Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics, or what is the heck is WOMAG peddling?

The Worcester Magazine Best of Worcester poll. What’s the story behind the poll? Is there one? We thinks.

“More than 5,000 votes”, with that WOMAG claims the highest vote tally since inception of its poll - whenever that was. But we have a caveat.

Of those “more than 5,000 votes” WWW’s friends, families, & followers participated with exactly 666 votes - we lost. F-ing Jeff got it. Foul! Something is amiss! And to heap insult on injury they didn't even give WWW an honorable mention. Now, that's not very nice is it?

The way we see it, from a population of 187,000 - including transients i.e., students – a poll that encompasses only 0.00027% of the potential votes isn’t really representative of Worcester or anything else. Maybe disinterest or even apathy? What does that say about Wusta? What does that say about WOMAG?

With “100+ categories” which seems a bit of overkill for a poll - best dry cleaner, best frame store, best car wash (really people WTF), they only managed “more than 5,000 votes”. We see the results for 100+ categories distilled from the “more than 5,000 votes” to mean that about 50 folks voted. Realistically it was probably about 500, but that still doesn’t come close to being representative does it? No statistician in his or her right mind would validate that premise. 

Wouldn’t you like to see the WOMAG data? I know Perestroika was like 20 years ago, but come on guys be honest. Another thought, can it be that the respondents number is dwindling and they're tweaking the numbers? Deduct our 666 and whatta get? Not a pretty picture. Is WOMAG really just milking a dead cow?

Here's a complementary piece of information. Wonder what the Federal Census participation results looks like for Wusta? Response rates for the two lowest federally designated reporting tracts are, I’m approximating here because those tracts overlap other voting districts, are Main South with a whopping 53% and downtown with a spectacular 55%. Both tracts part of the infamous District 4, with a - we’re approximating again - a 56% total response rate. At least it’s higher than the perennially anemic 20% voter turnout. Compared to the burbs response rate which approximates 69%, the City of Worcester, in total, is 68% - that’s an official number that came out last week. Can it be we got the apathy bacteria in our drinking water?

Worcester needs help, but it seems the folks in District 4 don’t give a shit about their predicament? Hey there’s free federal dollars for the asking but at 56% the feds will think Wusta is actually doing better than the social architects at City Hall are alluding. Now that sure ain’t gonna help Mayor Joe in his campaign to turn Main South into a federally subsidized housing project for the underprivileged.

We think that what all this is saying is that you folks are pretty darn apathetic when it comes to participating in anything. We’re just calling it like we see it folks. 

Wait! Hold your horses there WWW. We ain’t apathetic, we a got us a thriving blogging scene here with gobs of intellectual dialog and lots of shakers and movers. Ah yes, glad you brought that up. Sorry, no you don’t and sorry, no you don't. It’s like 7 of you out there parsing the T&G. Shakers and movers you say. Yeah, like right.

Our point. Twist or spin it anyway you want, the impression that Wusta is a vibrant, pulsating metropolis is simply a hoax perpetrated by WOMAG. The facts speak for themselves and they have unwittingly proven it.