Seven Villages, Janet Joakim

story link:http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/barnstablecitizens14.htm
click here to view the complete survey online: (.pdf format)http://www.town.barnstable.ma.us/TownManager/07Survey.pdf
By SEAN GONSALVES STAFF WRITER
Aside from the traffic, life is pretty good in the city known as the town of Barnstable.

At least, that’s how the majority of local residents feel about living on the Cape’s bicep, according to the town’s annual ”Citizen Survey.”

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Survey says

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Residents queried in February reported what they like and dislike most.

Q: Why did you move to Barnstable?

35.3% Family, friends, born here
18.2% Location
12.8% Jobs

Q: What do you like most about Barnstable?

27% Location
24.6% Community/town atmosphere
18.5% Beaches

Q: What do you like least about Barnstable?

26.3% Traffic (85.7% of respondents agree that traffic is a problem)
11.1% Cost of living
Also: 83.3% of respondents rate the adequacy of police protection as excellent or good

To read Barnstable’s Citizen Survey go to the town’s Web site at www.town.barnstable.ma.us and click on the link under “News and Press.”

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Released this week, the survey was conducted Jan. 29 through Feb. 8 by Bridgewater State College’s Institute for Regional Development.

The random sampling of 400 residents has a 4.8 percent margin of error.

Among the survey highlights:

* The majority of respondents (83.6 percent) said they are very or somewhat supportive of the development of a privately funded performing arts center in downtown Hyannis.

* The majority of respondents (83.3 percent) consider police protection to be good or excellent.

* The majority (85.7 percent) agree that traffic is a problem, while about half of the town’s resident’s (51.7 percent) consider the roads in town to be fair or poor.

Town Manager John Klimm said this year’s survey didn’t contain any big surprises. But that doesn’t mean town officials don’t pay careful attention to the survey numbers, much like investors track the stock market.

”It allows us to track trends,” Klimm said.

”And each department head is required to put together an annual plan to improve the numbers in the survey, or to address the concerns raised in the survey.”

One message town officials hear loud and clear - do something about traffic, which nearly 20 percent of those surveyed said was the town service that most needed improvement.

”But not only are we addressing it, we are very mindful we need to be even more aggressive,” Klimm said.

Town council president Janet Joakim agreed with Klimm and, she noted, the survey also indicated a majority of town residents want to curb retail growth in Hyannis along Route 132 and Route 28.

”The traffic findings are important because it provides some background for the kind of zoning changes we are working on in Route 132,” Joakim said.

Klimm said there is a variety of short- and long-term traffic improvements getting off the ground this year - not the least of which is the widening of Route 132 to four lanes between the Exit 6 interchange and Phinney’s Lane.

That project is scheduled to begin this spring and last for several years.

While most residents would agree that traffic, especially in Hyannis, is a drag, there’s lots of good news in the survey.

The survey found 83.3 percent of town residents consider police protection to be ”excellent or good” and 87.5 percent said they feel safer or about as safe as they felt last year.

”Those are good indicators,” Klimm said. ”The perception of safety and reality isn’t always the same but both are important. If your community is safe but the people think it isn’t, that’s a problem.”

Sean Gonsalves can be reached at sgonsalves@capecodonline.com.

(Published: March 14, 2007)

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Survey says

——————————————————————————–

Residents queried in February reported what they like and dislike most.

Q: Why did you move to Barnstable?

35.3% Family, friends, born here
18.2% Location
12.8% Jobs

Q: What do you like most about Barnstable?

27% Location
24.6% Community/town atmosphere
18.5% Beaches

Q: What do you like least about Barnstable?

26.3% Traffic (85.7% of respondents agree that traffic is a problem)
11.1% Cost of living
Also: 83.3% of respondents rate the adequacy of police protection as excellent or good

To read Barnstable’s Citizen Survey go to the town’s Web site at “http://www.town.barnstable.ma.us/TownManager/07Survey.pdf

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