10 things they hate about you

The 2012 Vancouver Community Survey results were recapped for the city council last night, and the takeaway from the biennial survey was basically the same as it is every year: We want more city services, we won’t accept any cuts… but we don’t want to pay for it.

I’ll write a real news story on the topic tomorrow, but I can’t stifle some of the great answers people gave in response to questions.

On some, if a person gave a response of “poor” or “very poor,” the survey taker was asked “why?”

Many of those answers included concerns about what they saw as inefficient or corrupt government, poor leadership, tolls and the Columbia River Crossing.

But others were just LOL-worthy.

Here are 10 of my favorites (check it out yourself here — answers I’m referencing are at about page 90 on):

Q: How confident are you in the city’s ability to provide adequate services within available revenue over the long term? (12.5 percent said they were “not confident” or “not at all confident.”)

Respondents:

• “I know some of the city council
  people.” (I really wish I knew which
  ones!)
• “Doing a survey is not using money wisely.” (Ha. Survey was about
  $11,000 FYI)
• “Money not used wisely, all money goes to suburbs.” (Ummm… no it
  doesn’t…)
• “Need to make themselves known better.” (Oh no, please don’t. I see
  enough of these guys as it is!)
• “Information I’ve heard about in the news.” (You’re welcome!)

Q: Overall, how would you evaluate the performance of the Vancouver’s city government? Would you rate it as Excellent, Good, Average, Poor, or Very Poor? (again, 12.5 percent gave a rating of “poor” or “very poor.”)

Respondents:

• “The mayor is too young.” (Guess
  that’s relative. Tim Leavitt is 41).
• “Nothing done to solve corruption, DSHS: very corrupt.” (Last I checked,
  Vancouver isn’t really involved with
  DSHS oversight).
• “Just not impressed overall.” (Alright, fair enough).
• “Schools funding.” (Once again, wrong jurisdiction — does no one
  know what the city does?!?!)

And finally, here’s one that I’d love to have a better answer to myself: “Where is the money for the bridge coming from?”