The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership released the results of a pedestrian survey claiming the City’s downtown is attracting more people who are spending more money than they did in 2006. The survey attempts to paint a bright picture of downtown’s economic situation, but raises more skepticism instead.
The big question: how reliable is the survey? Was it conducted in a scientific manner or done on an ad-hoc basis?
The survey was conducted over three days in September 2008-two weekdays and one Saturday. This certainly is not enough time to accurately sample people working or shopping downtown. They compared the results to a similar survey taken two years earlier. Was that survey also conducted on the same three days in September 2006? There needs to be consistency in the data gathering process for the results to have any credibility.
Furthermore, they just stopped random people in the street to ask them questions. How were they classified? How many students, office workers, visitors, etc, did they talk to? Obviously visitors to an event will spend more than a student in town taking classes. The survey showed a forty percent per person increase in spending in two years-an incredible figure that deserves more inquiry.
There are better ways to gauge the economic activity in the City’s downtown. For example they could have surveyed the business community to ask about sales compared to the same time two years prior. They also could have looked at payroll data or event attendance to get a better idea of employment or visitors.
The Partnership survey needs to be more scientific to be credible. Its poor methodology casts doubts on its results and reveals it to be just another cheerleading puff piece which continues to mask the City’s real problems.
