Tell the mayor and police just how safe you feel

This afternoon Mayor Mike McGinn’s office announced a new neighborhood survey on crime, put together by grad students at the prestigious Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington.

The online survey “will help determine residents’ primary public safety concerns in their own neighborhoods and on public transportation.”

With this survey, the City hopes to have a snapshot of perceptions of the police and public safety at a neighborhood-by-neighborhood level. The survey also gives residents an opportunity to anonymously offer their opinions on the police and public safety in Seattle — a new option for this kind of survey.

The new survey asks residents their opinion of public safety conditions in Seattle’s urban villages, if there are any urban villages they avoid, and why.

Speaking of urban villages, Maple Leaf residents who take the survey will likely not be pleased to learn we’re lumped in with Northgate.

At all events, you’ll have choices like these on crime:

• Very serious problem

• Serious problem

• Minor problem

• Not a problem

Question No. 9 asks you to name the most serious crime problems in your neighborhood. There’s a list of 20 choices – including “no crime” and “other.” You get to pick no more than five. Regular Maple Leaf Life readers will have no trouble here! (Incidentally, police are still reporting only one  home burglary in Maple Leaf during all of March to date.)

There are 47 questions – possibly more if you ride transit often – including ones dealing with police harassment and effectiveness. You can take the survey- it takes about a quarter-hour – here. The Evans School will release the results to the mayor’s Youth and Family Initiative in May.