The platform for modern public + government collaboration.
Our first report demonstrates the viability of our platform, and its potential to elevate the voices and ideas of the Burlington community. Between April 1st and April 13th 2025, 30 residents fully registered to engage, and we received 21 Pulse Ballot responses.
Geographic overview of the 21 residents who provided input in this round.
Each address has been randomized while maintaining the general neighborhood to allow this visual overview while protecting privacy. That explains the swimming dots — we'll fix that eventually!
Key Insights
This section shares key insights and stories learned from the public's responses.
🔎
This report is just a preview.
This first report is just a test, and is based on too small of a sample size (21) to be considered significant. However, it offers a preview of what kinds of reports DemocracyOS can provide, and helps respondents understand more clearly how their input might be used.
🏠
Housing emerged as the top concern.
Even with a small sample size (21), housing clearly emerged as the primary concern. See Issues Overview and Community Voices below.
💬
We want your feedback!
Whether you're a member of government or the general public, we’d love to hear what you would find most valuable in these reports. Email jesse@democracyos.com.
Issue Analysis
Housing is the most pressing concern raised amongst residents.
Of all the issues raised by respondents, housing stood out as the most frequently mentioned, followed by health and transportation.
While this insight may seem predictable, we believe that having consistent, quantified data makes it easier to influence public policy — because clear numbers are far more convincing than assumptions alone.
The chart below shows how many times each issue was either marked as important or mentioned in participant input.
🏠 Housing
15
🩺 Health
8
🚙 Transportation
8
🌳 Environment
7
🛡️ Safety
7
🏦 Economy
6
🛝 Spaces
6
📚 Education
5
👨👩👧👦 Families
⚖️ Rights
2
🏘️ Neighborhood
1
Community Voices
Representative Quotes
These quotes were selected by our system for being generally representative of common sentiments.
Housing
#1 Issue
👩
Early 20s, Woman
Ward 2
🏳️🌈
LGBTQ+,
🏡
Renter
Similar sentiment expressed by:
👩🦳
Late 60s, Woman
Ward 5
LGBTQ+,
Renter,
Veteran/Military
"As a low income, senior, I cannot afford to live in an apartment by myself at market rate rents…
🧑
Late 20s, Nonbinary
Ward 2
LGBTQ+,
Transgender
"We need more homeownership opportunities for young people."
👨
Early 30s, Man
Ward 5
Renter,
Small Business Owner / Entrepreneur
"We need to dramatically decrease the barriers to housing of all kinds, and stop focusing on “affordable housing” only..."
👩
Early 30s, Woman
Ward 2
Parent / Guardian
"…many of our closest friends in Burlington have had to move to other communities when they want to own a home because they couldn't find anything…"
+ 6 more
Transportation
👨
Early 30s, Man
Ward 5
🏡
Renter,
🏪
Small Business Owner / Entrepreneur
Similar sentiment expressed by:
👨
Early 30s, Man
Ward 5
Renter
"Need to build more housing, more third spaces, more sustainable transit, and make sustainability/regeneration the organizing principle of all decision making!"
👩
Late 30s, Woman
Ward 2
Renter
“Invest in bus infrastructure as a top priority! As for me, I’d be happy to go a little out of my way to take the bus most places that I currently drive to…”
👩
Early 20s, Woman
Ward 5
LGBTQ+,
Renter
“I would love for there to be an increased focus on public transit, since it is being defunded at the State level, and I think our municipality of Burlington has more sway than we think when it comes to pressuring the state to fund GMT.”
Environment
👩
Early 30s, Man
Ward 5
🏡
Renter
Similar sentiment expressed by:
👩
Early 20s, Woman
Ward 2
LGBTQ+,
Parent / Guardian
"…making housing that can work for people as we adapt to the climate crisis…"
🧑🦳
Late 50s, Nonbinary
Ward 5
LGBTQ+,
Parent / Guardian,
Small Business Owner
"…Investing in renewable energy will help with the climate crisis…."
+ 2 more
Highlights & Ideas
These additional quotes were selected by our system for either being unique from other input in their category, reflective of new sentiment, or containing more concrete, actionable ideas.
👩
Late 30s, Woman
Ward 2
👨👩👧👦
Parent / Guardian
🗳️
Voting Rights
"…With the new proposals for education funding and local control being taken away, one thing I have heard is that legal residents (non citizen voters) will no longer be able to vote for school board or school budget, which affects them. We have fought for legal resident voting for a while so to have this stripped away would be damaging to democracy…"
👨
Early 30s, Man
Ward 5
🏡
Renter,
🏪
Small Business Owner / Entrepreneur
🏠
Housing
💰
Housing Affordability
🚌
Public Transit
🔊
Noise
🌬️
Air Quality
💵
Economy
👷♂️
Jobs
"We need to dramatically decrease the barriers to housing of all kinds, and stop focusing on “affordable housing” only. Construction costs $500 per square foot, and we need volume. We cannot afford to subsidize new construction. Also, we need to aggressively shift away from cars, because it is making our city louder, more polluted, more dangerous, and more expensive to live in. Walking, cycling, and public transit are far more accessible and affordable than driving, and yet they are all being marginalized in favor of driving. The mode share of driving is going up while others are going down, regardless of how DPW tries to spin it. We also need a lot more people in Burlington to achieve a truly urban economy, because as it stands there are very few options for good paying jobs that actually let you afford to live here without roommates."
👩
Late 30s, Woman
Ward 2
🏡
Renter
🚌
Public Transit
"Invest in bus infrastructure as a top priority! As for me, I’d be happy to go a little out of my way to take the bus most places that I currently drive to, but the bus is rarely convenient. If the need for bus lines is only determined based on who’s already taking the bus, I hope we can change that. If they build it, we will come."
👩
Late 30s, Woman
Ward 2
👨👩👧👦
Parent / Guardian
♻️
Recycling
"I'm concerned because I heard they might be ending municipal recycling. We rely on this and it lets us generate minimal waste. If this service is no longer provided, it will be a lot more of a burden to recycle and more things will end up in a landfill."
👨
Early 30s, Man
Ward 7
👨👩👧👦
Parent / Guardian
💵
Economy
🏠
Housing
"I think the health of the economy is the most important way that society improves, as measured by median cost-adjusted income. And housing is the main cost and most necessary component of a persons life."
Respondents Overview
Confidence Level: Very Low
We're being transparent here: this initial report’s sample size is too small to confidently inform decisions. Our goal is 381 respondents per Pulse Ballot, which would give us statistically significant (95% confidence) insights for Burlington’s population of 44,743. Future reports will always include a clear confidence score like this.
Stratification Detail: Selecting a Burlington-in-Miniature
We use a method called stratification, meaning each round’s participants proportionally reflect Burlington’s demographics. This is why we ask for basic demographic information during sign-up—to ensure the input we collect truly represents Burlington’s collective voice.
The charts below illustrate our demographic targets (gray bars), representing a statistically accurate “microcosm” of Burlington with at least 95% confidence. Alongside them, you’ll see our actual results from this initial test round (colored bars). While there’s room for improvement, these charts set clear baseline goals and will steadily improve over time.
Age
Gender
Race
Location
We also plan to enable city leaders to request targeted feedback from specific groups (e.g., youth, seniors, New Americans, LGBTQ+, parents, etc…). Our system is designed to make this possible.
© 2025 DemocracyOS, Inc.