Tacoma community survey shows we feel safe ... except when we don’t
What are Tacomans most worried about?
Homelessness, far and away, topped the list of respondents’ concerns for the next 10 years in a recent citywide survey. That also was chosen by the most respondents as the top social service priority for the city right now.
After homelessness, residents’ concerns become much more district-specific.
Curiously, the results showed while more than half of the respondents feared they would be affected by crime, a much larger percentage rated their overall feeling of safety in Tacoma as somewhat or very safe.
The 2019 Tacoma Community Survey showed quality of life and overall satisfaction ranked at 71 percent. That was slightly lower than results from 2018, when respondents gave the city a 76 percent ranking.
The survey was conducted by research firm MDB Insight.
“Your current rating ... is actually quite good, relative to a lot of municipalities,” Chris Bandak, executive vice president of MDB Insight, told the City Council at a Jan. 28 study session.
The 2019 results “are on the absolute fringe of statistical significance in terms of difference, so in my expert opinion, I would say it hasn’t changed. I would say this result is very similar” to the last survey, Bandak said.
The survey, conducted Nov. 6 through Dec. 31, reached 750 respondents across the city, with 138-161 sampled from each district, with a margin of error of 3.6 percent.
Among the results:
▪ Overall, 58 percent expect the quality of life to improve in the next five years, also similar to 2018.
▪ District 1, covering the city’s North End, put crime second on the list as what it believed would be the next major issue for Tacoma to face in the next decade.
▪ District 2, which includes the port, downtown and the Tacoma Dome, listed traffic.
▪ District 3, which includes the Tacoma Mall, Central Tacoma and Hilltop areas, worried about economic development and economic diversity.
▪ Districts 4 and 5, encompassing the South End, Eastside and parts of South Tacoma, worry about overpopulation and an influx of people from Seattle.
The satisfaction rates also varied among the districts, with District 2 giving the city the highest marks, 93 percent, and District 4 giving the lowest, 61 percent. Districts 3 and 5 ranked it at 63 percent and District 1 at 74 percent.
The survey, conducted at a cost of $29,930, used a mix of 80 percent homeowners and 20 percent renters.
That’s nowhere near the actual makeup of Tacoma, which according to the latest Census data, shows about a 50-50 split.
“For me that’s a question to work through,” Council member Conor McCarthy noted at the study session.
The challenge, according to those who presented the findings, is capturing residents with cell-phone numbers assigned specifically to the 253 area code — for example a California transplant living in Tacoma but still using a California-based cell-phone number.
CRIME
Crime earned a variety of results.
The survey showed 52 percent were very or somewhat fearful they would be affected by crime, and of those, more so homeowners than renters (53.5 percent vs. 36.3 percent).
In the demographic breakdown, there was a higher percentage of white (53.2 percent) and Hispanic (53 percent) respondents vs. black respondents (38.4 percent) saying they were very or somewhat fearful of being affected by crime.
Fear of being affected by crime also varied across districts:
▪ District 1: 52 percent
▪ District 2: 45 percent
▪ District 3 58 percent
▪ District 4: 38 percent
▪ District 5: 64 percent
However, 83 percent rated their overall feeling of safety as somewhat or very safe, with 90 percent of men sharing that response vs. 76 percent of women. The demographic breakdown was 77 percent of black respondents; 71 percent of Hispanic respondents and 82 percent of white respondents.
The survey found 70 percent also said they felt Tacoma police would keep them very or somewhat safe from crime, and again, the districts show some variations on that, with District 2 the highest at 83 percent and District 3 the lowest at 54 percent.
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
City events (such as the annual Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebration or First Night Tacoma) and religious institutions were the two biggest draws for people, according to the survey.
What about City Council meetings? Not so much, with participation among respondents at just 14 percent. District 3 was the most engaged for council meetings, at 29 percent, while District 4 was the least at 3 percent.
Overall, District 3 showed the most civic engagement among the districts in different activities, with only District 2 showing a higher percentage of participating in city events, and District 5 showing a higher percentage in volunteering and religious institution participation.
