About 900 people responded to this spring’s citizen survey in the city of Sioux Falls. Ninety-three percent of people rank their neighborhoods as safe, and 87 percent say their quality of life in the city is either good or excellent.
Three thousand people living in Sioux Falls received a citizen survey to assess how satisfied they are with the city. About 30 percent of people filled out the questionnaires and returned them. Dean Karsky is the chair of the Sioux Falls City Council.
"It was a yellow envelope and it was somewhat intimidating because you did have to rank if you thought it was poor, fair, better or much better than average. We had open-ended questions for people to give responses there also," Karsky says. "It’s always kind of a little humorous; people want better streets but they hate traffic construction."
Karsky says only about one-third say street repair is excellent or good.
"When asked how to spend existing tax dollars, 65 percent of the respondents identify streets as very important," Karsky says. "In fact, when you add those who believe it is somewhat important to that number, it becomes nearly unanimous at 98 percent."
The survey shows overall opinions of Sioux Falls are positive. 93 percent of people say Sioux Falls is an excellent or good place to live – and would recommend living in in the city to other people. Police and fire services rank high, and employment opportunities also have a positive response.
Karsky says the survey also identifies areas needing improvement, including affordable housing.
"The 49 percent who rated available affordable and available housing, I would have thought that would have been a bigger concern with the number of people we have on waiting lists and that type of thing, so there is a perception, but I thought it would have been greater, quite frankly," Karsky says.
Karsky says the survey was random – except that no city employees were allowed to participate.
You can view full results of the survey here. That includes rankings and ratings, trends over time and demographic breakdowns – plus the responses to the open-ended questions.