CDITT Survey Results

The CDITT Survey ran from July 17th to August 16th. The survey consists of 12 topics listed below to which the participant could respond with a score ranging from 1=Disagree to 5=Agree (i.e. 1,2,3,4 or 5). Some of the items where left blank resulting in a variation in the Number of Responses. The results of the scores for each topic were totaled and divided by the number of responses to arrive at an Average Score and are rank ordered below.

While the total number of responses was 214 only 74 were used to calculate the scores. The Table of Response Counts by Category listed below enumerates the excluded outliers which are records with equal scores for all topics of 0 (apparently submitted in error), 1 (see Rod Jurado’s E-mail below soliciting participants to skew results), and 5.

 

Question	Reponses	Score
Traffic – I think 16,000 additional car trips a day in my neighborhood between the new residences and shoppers will put too many new cars on the street, clogging 56th street and access to my home.	72	3.639
Crime – I’m concerned about an increase in crime in my neighborhood as criminals will begin to see pedestrians as easy prey	71	2.606
City Service Cuts – I understand that if the project doesn’t raise enough taxes that money may be needed from general revenues to cover the deficit and this could cause budget cuts in basic city service like police, trash collection and fire	72	3.291
Tax Increases - I understand that if the project doesn’t raise enough taxes that ad valorum taxes may have to be raised to pay for basic city services to avoid cuts in basic services like police, trash collection and fire.	73	3.411
The Environment – I understand that the trees and habitat along the Hillsborough River will be bulldozed and paved over. I think the natural beauty of my town will be sacrificed in the name of ‘progress’.	72	3.111
Economic Discrimination – I don’t like that the rents of the project will only support upscale stores that I cannot afford to patronize.	71	3.000
Unfair – I’m more than a 10 minute walk. I’m one of the 90% of Temple Terrace residents that will not be able to get full benefit.	72	3.111
Property Value – I’m concerned about the large number of residences in Temple Terrace that will be built in the project will cause a glut of property, and I won’t be able to sell or even maintain my home’s value.	72	2.708
Blight – I’m really concerned that if the project fails we’ll have a worse situation than what we have now. A boarded up distressed building will harm more than it will help.	72	3.111
Safety – I’m concerned about the mix of additional car traffic and pedestrian traffic will lead to increased traffic accidents.	72	3.194
Bad Deal – I’m concerned that with just one developer courting the city for the project, that we’ll end up getting a bad deal because there’s no competition. This may mean that we’ll have to take on more debt and payments and more taxes.	73	3.822
Special Interests – I’m concerned that there’s a group of special interests that are directing the project and it won’t be developed in my best interest.	73	3.658

From: Rodjurado@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 2:09 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: I need a favor

Hey,

By now most of you know I am one of several thousand Temple Terrace citizens who is planning to vote for the August 2nd Bond for the revitalization. Many of you even know I am a fairly visible and vocal spokesperson for the project, and while you might disagree, I need to ask you a favor.

I have said on record at least twice at different city council meetings and again in public forums and soon in print on a yet to be published letter to the editor, that the difference between the proponents for revitalization is simple. We can't lie or use deceptive tactics. Because the mayor and the city council along with the city employees must stay within the law and disclose every bit of information, they are obliged under penalty of law to tell the truth. If they don't, there can be severe consequences. The appointed STAR committee must follow the same rules as elected officials, and the volunteers knocking on doors are required to submit to the same rigors and maintain as much uniformity as possible.

The opponents however are free to use whatever distortions and deceptions they can to sway the citizens. For example they designed a website that misinforms and discredits, then they went one step further and created a "Temple Terrace Redevelopment Questionnaire" which has questions designed to do nothing but deceive.

I have a graduate degree in behavior, my wife has a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology and our training in statistics and survey design made this questionnaire stand out as a great example of how not to discover truth but to communicate bias. While I will send out a second e-mail to you explaining why and how each question is biased, it will take time, so let me just say, I need for you to log on to the site and respond to each of the 12 questions with "disagree" (1) -- answering this way will negate the bias and dilute the obvious intent to manipulate truth. Here is the web link to the site:

http://www.cditt.com/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/form.htm

Once again, I have looked diligently at this revitalization project and know the details and more importantly the people who put it together. I trust them and am incensed that the designers of this propaganda are knowingly and willingly casting doubt and aspersion on our elected leaders, accusing them in question 12 of having ulterior motives.

Question 5 -- "I understand that the trees and habitat along the Hillsborough River will be bulldozed and paved over. I think the natural beauty of my town will be sacrificed in the name of ‘progress’ " is an out and out lie suggesting we are planning to destroy the city's greenspace ... their is no evidence in any document dating back to 1979 that comes close to even implying this craziness.

While I could go on it would take some time to analyze the misinformation, innuendo and distortion intentionally built into each question. This is just unvarnished deceit, trying to convince people they are legitimate.

If the city commissioned a survey it would have to release the results. If this survey doesn't give them the answer they want we will likely never see the results. Help me make that happen.

If you are truly against the project, that is you choice, this survey doesn't commit you to either side. Answering the twelve questions as disagree will send a message that you don't appreciate these kinds of untrue and negative tricks to misinform the community.

The Ken Tozier / Bart Siegel crowd is playing very dirty. They concocted a biased questionnaire which will undoubtedly be turned against us. While I have limited experience in statistical process and survey design, I do have enough human resource knowledge (and graduate study in the field to know that when you ask biased questions you will get biased answers.

The link was sent me accidentally and I completed it as disagree all the way down to water down their statistics. If they have the tools to research my responses they may drop my responses from the list. If we get everyone to respond they will not be able to and therefore they will not be able to sway the foolish ones who aren't thinking.

Be Profitable!

Rod Jurado, CPT
Managing Director
The Profitable Group
813-985-5361
rodjurado@aol.com

"We help individuals and organizations become more productive and profitable!"