[Excerpt] The results are in, but the hard work continues as community groups begin to dissect the results of the first citywide New Haven Neighborhood Quality of Life Survey.
More than 1,200 New Haven residents weighed in on the quality of life in their neighborhoods. The Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team, which launched the survey Saturday, became the first community group to start to use the data to create a neighborhood plan.
The survey asked residents for their perceptions of safety, how well they know their neighbors, and what are their neighborhood's strengths and weaknesses, among other questions on quality of life issues.
Survey respondents found the streets surrounding Wooster Square Park to be the most pleasant and beautiful of all the streets in the Wooster Square and downtown neighborhoods. Olive Street and Grand Avenue were found to be the least attractive.
Fourteen percent of both downtown residents, business owners or students and Wooster Square residents said they felt unsafe walking their neighborhood during the day. The number of residents who feel unsafe walking the streets at night rises to 56 percent for downtown residents and 71 percent for Wooster Square residents.
The numbers are based on responses from 142 downtown residents and 97 Wooster Square residents. The survey sample can't be considered representative of the whole, so results were used to generate ideas, rather than as a absolute quantitative measure.
