The assessments of community conditions by public officials and issue proponents have been traditionally viewed as widely divergent. The present study focuses on the assessments of mayors and environmental activists on several dimensions of the community environmental quality issue in cities of 10,000 to 50,000 population in the State of Illinois. The findings appear to contradict the traditional assumptions. Mayors and activists as measured by the kinds of questions we asked do not hold widely divergent views on community environmental conditions.
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