What’s wrong with Commissioner Souto’s Poll? What he left out. By Geniusofdespair

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Javier D. Souto commissioned a poll "to seek out the voters concerns in regards to County services and major issues facing the Board of County Commissioners." The problem with the poll is, he left out 9 districts which makes the poll pretty much useless in my view. Divide and conquer?

The Souto press release said the poll surveyed 842 voters in West Miami (District 9 Moss, District 10 Souto, District 11 Martinez and 12 Diaz). Wrong. Dennis Moss’s district is also East and Sorenson's District has a lot of West in it (more West than Souto's). The Press Release said:

"The results revealed strong opposition to the County Mayor’s plan to build $2 billion in capital projects. The voters were more concerned with the country heading into an economic crisis and the impact of the economy on their own job security and financial security, than embarking on a multi-billion dollar capital improvement plan of items perceived as luxuries such as sports stadiums, museums and seaport tunnels."

Well, Duh, the districts most likely to support these projects were left out of the poll. Not that I am defending the projects, I just think these poll results are not valid for the projects. It is like asking someone in Miami Gardens if they approve of the Kendall Downtown Plan. The Miami Gardens person might think, this will probably cost me money and I never go to Kendall anyway, so no, I don't support it. Here are the poll results for ONLY 4 DISTRICTS which are relevant on some issues:

Voters in 4 districts were asked the following questions and here are the results:

How concerned are you with the economy, and a recession or economic crisis in the United States?
72.1 percent of the voters are extremely or very concerned about the national economy.

How concerned are you with the economy’s impact on you job security and/or your family’s financial security?
62.2 percent of the voters are extremely or very concerned about job security.

Do you think the County is heading in the right direction?
27 percent think it is, compared to 43.8 percent who say the County is heading in the wrong direction.

Please identify the most important issues facing Miami-Dade County from crime, education, access to healthcare, traffic, corruption, affordable housing, unemployment, over-development, insurance costs, property taxes and taxes?

In general, 55.6 percent of the voters named taxes as the most important or the second most important issue to them, with crime and traffic registering at approximately 12 percent each.

Additionally, there is strong opposition to the Global Agreement of Projects or the Mega Plan for developing a port tunnel, a museum park and a baseball stadium.

Only 24.9 percent of the voters support the Port Tunnel, while 57.5 of the voters oppose the Port Tunnel.

Only 24.7 percent of the voters support the Museum Park, while 63.6 of the voters oppose Museum Park.

Only 29 percent of the voters support a publicly funded Marlins Stadium at the Orange Bowl site (only 10 percent of this support is strong), while 60.9 percent of the voters oppose the stadium. Opposition to the Marlins Stadium is consistent across ethnic lines. 31.8 percent of Hispanics support the stadium, while 58 percent of Hispanics oppose the stadium. 19.7 percent of Non-Hispanic Whites support the stadium, while 70 percent of Non-Hispanic Whites oppose the stadium. 30 percent of Blacks support the stadium, while 61.4 percent opposed to the stadium.

59.1 percent of the voters feel that crime has increased over the past 4 years, while 30.5 percent feel that crime is about the same and only 5.7 percent feel that crime has declined.

Voters were also asked under what conditions would the support moving the Urban Development Boundary Line and while 29.6 percent would oppose moving the UDB under any circumstances, 47.2 percent would consider moving the line for a commercial development only, if the development creates jobs.

It always gets back to these phantom jobs doesn't it? Every lobbyist uses "Job creation" as their mantra. People should care more about the 113 jobs lost at Greyhound in Opa Locka which was announced today. How would people poll in these 4 distrcts about a major job loss in Barbara Jordan's District 1?