Community Ties
Accessibility Engagement Parks & Public SpaceSummary
Before the pandemic, the Urban Institute was asked by the Knight Foundation to study “what attaches people to the place where they live”. They worked alongside SQL Server Reporting Services (SRSS) to survey 1,206 adults living in urbanized areas and 10,261 living in 26 metro areas throughout the U.S. People have become more aware of the importance of accessibility, especially during the pandemic where many stores were forced to shutdown. This brought on discussions of understanding the importance of how the community connects people to each other as well as, the place.
The report goes into detail, measuring the ‘sentiments’ and ‘behaviours’ of how attached people are to their communities. It included satisfaction with the metro, social bridging with race, class, and language, as well as their investment in the time and resources to their community. They measured the number of time people spent in the city and their quality of life that could help understand how to improve their attachments and feelings to the place. They further explain why people choose to move, how accessibility is not equal for everyone, particularly of low-income families and people of colour, and the issues of making it a better place to live. All in all, the study helps give a sense of why people choose to stay or leave the community and potentially help foster initiatives and strategies to better connect the community to their residents.