By Jeremy Walsh
If you get a postcard and then a survey in the mail from the city, do not panic. It is not a jury questionnaire and it does not mean Big Brother is watching you.
Rather, the mayor and public advocate want to know how well you think the city is serving you.
The $500,000 NYC Feedback Citywide Customer Survey will distribute questionnaires to more than 100,000 residents in all five boroughs. Some 20,000 Queens residents will be polled, compared with 37,000 in Brooklyn, 22,000 in Manhattan, 28,000 in the Bronx and 4,000 in Staten Island.
The survey breakdown was determined by the number of households in each borough, said Emily Rubenstein, senior policy adviser for the mayor's Office of Operation, told a news briefing last week.
“During my career in business and my time as mayor, I've learned that the more information any enterprise has, the more successful it can be at managing its resources, fixing problems and serving its customers,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a prepared statement.
Rubenstein said the city gets feedback on its services, but this feedback is often narrow in scope.
“We gather hundreds of indicators from every agency,” she said. “But we don't really have any idea outside of 311 how the public views our services.”
Public calls to 311 are generally complaints, Rubenstein said. Residents use the service to report street potholes, flooding conditions or traffic light problems.
The survey asks residents how they regard emergency, transit and library services both in their neighborhood and the city overall. It also asks people to rate the city's Web site, 311, public schools, air quality and public housing, among other items.
“We want data from all 59 community boards, Rubenstein said. The survey will be the first comprehensive study of how the public regards municipal services, she said.
The results — the city hopes 15 percent of those polled will respond — will be delivered to the city as completed reports in September.
It remains to be seen what lasting effects the survey will have on public services.
“We're not going to get any silver bullets from this data,” Rubenstein said, noting the information will probably be used to make changes to existing strategies and plans.
Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jwalsh@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
