RESULTS OPEN-ENDED COMMENTS Surveys, especially those that take a census approach to targeting an entire population, normally rely on close-ended questions to gather large amounts of data in standardized and consistent formats. However, in these surveys, it can also be useful and important to provide a more open- ended forum in which respondents can provide feedback in a more open-ended format. This approach can allow them to offer very specific opinions, incidents, or commentary that does not fit neatly into existing close-ended items. It can also offer an opportunity for them to expound at length in a way that a close-ended question could never fully capture. The Westerville Resident Survey provides several open-ended questions for these purposes. While some open-ended questions can be coded into themes and analyzed to determine their relative frequency, most of the open-ended questions in this survey are not well-suited to this approach. In particular, questions which lead respondents to talk about isolated experiences, specific ideas or suggestions or complaints, or detailed information would lose the very detail that they solicit and become unactionable as a result. Additionally, while it may be possible to identify a theme or general message (or even two or three of them) in a given response, many responses may include multiple distinct concepts. Furthermore, because it is not feasible to place controls on the length and content of the open- ended responses, respondents can and do offer opinions that are not related to the question, provide inappropriate detail, or serve as an emotional outlet for “hot topic” type content where respondents have strong feelings. As such, attempting to identify and analyze “outcomes” from most of the open-ended content for the Westerville Resident Survey is inappropriate, particularly when the open-ended items touch on potentially controversial or nuanced topics, such as community policing issues. The open- ended item related to policing, for example, garnered nearly 800 responses, many of which involved multiple distinct concepts the respondent discussed or even multiple paragraphs worth of content; this kind of content is virtually impossible to distill down into a meaningful outcome measure. Furthermore, reporting a distilled version would lead to a loss of specificity that is the very point of these questions. In the reporting of the results of the Westerville Resident Survey, the open-ended question responses have been provided separately from the close-ended survey data to the City of Westerville. Providing the verbatim responses separately allows for the City of Westerville to receive and process the open-ended feedback of its residents in a way that can be more useful and actionable than trying to provide a raw count of general themes. While it is a large volume of information, reviewing the verbatim responses will allow for identification of specific issues, ideas, suggestions, and solutions offered by the community. Appendix C: Verbatim Open-Ended Responses What two words best describe Westerville? 1. access to nature 2. Accessible 3. Accessible 4. Active 5. Active 6. Active (walkers, bikers, etc) 7. Active Lifestyle 8. Active outdoors 9. Affluent 10. All white, not diverse at all 11. ARROGANT 12. Big Government 13. Boring 14. Congested 15. Connected 16. conservative 17. Content 18. convenient 19. Convenient 20. convenient 21. Convenient 22. Convenient 23. convenient location 24. Corrupt 25. Costly 26. Crowded 27. crowded because of Walmart traffic 28. don't know, but non of these 29. Eagleton 30. entry by council, school school board by garbage, columbus, muslim and other errorists who have not been legally able to vote or breath under the constitution 31. Everyone to themselves 32. Excellent resources 33. Exclusionary 34. Expensive 35. expensive 36. Expensive 37. Expensive 38. Expensive 39. Expensive 40. Expensive taxes 41. expensive to live in 42. Expensive, becoming too expensive for seniors due to high property taxes 43. Failing 44. Good City Management 45. Good parks 46. Great city services 47. great parks 48. Hidden Gem 49. High property tax 50. High taxes 51. high taxes 52. Historical 53. Homey 54. Lack of diversity. Overindulgence of children 55. Lacks laws against hoarder yards 56. liberal 57. Local/small town 58. Location convenient to all needs and wants 59. Multi purpose trails 60. Old vs new. People who have lived here and dont tgink it should change or grow. 61. Opportunity 62. Outdoor Active 63. Outdoorsy 64. Over developed 65. Over developing the city that when I moved here was a Tree City. Destruction of wildlife habitat has made it too easy for diseases to spread. The city needs to do research of the consequences! 66. Over Taxed 67. Overdeveloped 68. Parks 69. Personality 70. Progressive 71. Quality of life which includes green spaces 72. questionable spending 73. Quiet 74. Recently disappointing 75. Religious 76. Republican 77. segregated 78. Senior Friendly 79. small town feel 80. So diverse that various descriptions fit various areas. 81. Some of our City Leaders NEED to wake up! 82. structured small town 83. Sustainable 84. TAXES 85. Taxes are too high, TIF's need to be eliminated 86. too big 87. Trash service is poor. Fence permit rules are ridiculous 88. Unfriendly 89. uptight 90. Very difficult for business to feel welcomed or valued 91. Very expensive 92. walk ways 93. walking friendly 94. Wasteful 95. Wasteful spenders 96. Wasteful spending on stupid bridge,fence, road projects. I enjoy the flowers and roads without potholes but the rest like traffic circles that cause more accidents is an expensive waste. 97. Well Established 98. Well rounded 99. Well run services 100. White 101. White In your opinion, what are the top three most important issues for the City of Westerville? 1. 25 MPH Zone on State St between Broadway and County Line 2. Access to trains and busses. 3. address trashy yards/houses 4. Affordable Housing 5. Affordable housing 6. Affordable housing 7. Affordable housing for older folks 8. Affordable housing for seniors 9. all of the above are important 10. Allow new city council members and have members with 7 years or more step down. Time for change 11. allowing citizens to have more input on community decisions 12. allowing public education system entry by welfare 13. balance of green space & economic dev. 14. Being intentional regarding that we are a city that values diversity and inclusion 15. bike trails 16. Building affordable housing 17. Changing Walmart to Trader Joes or Fresh Thyme 18. Code enforcement of residential property upkeep 19. Cost of utilities 20. Creating a green, sustainable city 21. Creating a sustainable community 22. Creating more community emergency resources, instead of the Police managing everything. 23. Creating sustainable energy sources for citizens 24. develop options for affordable housing 25. Doing something about the run down neighborhoods 26. Downtown Theater Restoration 27. Economic and Entertainment Development 28. Efficiencies and competency of Building and Zoning department 29. Encouraging owners to maintain/improve deteriorating properties 30. Ending systemic racism 31. Environment al protection 32. Fiber to the Home 33. Fiscal management of Westerville schools 34. Historic preservation (can help keep us from being just another suburb) 35. Housing Corner of State/County line Rd 36. I have multiple for number 3 - Green space preservation AND Fiscal mgmt and responsibility 37. I would say continued vigilance in city safety and patrol 38. Inclusiveness 39. Keeping God in the community 40. Keeping HUD housing out of residential areas 41. Lack of city newspaper 42. lowering or better controlling property taxes 43. Lowering property taxes 44. Maintaining ambiance and environment of the old town 45. Maintaining existing zoning and controlling development 46. Maintaining playgrounds 47. Mental health services 48. More police pressence 49. No more development of retirement facilities 50. NO MORE OFFICE BLDGS.MANY OF THE ONES WE HAVE SIT EMPTY 51. No Overgrowth 52. Park & Community Center maintenance 53. Parks & Rec needs to build more pickle ball courts 54. Preventing decline of aging neighborhoods 55. Problems Walmart bringd 56. Promoting community diversity and welcoming acceptance 57. Promoting race relations growth in the friendly Westerville way 58. PROPERETY TAXES 59. Property Tax 60. Property taxes too high 61. Public Health 62. Race Relations 63. Racial equity and police accountability 64. Racial Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice 65. Racism 66. Real estate taxes are too high for retired who want to stay in current home. Downsizing is more expensive ~$500K avg for a patio home that's a fraction of the size of our existing home. Subsidies for retired on retaxes and utilities would be very helpful!!!! 67. recycling/green initiatives 68. reduce police racism 69. Reduce Taxes 70. Reducing commercial traffic (trucks) on State St. on State 71. Reforming city government 72. Rejecting new drug rehab facility in residential neighborhood 73. Residential traffic speeding enforcement by city 74. restrict parking on both sides of side streets s of side streets 75. Safety, Safety, Safety!!! 76. Schools 77. senior housing options 78. senior services 79. SNOW REMOVAL 80. snow removeal 81. Speeding on residential streets 82. Stop the apartments 83. Stop uselessly spending money 84. Support for residents in need 85. Support of the arts 86. The city is big enough-stop new development. 87. This question is unclear. Is it my perspective or Westerville's? 88. Too much rental property 89. Traffic flow. Does every traffic light really need to turn red as you approach it? Traffic light syntonization has been perfected for years everywhere but in Westerville. It's absolutely maddening. 90. traffic light timing improvement 91. traffic management 92. Trails and parks (is this green space under your categories?) 93. watershed management 94. Winter Electric bills 95.