Remember the awesome 2010 City of Santa Clarita public opinion survey that shockingly found that SCVers pined for -above all else- a Cheescake Factory? Well, move over 2010, because the 2012 Santa Clarita Public Opinion survey is here and the Cheesecake Factory has been pushed aside in favor of.....Applebee's?
I'll break the poll results down into sections with commentary, but first, let me give you a broad overview of the poll and its methodology.
SAMPLE SIZE & METHODOLOGY
400 adult residents were surveyed by telephone. The margin of error is +/- 4.9, which comes with the territory for such a small sample size. The questions were asked between August 5-7 and locations were as follows: 30% Canyon Country, 19% Newhall, 20% Saugus, and 30% Valencia. The largest age group responding was 45-54 years olds (22%). Most of the questions are given using a five point Likert answer scale (rating 5-1, strongly favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable, strongly unfavorable).
SUMMARY
Now for the broad stroke summary of this sample group (Because I'm not sure 400 respondents can represent 250,000 people): Most respondents are Republicans or independents (74%) who dislike/distrust/think poorly of the federal and state governments but trust and like the City of Santa Clarita. They have lived here for 11-21+ years, and moved here because of 1) job, 2) schools, 3) low crime. Three out of four of them own a home, and a little over half work outside the City. 47% get their news from old fashioned paper newspapers (and 62% of those get it from The Signal), while only 16% trust Social media and blogs. Last but not least, our respondent group digs Applebee's above all else. Half of us, perhaps disastrously, know nothing about Cemex.
DETAILS
Government Performance:
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Survey Says: SCVers want an Applebee's
I'll break the poll results down into sections with commentary, but first, let me give you a broad overview of the poll and its methodology.
400 adult residents were surveyed by telephone. The margin of error is +/- 4.9, which comes with the territory for such a small sample size. The questions were asked between August 5-7 and locations were as follows: 30% Canyon Country, 19% Newhall, 20% Saugus, and 30% Valencia. The largest age group responding was 45-54 years olds (22%). Most of the questions are given using a five point Likert answer scale (rating 5-1, strongly favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable, strongly unfavorable).
SUMMARY
Now for the broad stroke summary of this sample group (Because I'm not sure 400 respondents can represent 250,000 people): Most respondents are Republicans or independents (74%) who dislike/distrust/think poorly of the federal and state governments but trust and like the City of Santa Clarita. They have lived here for 11-21+ years, and moved here because of 1) job, 2) schools, 3) low crime. Three out of four of them own a home, and a little over half work outside the City. 47% get their news from old fashioned paper newspapers (and 62% of those get it from The Signal), while only 16% trust Social media and blogs. Last but not least, our respondent group digs Applebee's above all else. Half of us, perhaps disastrously, know nothing about Cemex.
DETAILS
Government Performance:
- 52% strongly/somewhat disapprove of the "services currently being provided by the United States Federal Government." An odd way to ask the question in my opinion.
- 64% strongly/somewhat disapprove of the "services currently being provided by the State of California"
- An equal number of respondents (45%) said they approve/disapprove of the County's services
- But a full 82% said they strongly/somewhat approve of the "services currently being provided by the City of Santa Clarita." That's an outstanding, headline-busting number for the City staff & Council to be proud of
- Regarding the City, 66% gave 4-5 points out of 5 on the stability of the City's finances. Pulskamp is going out on a high note.
Library Blowback
In 2012, is there any public blowback against the library seizure and takeover? Some would argue the City's seizure of the LACO libraries propelled TimBen Boydston into office, marking the first time a Mayor has been ousted from the City Council. Well, the results don't seem to support that idea. So who voted in April?
- Only 29% of respondents have visited a City of Santa Clarita public library in the last two to three months. 32% of respondents haven't visited a local library in more than a year, but I think it's been long enough since the takeover for this question to be valid.
- But 82% of respondents say the "quality of the Santa Clarita City Public Library" was 4 or 5 on a 5 point scale. Those are good marks
Specific Issues/Problems the City has to manage
How about specific problems? What do the respondents think of the following problems?
- Maintaining streets and roads: 69% give the city excellent/good marks
- Protecting air quality: 47% give excellent/good marks, 30% give fair/moderate
- Only 47% gave Excellent/Good marks on controlling development
- 90% gave excellent/good marks on the City's parks and maintenance of those parks
- Night time vs family entertainment: the survey group is broadly happy about the availability of family entertainment (70%) but only 36% are happy about night time entertainment
- Relatively low marks (42%) on the City's efforts at attracting new jobs
Shopping Habits
- 81% of respondents were very or somewhat satisfied with "restaurants and stores in the SCV." I wish I could look up the old survey because I think this is a big improvement over the survey two years ago. Consider that the last survey was done just as the Patios were opening at the Mall.
- Applebee's is the most pined after restaurant (34%), far above 2010's most-desired choice, Cheesecake Factory (6%). Seriously people, I kind of understand Cheesecake Factory. It's the super-chain restaurant, with every meal under the sun. But Applebee's? 1) I'd rather it at Chili's, 2) we already had one and it went bust, and 3) really? Applebee's? That's what my Midwestern relatives consider fine dining.
- Only 2% wanted "privately-owned/less corporate/chains." Sorry foodies, you're way out-numbered.
- 6% wanted a Nordstrom's, which means I think we can finally put a stake in the idea of handing out corporate welfare in order to attract a Nordstrom's
- The City has to be happy about this number: 71% of respondents say they shop locally for a new car or truck. I think that's an improvement over 2010's numbers. Nice work. I bought my SkyActiv Mazda3 at Galpin Mazda in February and got a fair deal with a handshake from an Iranian ex-pat salesman. Awesome.
Trust in Institutions
- The City of Santa Clarita is the most trusted source handing out "believable information" in the SCV according to our respondent group. 80% say they somewhat or strongly trust the information coming out of City Hall. That's a really high number for a group that's so skeptical of the federal and state governments.
- The next most trusted institution is the SCV Chamber of Commerce, with 74% somewhat or strongly trusting its information. Wow. My impression of our Chamber is that it's quite dysfunctional and ineffective.
- That's followed by CLWA (72%), SCV Sanitation District (67%), the County (49%) and the Federal Bureau of Land Management (51%). SCOPE & Sierra Club fans despair because only 38% and 43% of respondents trusted those groups respectively. On the other hand, barely one in three trust realtors (37%)
Media
- 47% of our respondents "go to receive information about local issues in the Santa Clarita Valley" from old fashioned print newspapers. Of those, God help us, 62% go to the Signal.
- Scary: You ever wonder why old fashioned chain letters/emails seem to prosper in the SCV? I highlighted many on the old site. Well 44% of our respondents get their news about the SCV from "conversations with friends and family." 100% of those letters were in all caps with lots of exclamation marks (Just kidding)
- Online, the picture is a bit different. Only 32% of online readers of newspapers go to the Signal.com. The rest go to an unspecified "Other" (SCVTalk/Notes From Newhall perhaps?). 20% go to the LA Times or Daily News websites.
- Television is about equal across all the local affiliates. But 13% go to "Santa Clarita," which could mean SCVTV Channel 20, but it isn't specified
- As for Social media: Of the 16% who get their news from social media, 66% get it from Facebook and only 4% from Twitter. Ray, you chose a good space to build your local news group
- As for blogs: Disappointingly no real local blogs are mentioned. 9% get their news from Local(Non-Specific) blogs. Look at it this way, that makes you elite!
CEMEX:
Bad results on the CEMEX front. It's hard to believe we've been battling the Mexican mining giant for a decade and not even half of us know what it's about.
Work/General:
Bad results on the CEMEX front. It's hard to believe we've been battling the Mexican mining giant for a decade and not even half of us know what it's about.
- 39% of respondents have heard NOTHING about Cemex, while 12% have heard very little. That's 51% of respondents who don't know jack about the mega-mine, despite all these years that the City has fought it
- On the trust angle, 63% of respondents didn't like what they heard about the Cemex project when the interviewer read them details of it. But 73% said they'd oppose it if they knew that the City of Santa Clarita opposed it
- Perhaps these results explain why Buck McKeon isn't so hot on fighting Cemex. Where's the upside for him? If we liberally extrapolate these results, half this town doesn't know anything about Cemex
Work/General:
- 52% of respondents work outside the SCV. 36% of them spend 31-45 minutes in commute, 23% spend more than 45 minutes commuting. I doubt this number has changed much over 2010
- 48% were male, 52% were female
- Only 1 in 4 respondents were Democrats. 36% self-id'd as Republicans, 38% as "Something Else/Independent"
Overall, a really interesting poll, wouldn't you say? Our respondents dislike and distrust most governments except the City, they want to Eat Good in the Neighborhood, they moved here not because of schools primarily but because of their jobs, and they're happy with the shopping environment. They also express really really high trust in the City as an institution, which should cause us all to reflect.
What do you think of the results? Send me your feedback at jeff at scvtalk.com and let's see what the group thinks.
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