What do you think of Canandaigua? Soon, you'll be able to let leaders know

CANANDAIGUA, NY — The decision to more strictly enforce snow and ice removal from city sidewalks — Canandaigua property owners are required to clear snow and ice within 24 hours of a storm from the walkways on their property — came about as a result of a citywide survey of residents five years ago.

More of the respondents supported it, and so it was done.

City officials are preparing to conduct another survey, which is expected to be distributed to residents in the spring with responses to it collected by summertime.

City Manager John Goodwin said the survey is a good benchmarking tool, giving city officials data on what the city does well and where improvements are needed.

The city budgeted $20,000 for the new survey, and the hope is to continue to conduct the survey every five years or so, Goodwin said.

“We want to make sure we’re continuing to serve the way we want to, with continuous improvement,” Goodwin said.

The original survey asked residents all sorts of generalized questions on how they rate city-provided services, whether Canandaigua is a good or great place to live, and other quality-of-life topics as well as services they hoped would be provided.

That survey was sent to a scientific sample of 1,600 households, with 465 returned surveys resulting in a 31% response rate and a statistical margin of error of ±4.5%.

Custom questions allow councilmembers and city officials to gauge feedback on more pressing and hot-button topics affecting the city. Firefighter staffing was one such topic the last go around.

While topics and questions have yet to be worked out for the next round of surveys, members of City Council in the weeks ahead will be crafting customized questions to include.

Councilmember Stephen Uebbing said at a planning committee meeting Tuesday night that the collecting of these responses is good practice and he is among those looking forward to comparing results.

“The fact that we’re collecting the data is commendable,” Uebbing said.

That data was definitely used to help guide decision-making during the last five years, Goodwin said.

“It’s really a tool to help us make informed decisions as we try to govern the city and represent the city’s needs and opinions of the residents we serve,” Goodwin said. “We hope the community takes advantage of the opportunity to give us this important feedback.”

Sample survey question

A survey conducted in 2018 by the national group National Citizen Survey (now Polco) asked residents to rate all sorts of topics, such as city services, activities and events, characteristics such as education, and more.

Here's an example of a Canandaigua-specific question: City parks have a “carry in – carry out” policy, which means that all trash brought into the park should be taken with visitors when they leave. How much do you support or oppose the continuation of this policy in Canandaigua Parks?

Seventy percent — or 315 respondents — strongly supported the policy while 5 percent — or 20 — strongly opposed it.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: What do you think of Canandaigua NY? Let leaders know in survey