Good Growth DeKalb Explains Local Walmart Support Claims

How many people in the Decatur/North Druid Hills area support the ?

It's not a question easily answered, but on Aug. 8, Good Growth DeKalb, which is protesting the construction of the retail store, said they figured it was about 5 percent.

From a press release they sent out:

In the last 8 months, Good Growth DeKalb has done extensive neighborhood canvassing and found that 75% of residents are opposed to Walmart and only 5% are in favor, with the remainder neutral or undecided.

North Druid Hills-Briarcliff Patch asked the group last week to explain how they arrived at those percentages. We'll let you judge the explanation.

In short, the group canvassed across several neighborhoods on five different days spread out between late March and mid-May, according to Jennifer Ceraso, a Good Growth DeKalb organizer. In total, the group said its members spoke with 1,006 households. The results:

• 785 households said they were against the construction.
• 60 said they were OK with it. 
• 161 were undecided. 

Here's more detail on where the group canvassed, according to an email from Ceraso:

We canvassed the following neighborhoods: Medlock Park, Clairemont Heights, Decatur Heights, Great Lakes, Clairemont Rd, Scott Blvd., Sycamore Drive, North Decatur Road, Superior Rd., Landover, West Ponce, Church Street, Adair, Drexel.

We chose neighborhoods that would be most affected by the Walmart, and identified major streets within those neighborhoods.  After long consideration, we felt these streets were the best and most honest representative sampling of the affected radius.

So, when Good Growth DeKalb says only 5 percent of the surrounding area supports the construction of a Walmart, that's the data they're referring to. There are areas farther away that might have more respondents who support the construction, and, as Ceraso said, the canvassing was clearly focused on areas that would be most impacted by the opening of a Walmart.

What do you think about these numbers and Good Growth DeKalb's claims? Tell us in the comments section below.