Give us what we ask for (not what we want)

One of the big problems I have with lots of surveys is that the people taking them are doling out bullshit. Come on, if you ask people what they look for online, what percentage is actually going to say “porn”?

Everyone reads those magazines for the articles. Everyone is interested in the environment. Everyone reads at least two hours per day. Everyone is racially sensitive and non-prejudicial.

Bullshit. People either tell pollsters what they think the ideal answer is (a variation on ‘what they want to hear’), or they simply try to sound smarter or less pruient or less lawbreaking. (Illegal music downloads are down according to polls. Well, sheesh, with all those lawsuits going around, who wants to say ‘I download pirated music’ on a questionnaire?)

So it’s true for what people want in their lives. I live in a city with a very cute downtown that’s undergoing yet another revitalization. New stores are opening, and old office space is being converted into apartments. A vibrant downtown is just around the corner.

See, when you poll people, they say they want a ‘vibrant downtown.’ That sounds really good. In reality, though, they drive a half-hour to a mall (covered, air conditioned, full of familiar stores) rather than go downtown.

They say they like little, local stores — especially bookstores and coffee shops. In reality, they go to the monster Barnes & Noble, the ubiquitious Starbucks, or the giant Lowes or Home Depot.

The little stores give cities (and their downtowns)(downstown?) a nice quality — a braggable quality. “Oh, my, what a lovely downtown your city has.” But someone else should spend their money to keep it that way; most people would rather save a couple of bucks at Wal-Mart than give their business to the stores that give their cities character.

By the way, I’m not a hypocrit (not about this, anyway). I buy books at the little downtown bookstore, and shop at the little downtown hardware store, and get my haircut at the downtown barber.

To me it’s a small investment in a better downtown, although I know deep down that unless our downtown is covered, given a parking garage, and otherwise ‘mallified,’ it will slowly disappear like so many others.