoc-somerville.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
davis_squareSeven new Green Line train stations are planned to open in 2015, impacting existing Somerville residents and housing in many ways. Community Corridor Planning (CCP) is a grassroots coalition made up of people who want to preserve and expand diversity and affordable housing in Somerville.
We have created a 10-question survey to help us figure out what our action plan should be and how to have it reflect what the community wants.
Please take a few minutes to fill out this survey, available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and feel free to forward the links as well.
Any feedback is welcome.
Edited: To the various people who have commented, thanks for your feedback.
CCP is a coalition that formed to provide a grassroots process by which citizens can impact what Somerville will be like as the Green Line Extension arrives and thereafter. The City of Somerville has had its own visioning process and we've communicated with them, but there are reasons that we think it's better to remain separate: a) we retain the ability to organize independently, and b) not all of what we think could be done would fall under the purview of City government.
CCP is staffed by four community organizations: The Somerville Community Corporation (SCC), GroundWorks Somerville, the Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership (STEP), and the Somerville Community Health Agenda of the Cambridge Health Alliance.
Community Corridor Planning has engaged in a long process to learn what people in Somerville are concerned about and hopeful for as relates to the Green Line Extension, beginning in summer 2009 with meetings in the various proposed (Somerville) station areas. In October 2009, a large group of Somerville residents convened to synthesize what came from these area meetings and form a list of core principles for CCP. These principles are available on the Somerville Community Corp's page on CCP.
Two of the principles that were approved were:
a) "Keep Somerville Affordable: We want to make sure people of all economic means have the ability to afford housing and living costs, so that Somerville residents, such as child care workers, cab drivers, local business employees and others can stay here affordably", and
b) "Maintain Our Diversity: Preserve and encourage economic and ethnic diversity of residents and businesses."
A Working Group on Affordability and Diversity was convened to create a proposed action plan to give substance to these two principles. There are two other working groups: Green and Open Space (information on Groundwork Somerville's page on CCP) and Local Jobs and Businesses.
The Affordability and Diversity Working Group felt that we had not reached enough people to make solid recommendations on the exact problems and proposed solutions to those problems relating to these two principles. That's why we put out this survey. We're also conducting this survey in person in various locations around Somerville in an effort to also reach people who are perhaps less comfortable with English and technology and less civically-connected than we've been able to reach.
At this point, there's been enough community input that we know CCP will be working on some sorts of action steps that relate to Affordability and Diversity. As to which those steps should be, we're still welcoming input. That's why the survey is designed as it is. As we're not planning to take this survey to, for example, City government and use it to proclaim that thus and such number of people care about affordable housing above any other concern (that's what our earlier principles process was for), we believed that it was appropriate to limit the discussion to those concerns. We intentionally left space for people to fill in the Other/comment spaces with their own concerns or to indicate that they didn't have any concerns. If that wasn't clear, I apologize. Given that I did not provide this context, I appreciate people's vigilance and concerns about good process.
In the meantime, we appreciate all the responses that people have given. They will help inform our action plan.
If you'd like to get involved with Community Corridor Planning and haven't given us some contact information, feel free to send me a message, or contact Mary Regan at the Somerville Community Corp at mregan at somervillecdc dot org or (617) 776-5931, ext 230.
Thanks for reading.
-Matan
Community Corridor Planning
Working Group on Affordability and Diversity
We have created a 10-question survey to help us figure out what our action plan should be and how to have it reflect what the community wants.
Please take a few minutes to fill out this survey, available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and feel free to forward the links as well.
Any feedback is welcome.
Edited: To the various people who have commented, thanks for your feedback.
CCP is a coalition that formed to provide a grassroots process by which citizens can impact what Somerville will be like as the Green Line Extension arrives and thereafter. The City of Somerville has had its own visioning process and we've communicated with them, but there are reasons that we think it's better to remain separate: a) we retain the ability to organize independently, and b) not all of what we think could be done would fall under the purview of City government.
CCP is staffed by four community organizations: The Somerville Community Corporation (SCC), GroundWorks Somerville, the Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership (STEP), and the Somerville Community Health Agenda of the Cambridge Health Alliance.
Community Corridor Planning has engaged in a long process to learn what people in Somerville are concerned about and hopeful for as relates to the Green Line Extension, beginning in summer 2009 with meetings in the various proposed (Somerville) station areas. In October 2009, a large group of Somerville residents convened to synthesize what came from these area meetings and form a list of core principles for CCP. These principles are available on the Somerville Community Corp's page on CCP.
Two of the principles that were approved were:
a) "Keep Somerville Affordable: We want to make sure people of all economic means have the ability to afford housing and living costs, so that Somerville residents, such as child care workers, cab drivers, local business employees and others can stay here affordably", and
b) "Maintain Our Diversity: Preserve and encourage economic and ethnic diversity of residents and businesses."
A Working Group on Affordability and Diversity was convened to create a proposed action plan to give substance to these two principles. There are two other working groups: Green and Open Space (information on Groundwork Somerville's page on CCP) and Local Jobs and Businesses.
The Affordability and Diversity Working Group felt that we had not reached enough people to make solid recommendations on the exact problems and proposed solutions to those problems relating to these two principles. That's why we put out this survey. We're also conducting this survey in person in various locations around Somerville in an effort to also reach people who are perhaps less comfortable with English and technology and less civically-connected than we've been able to reach.
At this point, there's been enough community input that we know CCP will be working on some sorts of action steps that relate to Affordability and Diversity. As to which those steps should be, we're still welcoming input. That's why the survey is designed as it is. As we're not planning to take this survey to, for example, City government and use it to proclaim that thus and such number of people care about affordable housing above any other concern (that's what our earlier principles process was for), we believed that it was appropriate to limit the discussion to those concerns. We intentionally left space for people to fill in the Other/comment spaces with their own concerns or to indicate that they didn't have any concerns. If that wasn't clear, I apologize. Given that I did not provide this context, I appreciate people's vigilance and concerns about good process.
In the meantime, we appreciate all the responses that people have given. They will help inform our action plan.
If you'd like to get involved with Community Corridor Planning and haven't given us some contact information, feel free to send me a message, or contact Mary Regan at the Somerville Community Corp at mregan at somervillecdc dot org or (617) 776-5931, ext 230.
Thanks for reading.
-Matan
Community Corridor Planning
Working Group on Affordability and Diversity
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-08-25 12:11 pm (UTC)I don't know how you're planning to use the results of this survey but I would highly recommend not treating the data that you get as statistically accurate. Almost every question in your survey is a heavily loaded question in favor of, what I assume is the cause of your organization ().
Please, use statistics responsibly.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-25 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-25 02:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-25 04:37 pm (UTC)Example:
What are your 3 biggest concerns about the impact of the Green Line?
- Rent becoming too expensive, forcing low-income tenants to move.
- Property taxes becoming too expensive, forcing low income homeowners to move.
- Cost of buying a house becoming too expensive, so younger & low income people won’t be able to buy homes.
- Loss of a diverse population (people of different incomes, races, experiences and languages)
- Fewer families and fewer schools in Somerville
- City not providing services to immigrant communities
- City is more focused on increasing revenues, less on preserving a diverse and affordable community
If one starts with the fundamental assumption that rising property values are a GOOD thing because it means Somerville has become a more desirable place to live, AND you believe that the extension of the Green Line will increase property values without necessarily cause any of the above things to happen (which, I believe, encompasses the vast majority of the project's supporters, and Somerville residents in general), then REQUIRING that people check three boxes here will definitely produce statistically meaningless results. This question really needs a "none of the above" button.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-25 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-25 05:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-25 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-25 06:11 pm (UTC)Thanks also to all the people who took the time to fill out the survey.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-25 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-26 02:13 am (UTC)when did those become proper nouns? Stop that, it's annoying.
That aside, the fact you're aware your survey is wildly skewed doesn't make it OK. You're asking what "the community" wants, but the survey is squarely aimed at "... [the] large group of Somerville residents [that] convened to synthesize what came from these area meetings...". Send it to them, if you wish to focus your plans.
I'd be happy to respond to a well-designed survey about the impact of the Green Line expansion - this is not such a survey.