Brianna Park

Emily Hartz

Jeff DeCelles

Peter Freeman

Assessment of Built Capital in Burlington, Vermont

Built Capital is defined as any pre-existing or planned formation that is constructed or retrofitted to suit community needs. (In other words, it is any human-made environment.)Built capital can either be private or public. Private built capital is any personally owned technology. Public built capital is any mechanism, building, or technology that helps the community function. Examples of private built capital (as given in the survey) are home, automobile, food and drink, household goods (furniture, appliances, etc.), personal accessories (clothing, shoes, jewelry, etc.), and entertainment goods (such as skis, bike, video games, etc.). Examples of private investments in the neighborhood are shops, restaurants and offices. Examples of public investments in the neighborhood are streets, sidewalks, streetlights, parking, and public septic systems.

Background of Built Capital Investments in Burlington:

·  North-south bike path through Burlington:1997 - need for the path discovered, 1999 – resolution outlining the reasons why Burlington needs a north-sound bike path through downtown, 2003 – first steps for implementation of path outlined.

·  Downtown transit center: 2003 – beginning to look into redesigning the downtown transit center

·  Traffic calming: The East Avenue neighborhood is working with the City of Burlington’s Department of Public Works have worked together to design a map of proposed changes to address concerns for pedestrian safety and traffic.

The survey questions regarding built capital address the following: how important private investments are to Burlington residents, and how satisfied Burlington residents are with their income and both private and public investments.

Built Capital – overall data

Burlington residents were asked a series of six questions regarding their happiness with built capital (“things you or others own in your home and Neighborhood”), and the level of importance that they would assign to built capital in terms of overall quality of life.

The first question in the built capital section was an overall importance rating. The question stated: “How important are the things you own or rent (for example, your home, car, furniture, clothes, etc.) to your happiness and quality of life?” There were 578 responses to this question. Of the 578 the mean importance rating was 2.07. The median and mode rating was 2; the standard deviation was 0.98. 30% of respondents said that built capital, “the things you own or rent”, is most important in terms of total happiness and quality of life. 46% said that built capital came in second. 15% people said third; 6% said fourth and 3% said fifth.

Question 2 attempted to separate out the different forms of built capital and how people would rate them according to happiness and importance. Respondents were asked to rate from one to five how important they thought each of several forms of built capital were to their overall happiness and quality of life. Then, respondents were asked to assign a score for each of the categories according to how satisfied they were with each.

Importance of Built Capital

Rating the importance of certain forms of built capital, respondents said:

On Home: Of the 561 responses to this question, the mean importance rating for “home” was 1.58. The median and mode rating was 1. The standard deviation for this question was 0.82. Of the 561 58% gave “home” the highest importance score. 31% gave home second highest in importance, 8% gave home third, 2% said fourth and 1% said fifth.

On Transportation: Of the 550 responses to this question, the mean importance rating for “transportation” was 2.24. The median and mode rating was 2. The standard deviation for this question was 1.08. Of the 550 28% said that transportation was mot important. 36% said that is was second in importance. 23% said that it was third; 9% said fourth and 4% said fifth. A number of respondents chose to write in forms of transportation that they valued. These included: bicycle, bus, cab, wheel chair, public transportation, airlines and walking.

On Food and Drink: Of the 557 responses to this question, the mean importance rating was 1.85. The Median rating was 2; the mode rating was 1. The standard deviation on this question was 0.98. Of the 557 respondents, 45% said that food and drink were most important. 34% said that they were second in importance. 15% said third; 5% said fourth and 2%said fifth.

On Consumer Durables: This form of capital was described as “furniture, appliances, and other household goods” in the survey. Of the 554 responses to this question, the mean importance rating was 2.67. The median rating was 3, the mode was 2. The standard deviation for this question was 1.02. Of the 554 responses, 10% said that consumer durables were most important. 37% said that consumer durables were second in importance. 34% said that they were third in importance; 14% said fourth, 5% said fifth.

On Personal Accessories: Examples of this form of capital given in the survey were “clothing, shoes, jewelry, and other personal accessories.” Of the 549 responses to this question, the mean importance rating was 2.67. The median score was 3; the mode was 2. The standard deviation for this question was 1.10. Of the 549 responses, 14% said that personal accessories were most important. 34% said that they were second. 31% said that they were third; 14% said fourth and 7% said fifth.

On Entertainment Goods: Examples given in the survey for this question were “skis, bike, video games, etc.” Of the 526 responses to this question, the mean importance rating was 2.64. The median score was 3 and the mode score was 2. The standard deviation on this question was 1.16. Of the 526 responses, 17% said that entertainment goods were most important. 31% said that entertainment goods were second in importance. 30% said that they were third. 14% said fourth; 7% said fifth.

On Other: Of the 42 responses to this question, the mean importance rating was 1.45. The median and mode scores were 1. The standard deviation on this question was 1.02. Of the 42 responses, 76% said that “other” was important. 14% said that it was second in importance. 2% said that other was third and 2% said fourth. 5% said that other was fifth. For “other” respondents wrote in quite a variety of things. It appears that some misunderstood the built capital aspect of the question and write in things like friends and family. Write-ins that had something to do with built capital included: hot tub, art collection, personal library, artist studio, tools, music equipment, accessibility to public library, Burlington Center, community gardens, and “irreplaceable keepsake stuff”. The most common write-in for other was garden. Although closely related to natural capital, these folks must have considered gardens a form of private/public investment or a thing that they own.

Conclusions on Importance of Built Capital:

The forms of built capital that had the highest mean importance ratings were home and food and drink. The two forms of built capital with a standard deviation below 1 were also home and food and drink. The ‘Other’ category received extremely high importance ratings; this may be attributed to a number of things. Several respondents wrote-in “family” or “friends.” As the built capital questions were first on the survey, it is possible that people misunderstood that these questions pertained only to built capital. This does illustrate that when asked about total quality of life, the first thing that comes to the minds of many is human contact and relationships.

Happiness with Built Capital

Respondents were also asked to rate their current level of happiness with each of the above forms of built capital.

On Home: Of the 570 responses to this question the mean score was 1.85. The median rating was 2; the mode was 1. Standard deviation for this question was 0.95. Of the 570 responses, 45% said that they were most happy with their home. 34% gave a happiness score of 2. 15% gave a happiness score of 3. 6% said four; 1% said five.

On Transportation: Of the 558 responses to this question, the mean happiness score was a 2.12. The median and mode scored were 2. The standard deviation for this question was 1.05. Of the 558 responses, 32% said that they were most happy with transportation. 38% gave a happiness score of 2. 15% gave a score of 3; 6% said four; 4%said five.

On Food and Drink: OF the 563 responses to this question, the mean happiness score was 1.77. The median score was 2; the mode score was 1. The standard deviation for this question was 0.87. Of the 563 responses, 50% said that they were most happy with their food and drink. 39% gave a happiness rating of 2. 12% gave a 3. 3% gave a 4. 1% gave a five.

On Consumer Durables: Of the 560 responses to this question, the mean happiness score was 2.19. The median and mode scores were both 2. The standard deviation for this question was 0.92. Of the 560 responses, 25% said that they were most happy with their consumer durables. 40% gave a happiness rating of 2. 27% gave a 3. 6% gave a 4. 1% gave a 5.

On Personal Accessories: Of the 558 responses to this question, the mean happiness score was 2.16. The median and mode scores were both 2. The standard deviation for this question was 0.96. Of the 558 responses, 28% said that they were most happy with their personal accessories. 39% gave a happiness score of 2. 26% gave a 3; 6% gave a 4 and 2% gave a 5.

On Entertainment Goods: Of the 550 responses the mean happiness score was a 2.08. The Median and mode scores were both 2. The standard deviation for this question was 0.93. Of the 550 responses, 30% said that they were most happy with their entertainment goods. 41% gave a happiness score of 2. 22% gave a score of 3. 5% gave a 4 and 2%gave a 5.

On Other: of the 50 responses to this question, the mean happiness score was a 1.42. The median and mode were both 1. The standard deviation was 0.70. Of the 50 responses to this question, 68% said that they were most happy with some other form of built capital. 24% gave a happiness rating of 2. The balance was divided; 6% answered 3 and 2% answered 4. In the section above, “on other” in the importance breakdowns there is a list of what various people wrote in for “other.”

Conclusions on Happiness with Built Capital

The two forms of built capital that people appeared to be most pleased with were home and food and drink. In general, the standard deviations for happiness with built capital were low. The highest standard deviation was transportation, but not by much. As illustrated on the graph, happiness scores were greatest for home and other. The percentage of people happiest with consumer durables was lowest. Happiness and importance ratings were similar fiord transportation, food and drink, and other; the remaining scores were significantly different.

Graph # Percentage of 1) Respondents who Considered Built Capital Most Important and 2) Percentage of Respondents who were Most Happy with Built Capital

Public Built Capital

Question five was designed to get at how people felt about the public investments in built capital that have been made around Burlington. Question five stated: “how happy are you with the public investments in your neighborhood (for example, streets, sidewalks, streetlights, parking, public septic, etc.)?”

Of the 586 responses to this question the mean happiness rating was 2.38. The mode and median scores were both 2. The standard deviation on this question was 0.98. Of the 550 responses, 17% said that they were most happy with the public investments in their neighborhood. 44% gave a happiness score of 2. 24% gave a score of 3; 12% gave a 4 and 2% gave a 5.

Private Built Capital

Question six was designed to get at how happy people are with the private investments in their neighborhood. Question six stated: “how happy are you with the private investments in your neighborhood (for example, shops, restaurants, offices, etc.)?”

Of the 573 responses to this question the mean happiness score was a 2.35. The median and mode were both 2. The standard deviation for this question was 1.03. Of the 573 responses, 21% said that they were most happy with the private investments in their neighborhood. 41% gave a happiness rating of 2. 25% gave a score of 3. 10% gave a 4 and 3% gave a 5.

For ratings of happiness regarding private and public built capital, it will be most beneficial to study neighborhood breakdowns, paired with an inventory of the actual built capital in those neighborhoods. It could also prove interesting to compare private and public forms of built capital with ethnic diversity and other special interest groups. This comparison may shed light on needs not being met for specific demographic groups in the area. A more detailed study specifically dealing with built capital could answer these questions and more.

Income

Question seven addressed how happy residents are with their current yearly income. Question seven stated: “are you happy with your current family or personal yearly income? [ ] Yes [ ] No. If not, how much more income per year would you need to be satisfied?”

Of the 576 responses, 66% of respondents said that they were happy with their current income. 34% of respondents said that they were not. Of the group that listed how much more income per year they would need to be satisfied, the mean amount was $61,898. The Median amount was $20,000. The mode was $20,000. The standard deviation for this question was $243,225. If a respondent reported a range of money that would make them satisfied, we took the midpoint of that range for our calculations.