Boulder Bulletin

Who doesn’t love a survey? Reading survey results either confirms our assumptions about how others around us feel, or they surprise us with information that we are interested in learning. We are either in the majority on opinions—making us feel comfortable—or we are in the minority—making us feel bold and independent. I don’t know about you, but I could read survey results all day long. Which is why I was so excited to receive yesterday the Downtown Boulder Partnership COVID-19 Readiness Survey. The results were actually the Boulder portion of a statewide survey conducted by the National Research Center/Polco on behalf of the Downtown Colorado Inc. and the Colorado Office of Economic Development. Here’s what a statistically-valid set of 1,070 Boulder-area residents said between May 8 and May 18:

How folks are feeling
Nearly all of the survey respondents (95%) rated their physical health as good or excellent, but more than one in five rated their emotional health as fair or poor. We don’t have a pre-COVID baseline to compare this to, but in a place that has been ranked the Happiest City in the U.S., that’s probably a warning sign. One factor in emotional health could be economic health, which only 28% of the respondents rated as excellent.

The biggest emotional concerns reported in the survey included worries about virus exposures to vulnerable populations, like the elderly (95% very or moderately concerned), other people not keeping their distance or not wearing face masks (86% and 82%), and not having the right information to make good choices (72%). Four in five expressed concern that they or someone in their family will get COVID-19, and about the same number fear that the community’s medical facilities will become overwhelmed in dealing with the disease.

What folks think about government responses
People answering the survey seemed to understand the importance of balancing health protection and economic protection. About one-third strongly agreed with the statement, “Most of us need to stay at home until we know about this virus and how to treat it or a vaccine is developed.” At the other end of the spectrum, only about one in nine agreed with the statement, “We need to open the economy now and deal with the health consequences as we build immunity and recover economically.” The rest, more than half of the respondents, see a need to strike a balance between these two actions.

The surveyors asked respondents whether they thought that government was lifting restrictions on business and community gatherings at the right pace. As it relates to Boulder’s municipal government, half said that re-openings were happening at the right speed, one-third said that it was occurring too fast, and a small minority said things are moving too slowly, pretty much mirroring the opinions reported above on the balance between health and economics. Interestingly, when the same questions were asked about the state government, nearly half of the respondents said that they felt that the state was moving too quickly.

What folks believe other folks should do
Significant majorities held firm opinions about what should be done to protect their health. Those include requiring business employees and customers to... Read more ☞

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