Citizen Survey Reveals Low Levels Of Civic Engagement & Activism In Ann Arbor

CITIZENS OF ANN ARBOR may just be resting on Alan Haber’s laurels. In 1960 Haber was the first president of the radical student group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). SDS has been an important influence on student organizing. The Occupy movement adopted SDS organizing tactics which include participatory democracy, direct action, radicalism, student power and shoestring budgets.

Haber organized a human rights conference in April 1960 to which he invited four organizers of the 1960 NAACP sit-ins against segregated lunch counters in Greensboro, North Carolina. Currently, Alan Haber resides in Ann Arbor and is working on the Megiddo Peace Project. He is also active in advocating for more downtown open space.

Critics refer to our  city as “The People’s Republic of Ann Arbor.” The term means to equate the liberal politics of the town with the communist government of the People’s Republic of China. However, results from the recent Citizen Survey reveal that the percentages of residents who participate in political activism and political engagement in Ann Arbor are well below national levels. Ann Arbor  more closely resembles a People’s Republic of Couch Potatoes where civic engagement is concerned.

According to the 2013 survey summary, “Participation ratings declined overall, particularly for aspects of Community Engagement (e.g., talking or visiting with neighbors, voting in local elections, attendance and viewership of public meetings and volunteering).”

Interestingly, this is reflected in survey response rates. In 2008, when the last citizen survey was done, 3,000 surveys went out and 941 were returned. In 2013, 3,000 residents received surveys and 741 responded, a 22 percent decline in participation.

This means that the overall response rate dropped from 32 percent in 2008 to 24.7 percent in 2013.  That is on the lower end of response rates expected according to the summary page of the 2008 survey: “Typically, response rates obtained on citizen surveys range from 25% to 40%.”

The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project released a report that looked at political participation by Americans. The survey asked participants to identify political activities in which they had participated during the previous year. Those activities included advocating for a candidate or cause and communicating with elected officials.

In all, 27 percent of American adults had taken part in two or more offline activities, while 18 percent (representing 24 percent of internet users) had engaged in two or more activities online.

All the Pew Research Center’s results came from a national telephone survey of 2,251 American adults (including 1,655 internet users).

Nearly two-thirds of all Americans surveyed had participated in some form of political activity in the past year. Super politicos—13 percent of respondents—had participated in four or more political acts. Those acts included volunteering for a campaign, attending a local political meeting or signing a petition.

The Pew survey found that 30 percent of respondents had “contacted a national, state or local elected official about an issue,” double the rate of residents surveyed in Ann Arbor.

Men (66 percent) were slightly more likely to take part in civic or political activities than woman (61 percent). Americans aged 55-64 were the most likely (68 percent) to have taken part in one or more civic or political activities.

Race, education and socio-economics also play significant roles in whether people will participate in civic and political activities. Whites are more likely than Blacks and Hispanics to participate in civic and political activities. According to the Pew survey, 79 percent of those who responded and had graduated from college participated in at least one civic or political activity. Likewise, 80 percent of those surveyed who earned $100,000 per year or more were active civically or politically.

In addition to a drop in the percentage of residents who responded to the Citizen Survey, there were significant drops in a number of areas that asked residents to rate how well city services are provided. Those services include street repair, street cleaning, street lighting, snow removal and sidewalk maintenance.

The  bar graph, below, shows the percentages of respondents in 2013 compared to those who responded in 2008 and 2007 who rated the selected services “excellent” or “good.”

There have also been decreases in the number of citizens who rate city parks “excellent” or “good” and who rate traffic enforcement and garbage collection “excellent” or “good.”

Despite the decreases in satisfaction with the delivery of many basic services, 92 percent of 2013 respondents rate the city as an excellent or good place to live. That figure is unchanged from the 2008 survey.