Interviews versus the survey
To understand a neighborhood you can sit and interview a few residents deeply (qualitative) or hand out a thousand tick-box surveys (quantitative). Neither is better — the question you're asking decides which method fits.
Words or numbers?
Quantitative research measures and counts, testing hypotheses with numerical data. Qualitative research interprets meaning through interviews, texts, and observation.
Fit method to question
'How many / how often?' leans quantitative. 'How and why do people experience X?' leans qualitative.