How’s Tacoma doing? Community satisfaction continues downward trend in latest survey
If you’re feeling down about quality of life in Tacoma, you’re not alone.
The latest Tacoma Community Survey, which the city uses to set priorities as it prepares for its next budget, showed ratings of quality of life and overall satisfaction down from the last survey in 2020.
Just 62 percent of respondents rated the overall quality of life in Tacoma as excellent or good, down from 76 percent in 2018 and 71 percent in 2020.
Mayor Victoria Woodards, after receiving the review presentation at study session Tuesday, March 29, noted, “Some of the numbers can be disheartening, because ... we do work really hard, but it doesn’t always translate into how it makes our community feel.”
Woodards added, “I think this is really important information for us to know so that we know how we need to move forward.”
Among demographics, 70 percent of white respondents picked rated quality of life satisfaction as excellent or good, compared with Blacks (51 percent) Hispanics (53 percent), other (36 percent) and those of two or more races (67 percent).
Among districts, the percentage ranged from a high of 77 percent in District 1, the city’s north side, to 43 percent in District 5, in the city’s southern portion.
District 2 (parts of downtown, Stadium District, Old Town, Northslope, the Port of Tacoma and Northeast Tacoma) was at 66 percent, District 3 (Hilltop, Tacoma Mall area among others) was at 67 percent, and District 4, encompassing the city’s neighborhoods to the east, was at 57 percent.
Among households, renters registered lower ratings of quality of life with just 46 percent selecting the top two options, compared with 68 percent of homeowners surveyed.
City services, police
Among respondents, 75 percent ranked their overall levels of satisfaction with city services as “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied,” with the individual districts ranking it between 83 percent (District 1) and 66 percent (District 2).
Fire response and emergency medical services got the highest average rankings of satisfaction, (94 percent and 92 percent respectively) while police patrols received 51 percent satisfaction, down from 73 percent in 2018 and 64 percent in 2020.
Police investigations dropped to 45 percent among respondents’ “very or somewhat satisfied” from 62 percent in 2020 and 57 percent in 2018.
Satisfaction for code enforcement, the city’s response to abandoned buildings, graffiti, overgrown vegetation, etc. was at 47 percent, down from 63 percent in 2020 and 56 percent in 2018.
Police patrols and investigations, along with code enforcement were among the city’s “priority areas for improvement” in the survey results.
While many of the high priority services needing improvement were similar to previous years, some new ones made the list, including a call for “equitable access to facilities, services, and infrastructure for residents of diverse incomes, race, ethnicity, and abilities.”
Others included police community programs and street cleaning.
The survey noted, “Respondents had relatively low levels of satisfaction with the street condition and equitable access to services/facilities, but high satisfaction with local parks and recreation centers.”
Street conditions garnered just 46 percent in high satisfaction ratings from respondents, making it another priority area for improvement.
Social and environmental issues
When it came to social and environmental issues, “The ease of bicycle travel and the street, trail and other transportation enhancements in local neighborhoods were rated as top priority areas for improvement,” the survey said.
Efforts to reduce climate-change emissions came in third among respondents.
Just over half of the respondents (52 percent) “expected the quality of life to improve or stay the same in the next 5 years,” it noted. That’s tumbled from 60 percent in 2018 and 58 percent in 2020.
Among the major issues facing the city in the next decade, 40 percent of respondents put homelessness at the top of the list. Housing/housing shortage/land shortage came in a distant second at 19 percent, followed by crime/gang activity/drugs/gun control (13 percent), overpopulation/overcrowding /influx from Seattle/ population growth (5 percent) and policing/public safety issues (4 percent) rounding out the top five.
Homelessness was the top issue across all districts, but the second-most top issue varied by district. Residents in Districts 1, 3 and 4 listed housing, while residents in Districts 2 and 5 cited crime.
Feeling of safety
Overall feeling of safety as “very or somewhat safe” dropped from 85 percent in 2018 to 72 percent in 2022, with an economic divide behind those responses in full display.
Residents of household incomes greater than $100,000 were more likely to rate their overall feeling of safety as very or somewhat safe (85 percent), “and those with household income between $50,000 to $99,999 were less likely to feel safe (59 percent),” the survey said.
It also noted that Hispanic residents, at 88 percent, “were more likely than the population average (64 percent) to be very or somewhat fearful that they might be affected by crime.”
When asked, “How fearful are you that you will be affected by crime?” two districts in particular showed a stark range, with District 1 respondents at 52 percent and District 5 at 75 percent.
Just 55 percent of respondents felt that Tacoma police “will keep them very or somewhat safe from crime,” down from 70 percent in 2020. Again, there was a wide range reflected between respondents from District 1 (70 percent) and District 5 (42 percent.)
Methodology and early reaction
The survey of 750 respondents divided equally among the districts, with a margin of error of 3.6 percent, was conducted by MDB Insight of Toronto. It used computer-assisted telephone interviewing with calls placed between Nov. 15, 2021, and Jan. 16 of this year.
Chris Bandek, executive vice president of MDB Insight, presented the findings at Tacoma City Council’s study session March 29. Bandek noted that Tacoma residents’ responses were similar to other measurements of satisfaction in polls nationwide.
“In key metrics across the United States that pertains to overall satisfaction levels, quality of life, opportunity for a person to get ahead by working ... the power of government ... this was done at the federal level,” Bandek said, he noted the federal survey results also showed a national decline from 53 percent in 2020 to 39 percent in 2021.
“I think it’s very representative of what’s happening across the board and at the municipal level, and you can see overall satisfaction and general satisfaction levels are declining with a pretty big drop between 2020 to 2021,” he said. “And that’s continued into 2022.”
He added that for the local results, “I think it’s important to take them with a grain of salt in terms of thinking that this is just a Tacoma problem. I think this is something that is happening and occurring across the entire country.”
In somewhat of a pep talk before presenting the results, he told council: “62 percent is not a terrible number for a KPI (key performance indicators). It’s not great, but there is definitely room for improvement. But again, given the trends, I’m not completely surprised that you’re seeing these declines in overall satisfaction, especially for quality of life.”
He also suggested that the city consider another form of survey participation beyond the method used now, given its non-response rate among calls made, suggesting that a mailer with an online form for people to respond might gain a larger response.
Before the presentation, city budget officer Katie Johnston suggested that dedicated outreach would help in regaining trust in government.
“Outreach ... such as the participatory budgeting program that was funded by the council through (the American Rescue Plan Act) I think is going to be a really good tool to help look at how we can rebuild some of that trust and confidence in municipal government.”
