In an opinion column in this weekend’s Seattle Times, James Vesley previews a forthco ming poll conducted by the Puget Sound Regional Council. This poll present s a great media/outreach opportunity for local/regional enviros. According to Vesley, the poll will show that:

People love it here. Fully 80 percent of respondents thought their town is a g ood or excellent place to live; 52 percent thought the natural environment and beauty are what they liked best. That only fortifies the larger notion that peo ple are deeply committed to natural stewardship in a congested metropolis. People don’t think local governments are doing enough coordination and plannin g, and 74 percent think traffic is worse than it was five years ago. Nearly hal f 45 percent of respondents felt coordination did not currently exist. People, 67 percent of them, want growth to be focused into already-developed n eighborhoods and areas. That lines up with the earlier question that shows a hi gh desirability for urban environmentalism. As a generalization, people live he re and move here for the greens and blues, the colors of the mountains, sky and water. They don’t love it here for the color of asphalt. About two-thirds 66 percent of respondents want a transportation system that “supports many modes of travel,” which also makes sense. People are ready to g et out of their cars, or at least get you out of your car so they can ride in t heirs. And there is not much support for where we are now. Asked how they feel about the status quo, the respondents show a deep level of dissatisfaction: 60 percen t of respondents think transportation is on the wrong track; 48 percent think e conomic planning is on the wrong track; 50 percent think land-use planning is o n the wrong track.

The full poll is to be “published later this week”:http://www.psrc.org.

I for one will be particularly interested to see what questions (if any) they a sk about folks’ willingness to pay for investments in our collective quality of life.

This seems like a great media-response opportunity for regionally-focused envir onmental groups like “1000 Friends”:http://www.1000friends.org and “Transportat ion Choices”:http://www.transportationchoices.org and the “Livable Communities Coalition”:http://www.livablecoalition.org. that have been working hard to prom ote common-sense urban planning, alternatives to traffic congestion.

I hope to see our local environmental groups use this poll as a news hook to pu blish some of their own stories online, place op-eds in the newspaper, and rebr oadcast these stories to their members.