Monday, May 9, 2011

Commerce City: 2011 Citizen Survey Results Released

Quality of Life, satisfaction with city on rise

COMMERCE CITY – Mark Twain said, “The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all.” Tonight, Commerce City released the results of its 2011 Citizens Survey, which provides quantitative data on resident perceptions and opinions on a number of aspects related to quality of life, community character, city services, and communication preferences. Overall, 55 percent of those who responded rated their quality of life within Commerce City as good or very good.

“I found the results of the survey to be very informative,” said Mayor Paul Natale. “The data provides Commerce City with the opportunity to address community needs and prioritize our goals to ensure we continue to meet citizen expectations.”

The city contracted with Corona Insights last month to conduct a telephone survey of more than 400 residents, with equal distribution of respondents living north and south of 96th Avenue. The raw margin of error was 4.8 percent, with a 95 percent confidence level. Survey results were then weighted so that age, gender and location were proportionally representative of the entire city. The result is a moderately strong survey that can accurately guide future decision-making.

“There are definitely areas of improvement that staff will begin to work on,” said City Manager Jerry Flannery. “But I am pleased that the overall feedback is positive and residents enjoy living here.”

Highlights from the survey include:


· Three in five respondents felt the Denver metro area was headed in the right direction.


· The most positively-rated aspects of Commerce City include parks and recreation, public safety and knowledge of city services. The highest levels of dissatisfaction with city services were in the areas of shopping and services location, the amount of these services and the image of the city.


· Ratings of Commerce City’s economic conditions were much more mixed, with one in five respondents giving a negative rating, compared to 26 percent who gave positive ratings.


· The most important issue for 35 percent of Commerce City residents centered on a need for economic development, shopping and services, or grocery stores.


· When asked to identify the highest priority among facility or service improvements, job opportunities and more shopping and services (including grocery stores) topped the list.


· Most respondents felt at least “somewhat safe” in being outside in their neighborhoods at night. One in 10 said they felt “unsafe” in their neighborhoods. Geographic location further affected resident’s opinion of being safe.


· More respondents had positive ratings than negative ratings of various aspects of their neighborhoods. Train traffic, the availability of restaurants and shopping and job opportunities had more negative ratings than positive.


· The most common issues reported were unkempt lawns, criminal activities, pet noise and graffiti. However, even these issues had a significant number of residents who felt that they were not problems at all.


· Roughly half of residents said they were proud to live in the city while 17 percent said that they were at least somewhat embarrassed. Most said they were embarrassed because of the city’s general image (presumably in the eyes of those who live outside the city), while others pointed to specific aspects of the city. This concept was reinforced by the fact that over half of respondents felt the city did not receive fair and unbiased coverage from people who live outside of the city.


· One in three respondents were at least “somewhat dissatisfied” with city communication.

The complete survey results are available on the city’s website at www.c3gov.com/2011survey.

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