Report on the Perceived Advantages and Disadvantages of Building a Essay

Report on the Perceived Advantages and Disadvantages of Building a Theme Park in a Neighbourhood - Essay Example It also assesses the expectations, both positive and negative, of the neighborhood residents from the theme park to be constructed. Methodology This study is based on a close-ended, structured and non-disguised questionnaire designed to explore the perceived effect on local residents by the building of a local theme park. The questionnaire was given to the oldest member of each household to be completed and returned within a month. The respondents were informed about the purpose of the questionnaire, and that their responses were vital for planning the construction. Respondents were assured of the maintenance of confidentiality of the information they would provide and that it would be used solely for the purpose of this survey. The questionnaire had questions relating to the demographic data, such as gender, employment status and type of household of the residents. The main part of the questionnaire was concerned with how the residents perceived the present safety of the neighborhoo d, and whether they believed that this status would change after the construction of a theme park. ‘Neutral’, ‘safe’ and ‘very safe’, ‘unsafe’ and ‘very unsafe’, were the options provided to assess perceived present safety, and ‘much safer’, ‘safer’, ‘unsafer’, ‘much unsafer’ and ‘unchanged’, were the options provided to assess the perceived change in safety . The positive and negative expectations of the local residents from the theme park, such as increase in employment opportunities, business opportunities, more activities for family and children, more crime, vandalism, pollution and parking problems, were also assessed. The questionnaire is given in appendix 1 of this document. Data was analyzed by comparing the differences in perception based on the employment status and household type of the respondents. Results and data analysis Fifty local residen ts had responded to the questionnaire. Of these, 14 were females and 36 were males. The largest proportion of the respondents was unemployed (n=15). Of the remaining respondents, 10 were employed, 10 were retired, four were self-employed and the remaining 11 were students. Based on the type of household, most of the respondents were either couples, had a family with children under 16, or were living alone. Perceived safety Data on perceived current safety of the neighborhood revealed that a large proportion of the respondents considered their neighborhood as either safe or very safe, with only a minority of them remaining neutral. A vast majority of the respondents felt that the safety status of their neighborhood would remain unchanged after the construction of a theme park. The expected change in safety of the neighborhood was then assessed based on the employment status and the type of household. This analysis revealed that most of the retired respondents believed that the neighb orhood would become unsafe. In contrast, a few students, unemployed and self-employed respondents felt that the neighborhood would become safer. It appears that the retired population of respondents is paranoid about the safety of the nei