Quadsville

Here's the Executive Summary (recommended) and the full report (if you want all the charts and data). Or read Times reporter Deirdre Baker's story.

It turns out there's less crime here than you think. And more people use public transportation than you realized. And guess how many people visited our cultural attractions like the Adler Theatre, Figge Art Museum and i wireless Center last year: 1.3 million.

Maybe you're not surprised to learn these things about our community. After all, only 9 percent of the 800 adults surveyed gave the Quad-Cities a "fair" or "poor" rating. Our unemployment rates are similar to the national average and our poverty rates are lower.

Fewer Quad-Citians smoke now than five years ago, but about two-thirds of the adult population is overweight (which is consistent with the national average - ?!?!).

One stat I found particularly amazing was that 96.6 percent of residents say they recycle and conserve energy on a regular basis. That's terrific!

People's opinions of the public school systems are more positive than they were in 2002. Teen pregnancy rates are declining, however, they are above the national average at 12.2 percent (versus 10.4 percent).

I'm not sure how to interpret this bit: "New construction housing permits went down about 20 percent for single-family homes, but up more than 73 percent for multifamily units from 2006 to 2007."

Some commenters on qctimes.com have said it's a bad thing, because it means more renters and Section 8 housing. But I can think of a lot of downtown lofts and high-end condo construction that has occurred recently that would also fall under the "multifamily unit" category. And why do renters get a bad rap? I rent. There has been some research that indicates too many Americans own their own home and that has contributed not only to sprawl but to the mortgage crisis we are in.