If you’ve ever attended a screening of a film that so much as mentions Austin, you know your neighbors love to applaud the town where they live. And so finds the city of Austin’s 2018 Community Survey, in which 65% of respondents are either “‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with the overall quality of City services” – a 14% increase over 2017.
Austinites generally judge their services more fondly than other large-city dwellers; that 65% “satisfaction rate” on quality compares to a 44% national average for cities over 500,000 residents, and on “overall customer service” Austin’s 57% score well exceeds the 35% national average. Austin’s highest scores were for library services (85%), fire services (84%), and parks and recreation (79%); at the wrong end of the satisfaction scale are city communications (48%), code enforcement (44%), condition of major streets (44%), and traffic flow on major streets (a dismal but unsurprising 13%). The survey was compiled by Kansas-based ETC Institute, a specialized firm that’s fielded the study for years; it included 2,261 completed interviews in four languages by mail and internet (followed up by email and phone calls), with at least 200 surveys in each of the 10 City Council districts, demographically balanced for income, gender, and race, with a 2% error margin. Based on the findings, ETC suggested the city can increase residents’ satisfaction by improving traffic flow, planning for growth, and producing quality affordable housing. (The firm has made these suggestions before.)
Posted here is the summary presentation of the ETC Institute report of the annual Austin Community Survey, compiled from 2,261 surveys collected in the summer and fall of 2018.
This article appears in March 1 • 2019.
