We used focus groups and interviews to gather qualitative data about how suburban residents felt about Hartford and the PILOT program. After that, we created some messaging materials and conducted an experiment in the form of a survey to see how different messaging strategies affected suburban perceptions of PILOT. We organized our findings into different themes using both qualitative coding and interview memos. Our results can be found here. 

Interviews

 

We conducted nine interviews in total, both over the phone and in-person. We recruited participants through word-of-mouth, and all participants were from the suburbs of Hartford.  The questions we asked were about their connection to the city of Hartford, their perception of Hartford, and their opinions about Hartford’s government. We also asked a series of questions to understand what they knew about the PILOT program.

Focus Groups

 

We conducted two focus groups: one in West Hartford and one in Glastonbury. They were composed of four and two participants respectively. We used the same questions as above.

Survey

 

The survey recruited respondents through Facebook. Respondents were asked about their knowledge of PILOT, then were randomly shown one of two messages about PILOT (messages can be found here). After viewing the message, we asked participants about their support for PILOT, their interaction with PILOT, and a variety of demographic questions. As of 4/26/2018 we had collected 239 responses.