Despite living in a city that’s home to the Sears Tower, one of the world’s busiest airports and other potentially tempting targets, two-thirds of Chicago voters say they feel generally safe from terrorist attacks, according to the latest Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll.
The survey of registered voters in Illinois shows an even greater sense of safety among those who live in Chicago’s collar counties and Downstate, areas where nearly 90 percent say they feel very or somewhat safe from terrorism. That compares with 66 percent among Chicagoans.
“There is no real reason to attack Chicago,” said poll participant Melinda Power, an attorney who lives in the Logan Square neighborhood. “I’m not concerned.”
Any feelings of Midwestern insulation aside, poll participants have mixed feelings about how well prepared local and state government agencies are for a terrorist attack or major natural disaster, such as the one the nation recently witnessed in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Only 8 percent of the poll’s participants statewide say that state government is “very well prepared” for a major crisis, although another 54 percent believe it is “somewhat prepared.”
“As far as security and terrorists, I don’t know that we can ever be prepared,” said poll participant Rita Erdmann, a retired state worker from Des Plaines.
Confidence in local government preparedness is slightly lower, with 56 percent statewide saying their local agencies are somewhat or very well prepared for a major emergency.
Downstate voters have the least confidence in the preparedness of their local government. Just more than half say their local officials are somewhat or very well prepared, while 41 percent say they believe they are generally unprepared.
“You can have a plan, and you should follow it, but nothing goes smooth,” said poll participant Rae Rogy, a Peoria woman who owns a chain of child-care centers. “After seeing what happened in New Orleans, that was a disaster locally.”
Rogy said she believes people are too dependent on government, and they need to be more prepared to fend for themselves. “There is only so much you can expect,” she said.
Those in Chicago are slightly more optimistic about the preparation of their local government agencies, with 17 percent saying they believe the city is very well prepared for a major natural disaster or terror attack and 45 percent saying their local government is somewhat prepared.
Some national polls have shown that the level of concern over terrorism has gradually eased since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, although concern fluctuates significantly based on the latest news events.
“It has never come back to that pre-Sept. 11 figure, but it has come down a lot,” said Lydia Saad, a senior editor with the Gallup Poll.
Saad said pollsters expect that the level of worry about terrorism on American soil will gradually diminish the longer it has been since an attack. “People essentially become used to worrying about terrorism, so they may become less concerned about it,” she said.
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll taken in July showed 47 percent of Americans were very or somewhat worried that they or someone in their family would become a victim of terrorism.
Hundreds of miles from the nearest hurricane zones, Illinois voters say they feel generally safe from natural disasters. Statewide, 87 percent feel very or somewhat safe from natural calamities, while 93 percent in the collar counties say they feel that way.
Illinois voters spread the blame evenly when asked about delays in the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi. Local and federal government received slightly more blame than state government, but the largest response was from those who said all levels of government were to blame.
The majority of poll participants statewide–57 percent–say they believe the federal government has learned to handle future emergencies better because of Katrina. About a third said the federal government failed to learn any lessons, and 8 percent were unsure.
Perceptions about what role race played in the government’s response to Katrina were starkly different between blacks and whites.
Roughly two-thirds of African-American poll participants said the government’s response would have been better had the area that was worst hit not been mostly poor and black, while only about a quarter of whites believe that.
Democrats in Illinois were generally divided on whether race and income played a role in the government’s response to the New Orleans crisis, while 88 percent of Republicans said demographics played no role.
The telephone poll of 700 registered voters was conducted Oct. 5-11 by Market Shares Corp. of Mt. Prospect and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points for the full sample.
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Tribune/WGN-TV poll on feelings about terrorism
How safe do you feel from a terrorist attack where you live?
Statewide
Very or somewhat safe: 81%
Not too safe or not safe at all: 15%
Don’t know: 4%
Chicago
Very or somewhat safe: 66%
Not too safe or not safe at all: 31%
Don’t know: 3%
Collar counties
Very or somewhat safe: 87%
Not too safe or not safe at all: 10%
Don’t know: 3%
Downstate
Very or somewhat safe: 86%
Not too safe or not safe at all: 11%
Don’t know: 3%
Source: Market Shares Corp. survey of 700 Illinois registered voters from Oct. 5-11.
Margin of error is +/- 4 percentage points.
Chicago Tribune
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mccormickj@tribune.com
