And the survey says … – Two new park surveys produce meh results

The results of two surveys about Baton Rouge parks were released last week, each meant to give us an idea of what locals want in two very different, yet equally strategic parks. And those results were kinda meh.

The first dealt with Expressway Park, the amenities-lacking park under the I-10/I-110 split that will serve as a connector between downtown and Old South Baton Rouge by way of the Downtown Greenway. We’ve discussed the park, its problems and its advantages before on this blog—read about it here.

Downtown Development District received more than 400 responses to its survey about improving Expressway Park, in which one of the questions asked was, “Which items/amenities would be most important to you and your family at Expressway Park?” About 295 respondents said they’d like to see walking paths for fitness installed in the park, and about 189 respondents said they wanted to see walking paths for transportation. Keep in mind, DDD didn’t share an exact total of responses to compare those numbers to, though they did give the exact total of responses in favor of certain amenities.

Confused? Here’s what they said about the survey so far, if that helps you. To view the full survey results, you have to go downtown to the actual DDD offices, which:

Of course, it’s sort of unclear whether the survey is ongoing, but couldn’t they make the results available, I don’t know, online? Still, it’s good to see that most of the responses about this under-used 40-acre park are for improved pathways. That input, plus responses about the kind of programming and events people would like to see at Expressway Park, will aide in a potential redesign of the space.

Moving on. What should’ve been the more revealing survey last week turned out to be kind of a dud. BREC conducts an annual survey to find out what residents like or don’t like about the parish park system. But what everyone really wanted to know was the results of one particular question regarding the City Park golf course.

You might remember that the idea of removing the golf course to create a larger City Park with amenities everyone could use resurfaced recently. And apparently that renewed interest prompted BREC to insert a jarringly specific and context-free question into a survey that otherwise gauged general satisfaction with parks, amenities and programs—questions like: Would you say that BREC is doing an excellent, good, not so good or poor job? How do you learn about BREC events and activities? In your opinion, what is the most important thing that BREC provides the community?

That golf course question went a little something like this: “BREC has made a number of improvements to the City-Brooks Community Park, also known as City Park, over the past few years. In considering future improvements to City-Brooks Community Park, which ONE of the following options do you most prefer.”

CAPS are theirs, and also help to explain why this question didn’t work. The optional answers were: 1) Improve the park, including improvements to the existing golf course. 2) Improve the park and eliminate the existing golf course. 3) No further improvements are needed, leave it as it is. 4) I do not use the park. 5) Not sure, don’t know, won’t say.

Have you figured out the problem there? The catch is you can only provide one answer; and if you don’t currently use the park, No. 4 would likely be your answer, regardless of how you feel about the future of the park. Essentially, only those who use the park could weigh in on what to do about the golf course. Keep in mind, City Park is a designated community park, not a neighborhood park, so the input of any parish resident is relevant here, regardless of their use.

Out of 404 respondents to this question, 201 or 50.2% said they do not use the park. So, half of the respondents didn’t get the opportunity to say “You know, if I were to use the park, x, y or z would help make it a better experience.”

Steve Sanoski of the Baton Rouge Business Report recalculated the numbers to figure out the percentages of just those who were able to truly weigh in on this question. You can see his breakdown here.

The results still show that only about 13% said they want the golf course removed and the park upgraded, while 41% said they want to see the golf course stay as is. But considering that the question’s format prevented a clear snapshot of what residents would actually like to see at City Park—and that commenters on the Business Report story are already wondering if the question wasn’t skewed to give BREC the answer it was looking for—the results are pretty much useless.

I’m hoping BREC plans to try this again in the near future with more carefully worded questions.

So, what are your thoughts? Do you think either of these surveys gave an accurate picture of what residents want in their community parks? Let us know in the comments below.