A Place Proud to Call Home
By Marvin Miller, AIB President
We recently received a note about a study completed by the Gallup organization that was funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which has created quite a stir. Called the “Soul of the Community,” the study summarized the findings of 43,000 interviews over the last 3 years, conducted in 26 cities across the United States. Specifically trying to find the factors influencing passion for and loyalty to a community, the survey asked residents questions such as what makes residents love where they live and what draws people to a place and keeps them there.
The study provides empirical evidence that the drivers creating emotional bonds between people and their community are consistent in virtually every city. Furthermore, these drivers can be reduced to just a few issues. Surprisingly, the issues relating to jobs, the overall business economy, safety, and education were not at the top of the list. Instead, higher ratings were given to an area’s physical beauty, opportunities for socializing, and a community’s openness to all types of people.
The study also showed that the communities with the highest levels of “attachment” also had the highest rates of gross domestic product growth. Hence, a sense of community and economic benefits go hand-in-hand. The study proved a link between employee engagement in the workplace, which has positive business outcomes such as increased productivity, profitability, and employee retention, and highly attached residents, who are more likely to contribute actively to a community’s growth.
The cause and effect is not exactly clear, but the study found very high correlations between highly attached residents and their desires to stay in and contribute to their communities. The study found highly attached residents were more likely to see their communities as being open to many kinds of people. Attachment was also higher when residents perceived their communities as providing more social offerings and aesthetics they enjoyed. When residents enjoyed the communities’ offerings, they were more likely to spend money on local activities and with local businesses.
Naturally, of particular interest to our America in Bloom family is the ranking of aesthetics. The study defined aesthetics as the physical beauty of the community, including the availability of parks, playgrounds, trails, and other green spaces. Though the overall correlation factor placed this in third place, 6 of the 26 communities studied placed this criterion in a tie for first place with the availability of social offerings in their 2010 rankings. Another 17 communities placed aesthetics in second place, either alone or tied with the community’s openness to different types of people. Aesthetics never ranked third in any one community’s rankings, but three communities did place aesthetics in fourth among the 10 criteria considered.
In any case, this study provides plenty of fodder to suggest aesthetics are more important to a city’s success as a community than some may have thought. Of course, we at America in Bloom have been arguing this point for some time. That’s why our tagline is “Planting Pride in Our Communities!”
We recently received a note about a study completed by the Gallup organization that was funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which has created quite a stir. Called the “Soul of the Community,” the study summarized the findings of 43,000 interviews over the last 3 years, conducted in 26 cities across the United States. Specifically trying to find the factors influencing passion for and loyalty to a community, the survey asked residents questions such as what makes residents love where they live and what draws people to a place and keeps them there.
The study provides empirical evidence that the drivers creating emotional bonds between people and their community are consistent in virtually every city. Furthermore, these drivers can be reduced to just a few issues. Surprisingly, the issues relating to jobs, the overall business economy, safety, and education were not at the top of the list. Instead, higher ratings were given to an area’s physical beauty, opportunities for socializing, and a community’s openness to all types of people.
The study also showed that the communities with the highest levels of “attachment” also had the highest rates of gross domestic product growth. Hence, a sense of community and economic benefits go hand-in-hand. The study proved a link between employee engagement in the workplace, which has positive business outcomes such as increased productivity, profitability, and employee retention, and highly attached residents, who are more likely to contribute actively to a community’s growth.
The cause and effect is not exactly clear, but the study found very high correlations between highly attached residents and their desires to stay in and contribute to their communities. The study found highly attached residents were more likely to see their communities as being open to many kinds of people. Attachment was also higher when residents perceived their communities as providing more social offerings and aesthetics they enjoyed. When residents enjoyed the communities’ offerings, they were more likely to spend money on local activities and with local businesses.
Naturally, of particular interest to our America in Bloom family is the ranking of aesthetics. The study defined aesthetics as the physical beauty of the community, including the availability of parks, playgrounds, trails, and other green spaces. Though the overall correlation factor placed this in third place, 6 of the 26 communities studied placed this criterion in a tie for first place with the availability of social offerings in their 2010 rankings. Another 17 communities placed aesthetics in second place, either alone or tied with the community’s openness to different types of people. Aesthetics never ranked third in any one community’s rankings, but three communities did place aesthetics in fourth among the 10 criteria considered.
In any case, this study provides plenty of fodder to suggest aesthetics are more important to a city’s success as a community than some may have thought. Of course, we at America in Bloom have been arguing this point for some time. That’s why our tagline is “Planting Pride in Our Communities!”
Posts
