City residents report falling satisfaction with condition of streets
Every year, the city of Columbia sends out hundreds of surveys to its residents to get a better idea of what it’s doing right and how it can do better.
The surveys had been going out every other year since 2003, but now it’s an annual project taken on by city staff.
“Getting feedback like this helps focus our attention on what the primary concerns are of the citizens and what they want us to do when we make our decisions,” said Ward 5 councilman Matt Pitzer.
Seventy-nine percent of residents are satisfied with the overall quality of life in the city, and 75 percent of residents surveyed were satisfied with the overall quality of city services.
“They think the local government does a generally very good job,” said consultant Chris Tatham. “Not perfect, but the overall perceptions of the city are very strong.”
Notably, based on the number of people who took the survey, citizens showed increased satisfaction with public safety services, local economic conditions and police efforts to prevent crime. Satisfaction with the stormwater management system also boasted an increase from 2017 to 2018.
City staff has highlighted areas for improvement. The 2018 survey cites a 16 percentage point decrease in residents’ satisfaction with the condition of city streets.
“Streets has kind of been consistently flagged now for a couple years,” said Tatham. “For a long time it was one of your top priorities.”
Below is an example of the survey responses for city services by major categories. The top responses are from the 2017 survey and the bottom picture is from 2018.
Pitzer said council should continue to find ways to prioritize road funding.
“We need to make sure we’re not spending money on things we can’t really afford when we’ve got these fundamental problems that we’re not addressing,” he said.
Last year, ABC 17 News reported that the 2017 survey saw a 9 percent increase in resident satisfaction with the availability of city staff and the ease with which they could reach the right employee. Civic relations officer Toni Messina told ABC 17 News that the city had recently established a contact center.
In 2018, that satisfaction dropped 8 percent.
Another notable change from 2017 to 2018 was the feeling of safety in downtown Columbia at night. The surveys from 2018 cited a 6 percent decrease in that safety. It’s likely due to the number of shootings that happened over the course of just a few weekends last summer.
I’ve met with downtown business owners, we’ve increased the lighting in downtown Columbia, we’ve increased foot patrols of our police department,” said Mayor Brian Treece. “We’re taking those steps to really embrace public safety. It’s our number one responsibility to make sure that people not only feel safe, but they are safe.”
