Results tagged “survey”

The Urban Research Center of Houston at Rice University has published the results of their annual Houston Area Survey. For the past 27 years, the Houston Area Survey has tracked our attitudes on topics like economics, politics, immigration, crime and family values. The website links to a summary of the 2009 findings. So what's changed and what's stayed the same? While we are finally feeling the effects of the recession, we're still optimistic about living here. Up from 31% in 2007, 44% of those polled felt Houston is a much better place to live compared to other metropolitan areas. The economy dominates our concerns this year, pushing aside crime, pollution, and our favorite gripe, traffic. Our attitudes towards mass transit have improved, though 54% polled stated that they would still commute to work even if public transportation was more efficient. We have not changed our minds on some hot button issues like abortion. However, negative attitudes towards immigration and gay rights have lessened.

Our fair city of Houston is not exactly known for its environmental conscientiousness. According to a recent survey by Nalgene, maker of the popular water bottles, we rank 22 out of 25 on America’s Least Wasteful Cities survey. Yikes! The study ranked the 25 largest cities in the United States on “23 waste-focused habits of urban Americans” including recycling, use of energy efficient light bulbs, and use of public transportation. Houston’s overall score based on the effective points from all 23 categories was an 879.16, a far cry from the least wasteful city of San Francisco with a 1025.45. However, we did manage to edge out a few more wasteful cities; rounding out the bottom of the list is Indianapolis, Dallas, and Atlanta.