DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03373.v3
title: New York Times New York City Poll #1, October 2001
title: Version 3

description: This special topic poll was designed to assess respondents'
interest in and opinions about the 2001 election campaign for New York
City mayor as well as their opinions about and reactions to the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon. Residents of New York City gave their opinions of
President George W. Bush and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and their handling
of the terrorist attacks, along with their opinions of mayoral
candidates Michael Bloomberg (Republican), Fernando Ferrer (Democrat),
and Mark Green (Democrat), New York governor George Pataki, and New
York senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer. Respondents
were queried about their readiness to vote in the upcoming mayoral
election, whom were they going to vote for, whether they would vote
for Giuliani if he were a candidate, and whether Giuliani should leave
office as scheduled, extend his current term by three months, or be
permitted to run again. Their views were sought on life in New York
City over the past four years, the most important problem facing the
city, the New York City economy and how it had been affected by the
terrorist attacks, the national image of the city and its residents'
responses to the terrorist attacks, and whether respondents were
concerned about another terrorist attack on the city. The survey
assessed respondents' willingness to give up personal freedoms to make
the country safe. Specifically, they were asked whether they would
mind the following: arriving three hours early for a domestic flight,
having more security checkpoints at public events/public buildings,
allowing government agencies to monitor the telephone calls and e-mail
of ordinary American citizens on a regular basis, and requiring
everyone in the United States to carry a national electronic
identification card. Respondents were asked about their reactions to
the terrorist attacks, including whether they had felt nervous/edgy,
experienced difficulty sleeping, sought counseling, cancelled a
business trip/vacation, lost a substantial portion of their income
and/or their job, or worried about the financial future of their
employer. Those surveyed were also asked whether they knew someone who
was missing or was injured or killed in the attack. In addition, they
were asked whether they had donated blood, made
contributions/donations to organizations assisting the victims,
stocked up on supplies of food and/or water, visited their local
firehouse, purchased gas masks, asked their physicians for
antibiotics, and whether their children had experienced nightmares
and/or expressed concern for their safety. Respondents were asked how
often they engaged in the following activities prior to the attacks
and whether that would change: attending sporting events, concerts,
religious services, and other large events, traveling overseas,
watching news on television, spending time with family and close
friends, eating at restaurants, investing in the stock market,
traveling by subway, traveling by air, visiting museums and/or
galleries, and going into skyscrapers. A series of questions focused
on racial profiling and the treatment of Arab Americans since the
attacks. Topics covered whether racial profiling was justified,
whether respondents had been stopped based on their racial/ethnic
background, whether Arab Americans would be unfairly singled out
during the investigation of the terrorist attacks, whether Arab
Americans were more or less sympathetic to terrorists than other
American citizens, and whether respondents had experienced negative
feelings toward the Arab American community. Additional topics covered
respondents' level of confidence in the United States government to
catch those responsible for the attacks, whether people liked to see
violence on television and in the movies, whether the United States
had made it too easy for people from other countries to enter the
United States, whether respondents were confident their neighbors
would help them in an emergency, whether they were considering moving
out of the city, whether they were worried about the stock market,
whether they were concerned about businesses leaving the city, what
they believed to be the appropriate penalty for persons convicted of
murder, and whether people in other countries based their view of the
United States on the portrayal of Americans in television, movies, and
the news. Background information on respondents includes age, gender,
political party, political orientation, voter registration and
participation history, employment status, race, Hispanic descent,
marital status, borough of residency, religion, importance of
religion, age of children in household, and household income.
description: A variation of random-digit dialing using primary sampling
units (PSUs) was employed, consisting of blocks of 100 telephone
numbers identical through the eighth digit and stratified by
geographic region, area code, and size of place. Within households,
respondents were selected using a method developed by Leslie Kish and
modified by Charles Backstrom and Gerald Hursh (see Backstrom and
Hursh, SURVEY RESEARCH. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press,
1963).
description: Datasets: 
DS1: New York Times New York City Poll #1, October 2001
description: Adult population of New York City aged 18 and over having
telephones at home.
description: This collection has not been processed by ICPSR staff.
ICPSR is distributing the data and documentation for this collection in
essentially the same form in which they were received. When appropriate,
documentation has been converted to Portable Document Format (PDF), data files
have been converted to non-platform-specific formats, and variables have been
recoded to ensure respondents' anonymity.The ASCII data file may have been replaced if the previous version was formatted with multiple records per case. A frequency file, which contains the authoritative column locations, has been added to the collection.