A couple of weeks ago, the city of Bloomington released the results from this year’s community survey.

The survey has been conducted every two years for the city of Bloomington by the same firm—Polco/National Research Center. That’s now four surveys worth of data that can be tapped for trends.
Based on the city’s online financial records, Polco/NRC has been paid a total of $82,590 for the work, starting in 2017.
Surveys were conducted in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023.
Democratic Party primary winner Kerry Thomson, who is unopposed this fall, will almost certainly be he next mayor of Bloomington, starting in 2024.
I think it would make sense to repeat the same kind of survey in 2025. Continuing to ask some of the same basic questions every two years, using the same methodology, would add to a longer-term understanding of how Bloomington’s community attitudes are changing.
But I hope that the Thomson administration will not wait until 2025 to start thinking about that year’s survey.
There are two areas where I think improvements could be made: the number of respondents; and the quality of the non-standard questions. Continue reading “Opinion: Bloomington’s next community survey needs some work”