Reston: The Survey: The PowerPoint: We're #4! (or #33)

Man oh man, we love us a good Powerpoint presentation, and since "web loggers" don't get paid by the hour, we sure enjoyed clicking through this summary of the community survey conducted for the Reston Association earlier this year. Clearly the designer had an appreciation of Reston's vibrant color pallette, given the choice of creamy taupe background, mustard arrow, and muted green accents.

We Restonites are a competitive lot, so we skipped right to the benchmarking results to see how our beloved earth-toned community stacked up against others nationwide. Turns out that based on survey responses, we're ranked 33rd as a place to live and 7th as a place to work (which makes us wonder just how many aspiring opera singers are hidden among us). When you look at comparably sized communities, we're ranked fourth as a place to live and second as a place to work. Ha! In your FACE, Coon Rapids, Minnesota, Goodyear, Arizona, and Grand Island, Nebraska! Apparently you're not quite as good or rapid or grand as you think, flatlanders!

Of course, there were some surprises. Apparently, we're a community of sad, isolated loners, living quiet lives of desperation:

Won't anyone think of the emo white silhouettes, deprived of the ability to meet puppies while out with their jogging strollers?

Also, respondents were more likely to have read Reston: The Magazine than have ridden a local bus. O RLLY?

Here's a no-brainer:

Guess we'll have to take our plans for the Restonian World Industries Pork Byproduct Rendering Plant and Web Logging Server Log Printouts Warehouse off the drawing board.

The full survey results is where you found the "meat" of the results, as those of us in the urban planning/pork byproduct rendering business like to say. According to the results, two-thirds of respondents were on board with at least "some" additional housing development over the next 20 years. However, "preservation of natural areas such as open space" and "managing and planning for growth" were identified as critical priorities for the RA, not that anyone has ever said that before. For some strange reason, "respondents living in Hunters Woods and South Lakes were more likely to say that preserving natural areas was 'essential' or 'very important' for Reston's future." Gee, wonder why? Lake Anne residents, hippies that they are, were more interested in "mixed housing types in the community," while North Restonites "placed less importance on reducing dependence on automobiles," because, let's face it, if you're not driving a quality German import, you might as well be riding the bus, the end.