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Providence Survey Results
The complete tally: Providence Residents Survey Results
Mayor Cicilline commissioned the ETC Institute, (Press Release) a market research firm, to conduct a statistical survey measuring resident satisfaction and to analyze the resulting data from surveys filled out by randomly-chosen residents of Providence. The results are in now.
Some of the more interesting results revealed that residents felt a bit less safe, but had a little better opinion of the police. A good number saw improvement in police visibility. Nevertheless, as always, the results showed much room for improvement.
The survey revealed 3 areas that Providence residents feel most concerned with and in most need of improvement:
1) Street maintenance, including snow removal, remains the city service in most need of improvement;
2) traffic management (including enforcement of existing laws);
3) and fostering economic development in the city, for job growth.
Wouldn't it be nice to see how, specifically, Mt. Hope residents weighed in on these city issues. We could even do our own survey. In fact, be on the lookout.
Update: Stay tuned for more analysis from John Twomey, who went to the Mayor's presentation of the survey on Monday.
John's update: Irene and I, as representitives of GCCC, recieved an invitation from Mayor Cicilline to attend a meeting at the Rodger Williams Park Casino. At the meeting, the Mayor, and an analyst from ETC, presented the results of the first ever Providence Residents Survey. In addition the Mayor went over the City's legislative package for 2005, a package that stresses property tax relief by asking the state to assume more of the financial burden for education.
On the survey, Mayor Cicilline stressed that because this is the first survey, its greatest value will be to serve as a baseline on which to compare future survey results. Because no previous survey reslults exist, it is important to understand that some areas of improvement won't be apparent. Read here, the Executive Summary.
Here are a few results from the survey:
City Services
Percent of respondents who were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" (as opposed to "neutral" or "dissatisfied") with...
water and wastewater services: 68%
public safety services: 66%
the stormwater runoff system: 51%
parks programs/facilities: 51%
customer service from the City: 41%
services for seniors: 40%
city code enforcement: 40%
city communication: 38%
the city's efforts to promote economic development and jobs: 36%
traffic flow management on city streets: 31%
street and infrastructure maintenance: 28%
In fact, a majority (52%) were dissatisfied with the maintenance of streets and infrastructure. It was chosen by 58% percent of residents as one of the top 3 most important city services to improve over the next two years, followed by economic development (42%), public safety services (30%), and traffic flow (30%).
Quality of Life
Percent who were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with...
Overall quality of life in Providence: 60%
overall image of life in your neighborhood: 56%
image and appearance of the City: 53%
value you receive for city tax dollars: 23%
Providence as a place to live: 64%
Providence as a place to work: 54%
Providence as a place to raise kids: 38%
Public Safety
Percent of respondents who were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" (as opposed to "neutral" or "dissatisfied") with...
fire protection: 79%
local ambulance service: 75%
response times: 63%
assistance from fire inspection: 62%
local police protection: 56%
visibility of police in retail areas: 44%
neighborhood police visibility: 43%
traffic enforcement: 41%
homeland security efforts: 39%
The most dissatisfaction was with the (lack of) visibility of police in neighborhoods (31% were dissatisfied), and police protection in the neighborhoods topped the list of the most important and immediate items. When it comes to safety, most people feel about the same as they did one year ago (61%), but there are more people who feel less safe (20%) than those who feel safer (14%) than they did one year ago. At the same time there were more people who had a better opinion of the Providence Police (18%) compared to one year ago, than those who had a lower opinion (14%). Most felt about the same. Also, 33% thought that police were more visible compared with the 12% who felt that the police were less visible.
There is much more detail about Parks and Recreation, Public Works, Public Safety, the Arts, City Ordinances, Customer Service and Communication, and Demographics. The complete results can be found here.
I found an interesting Rhode Island political site, BlackWhiteLeftRight blog), which also contains links to several other interesting Rhode Island political blog sites.
Posted at March 1, 2005 01:14 PM