A majority of village residents in Potsdam, Massena and Malone give their communities high marks despite expressing concerns about local property tax rates and future economic prospects.

A two-year study by political science faculty and students at SUNY Potsdam finds more than 78 percent rate their overall quality of life favorably -- 42 percent said life was “good,” 28 percent “very good,” and 8 percent said “excellent.”

For most residents, quality of life perceptions were closely linked to opinions about municipal services and tax rates.

The responses “reflect the longer conversation that has been taking place within the community and online,” said Bob Hinckley, an assistant professor of political science at SUNY Potsdam who specializes in surveys and who supervised the work on this survey.

In Potsdam, 98 percent of residents who are satisfied with their village services rate their quality of life as good, very good, or excellent. By contrast, 85 percent of Potsdam residents who are unsatisfied with their village services rate their quality of life between good and excellent.

A total of 60 percent of Potsdam residents said village property tax rates are unreasonable, compared to 43 percent in Massena, and 62 percent in Malone.

In Massena and Malone, but not in Potsdam, quality of life perceptions also reflected concerns about the future direction of the local economy. In Massena, where General Motors has closed and Alcoa has downsized, about 60 percent of residents believe the local economy will become worse in the next 12 months.

The “concern about the future of the local economy is greater in Massena and Malone, not nearly so much in Potsdam,” said Prof. Hinckley.

Hinckley said residents seemed to be asking, “‘Can we keep up, with growing property taxes while incomes are not going up’ -- just reflecting ongoing community concerns.”

Massena residents who believe the economy will become worse are 24 percent less likely to rate their quality of life from good to excellent than those who believe the local economy will remain the same or improve.

For Potsdam residents, beliefs about future crime rates weigh as heavily as opinions concerning municipal taxes and services in their quality of life evaluations. About 76 percent of Potsdam residents who believe crime will increase rated their quality of life from good to excellent compared to 98 percent among those who believe crime will remain the same. This finding did not hold true in Massena or Malone.

The Quality of Life Survey also asked residents why they live in a village rather than in the surrounding town outside the village. The most popular reason is proximity to work or school -- 66 percent in Potsdam, 62 percent in Malone, and 56 percent in Massena.

Other reasons residents said they lived in the village is because they like their street or neighborhood (55 percent in Potsdam, 62 percent in Malone, and 48 percent in Massena). Many residents also selected access to village utilities and services (42 percent in Potsdam, 41 percent in Malone, 61 percent in Massena).

“One reason to be in a village is the services,” Hinckley said.

By contrast, far fewer residents live in a village because they grew up there (16 percent in Potsdam, 28 percent in Malone, and 26 percent in Massena or for access to shopping (22 percent in Potsdam, 39 percent in Malone, and 39 percent in Massena).

In Potsdam, closeness to entertainment or cultural events is a far more common reason to live in the village (39 percent) than for residents of either Massena (6 percent) or Malone (7 percent).

Residents of Potsdam, Massena, and Malone are somewhat more involved in the civic life of their communities than most Americans, based on a comparison of the village survey to a 2006 national benchmark study directed by Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam.

About half of the residents in Potsdam, Massena, and Malone report working on a community project at least once in the last 12 months compared to just 34 percent of Americans nation-wide in 2006.

Residents of Potsdam volunteered an average of 11.3 times in the last 12 months, Massena residents averaged 8.3 times, and Malone residents 10.4 times, whereas the national average is 9.6 times.

The typical Potsdam resident attended three public meetings to discuss village or school affairs in the last 12 months, compared to an average of about one in Massena and Malone, and 2.3 nation-wide.

The surveys were conducted in March of 2014 and 2015 among adult, non-institutionalized residents of the villages . A total of 365 persons responded online, by mail, or over the phone. The response rate was 30 percent. Telephone surveys were conducted by student interviewers at SUNY Potsdam under the direction of political science faculty.

Households were randomly selected for inclusion in the sample using satellite images of the three villages obtained from Google Maps. Each selected household was sent an invitation to complete the survey online along with the paper survey and a postage-paid business reply envelope. Households that did not respond online or by mail, and with a publicly available telephone number, were called up to five times.

The margins of error averaged plus-or-minus 5.09 percent for the three surveys with a 95 percent confidence level.