Written: September 21, 2008
Today Elizabeth, Barak, and I went to Bamberg. It was an interesting experience.
We met Harry Chrissy at the House of Pizza where we went over strategies and went over what areas we would be covering while we are passing out flyers. He said that we were the lucky ones because we were going first we would be working with people who were in the nicer neighborhoods.
Once we got “out in the field” it was incredibly slow and I would even say that within the first hour and a half not one person would take my survey. It felt a little hopeless at times. I talked to a lot of elderly people who kept saying, “I don’t have time.” Other people wanted to fill it out but were only home on their lunch break or were about to leave for a doctor’s appointment or were filling something out on the computer. But then one lady found out that I was from Clemson and she agreed to take the survey and then others refused to take it because I was from Clemson. We were obviously in Gamecock territory. But with other people, we would knock on their doors and no one would answer and then we would walk on down the road and we would see them leaving their house. Needless to say it got a little frustrating.
We found out that there is a huge drug problem in Bamberg, that everything in Bamberg is owned by 1 or 2 people—such as gas stations or the Piggily Wiggily, and when talking to the people that I surveyed, it was apparent that the cops are very crooked in the town. Harry asked us what our turn down rate was “maybe 2:1” we said that it was more like 3:1 if not worse. I don’t think that Harry was expecting that. He said that people in Denmark were much more concerned about their community whereas these people seemed to brush it off. One lady looked at the map on the back of the survey and said that she liked the neighborhood that she lived in but none of the other ones.
I actually feel as though we would have had a better response from lower income community members. Because it felt as though with the wealthier folks were ignorant of what was going on around them.
2 comments:
It is interesting to read your experience because it was almost completely opposite from mine--beginning with Harry informing us that since we were last, we had the 'least desirable' areas. Your comment at the end was right on target with what I experienced. Although I was only able to get 6 surveys completed in the 4ish hours we were out, I had very few rejections. It was more of an issue of people not being home. (I guess it is possible they could have been hiding as you witnessed)
Those that were home were very willing to take the time to speak with me, despite many of them being unable to read or write! I was somewhat surprised by their overall perceptions that the community was alright to them. I was definitely expecting to hear more complaints. Maybe if you have spent your entire life in the area, you do not know any different??
Our experience was similar, however, being the last group, we had the 'lesser hoods' to contend with. Here is where your thoughts on having more success with the surveys was accurate. Within our area, there were both nice houses and modest ones, contrast was stark from street to street. People who seemed to be 'better off' rarely were interested in participating, whereas those living, perhaps more modestly, were, after an initial, "who are you? and why are you walkin toward my door?, much more willing to fill the survey out.
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