The 46th Street Mural may create much more for our community than an art covered wall. The Steering Committee (Linda Clifton, Matt Gasparich, Craig van den Bosch, Deborah Bell, Leah Eister-Hargrave, Gerald X. Diamond, Charlie Cunniff, and Eric Wahl) continue to work – even after the mural is finished. Last Sunday, April 17th, they held a clean-up of the area, and they’ve shared the results from an on-line survey they conducted that gave feedback on the mural, and other aspects of our community.
Of 157 total respondents, these were not all people directly involved with the mural. In fact, over 7% of respondents hadn’t seen the mural. When asked if they volunteered on it, 131 responded no. Also, of the respondents, roughly 65 had rented in the area and about the same had owned a home here – and roughly 55 worked in the neighborhood.
A strong majority of respondents were upbeat and positive about the mural, and the art. Those who disliked it were so often vicious in their dislike that they stood out. Also, a fear of graffiti, and the current defaced condition of the mural at Bridge Way – just a few blocks south of the 46th Street Mural – underscored several responses. Yet, 94% of respondents agreed that the mural made the neighborhood more attractive. They overwhelmingly gave it high marks for the colors, fun flavor and providing art over bare (or graffiti covered) concrete.
“bright, bubbly, exciting, a charming addition to the neighborhood,” stated one respondent.
Out of 14 questions total, six concerned the mural specifically. In the survey, 60.4% of respondents rated the overall quality of the neighborhood as “good,” (none gave us a ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ rating.) On questions about services for seniors, graffiti, vacant lots, sidewalks and community, the responses ranged widely. A majority did give police protection for the neighborhood a soft “yes” (10 respondents said ‘no’ while 97 said ‘yes’,) while the statement ‘building our community depends on each of us’ got a strong “YES” (only one respondent answered ‘no’.)
On a list of amenities for the neighborhood, answers split over the field – on the eight items a strong majority said they all ‘would be nice,’ except ‘multi-family homes’ which received a majority that stated ‘not really.’
Many of the survey questions required fill-in-the-blank answers, and these garnered responses too varied to define. As to the chuckle-heads who filled in the blanks with complaints about not being able to skip the question (when nearly every question had some respondents that skipped,) why did they answer the survey in the first place?
In the final analysis, the survey showed that the respondents are, generally, very independent of mind and opinion. Also, it showed that a majority of the 157 respondents, like the mural, and the improvements to the area. Bravo, once again, to the 46th Street Mural Steering Committee, and all the volunteers that continue to provide a platform for building our community, and sharing our thoughts (even the chuckle-heads) about our world.