The 7th annual Community Survey from the city auditor's office finds that citizens enjoy Chattanooga's livability and feel safer. However, traffic problems are an increasing concern.
City Auditor Stan Sewell said:
RE: City of Chattanooga 7th Annual Community Survey
This report presents the results of our 7th annual Community Survey. We asked Chattanoogans about their views on a variety of city services, and approximately 2,000 residents responded from May to August. In addition to reporting on citywide data. we report survey data specific to each of Chattanooga's nine city council districts.
Chattanoogans continue to give high ratings to their city and neighborhoods in 2018. Chattanoogans believe the City is a good place to live, work raise a family and retire. Ratings for all of these key livability factors are up for 2018. In addition, resident's feelings of safety have increased since last year. However, satisfaction with traffic flow is decreasing from year to year and the ratings on smoothness of streets continue to be very low. The 2018 survey, like previous surveys. often showed significant differences in opinions based on the district surveyed.
We have included an addendum with summaries from a general analysis by council district. This addendum contains brief comments that may be of interest at a district level. As mentioned in our report, it is important for readers to recognize many insights may be gained by analyzing the data independently.
We sent the survey to 10.000 randomly-selected households, including a version of the survey available in Spanish. Twenty percent of households receiving the survey responded. We calculated the citywide survey accuracy to be within ± 2.17 percent, while accuracy by city council district ranged from ±S.69 to ±8.10 percent.
In comparing the demographic information provided by survey respondents to 2010 Census data (and 2017 Census Bureau estimates), we found that our survey respondents are older and more educated than the population as a whole, as was noted in previous years. We also found that females are over-represented and minorities are under-represented among those who returned our survey. These demographic differences are similar to previous years. We have noted a positive S year trend of residents reporting individual incomes over $75,000 per year (20 percent in 2014 vs. 27 percent in 2018). We also recognized a slight upward trend of residents reporting they have attended college.
We noted response rates for Districts 7,8 and 9 were significantly lower than those for 2017. These three districts often report some of the more negative perceptions when compared to the City as a whole. Users of this report should consider the impact of these underrepresented districts when reviewing results.
This report provides the public and policy makers with valuable information regarding resident satisfaction with city services. We encourage the Mayor, City Council members, City Department Heads, Regional Planning Agency Managers, and community leaders to study trends and differences in community perceptions as they consider strategies to improve services across the nine City Council districts.
We want to thank the approximately 2,000 Chattanoogans who took the time to complete and return the survey. In addition, we want to thank the Electric Power Board, the City's mail room staff and the City's Geographic Information Systems unit for their assistance with this effort.
Respectfully,
Stan Sewell, CPA, CGFM, CFE
City Auditor
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Click here to read the full report.