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Home My WebLink AboutD. Citizen Satisfaction SurveyPublic Opinion Research Survey Research Report Prepared for the City of Azusa August 2016 INFORMATION ITEM PRESENTED 9/6/2016 Special Meeting 2ThinkNow Research EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Quality of Life •Azusa residents were asked to rate the city on a number of different factors utilizing a five- point scale –excellent,good,fair,poor and not sure.Approximately 8-in-10 residents (79%) rated the quality of life in Azusa favorably,with 62%who said it is good and another 17%who said it is excellent.19%said it was fair and only 2%said it was poor. •As a place to live,respondents also rated the city positively with a combined 85%who said it is either excellent or good.A slightly lower proportion (79%)felt the same about their local neighborhood. Image/Appearance •When it came to rating Azusa on its overall image and reputation,two-thirds of respondents (66%)gave it a favorable rating,with most saying it is good (57%)and another 9%who say it is excellent.Close to one-quarter (23%)said it is “fair”and 8%said it is “poor”.In terms of its overall appearance,72%gave the city an excellent or good rating. City Services •Respondents were asked to evaluate a number of city services,including fire and police departments,road/sidewalk maintenance and trash collection.The majority of residents rated each service favorably (good or excellent).County Fire Services achieved the highest rating overall (87%),followed by trash collection (85%)and street cleaning (81%).Services that received lower ratings such as code enforcement (49%),land use (56%)and emergency preparedness (58%)had higher than average “not sure”responses. Roads/Parking/Walking •The vast majority of residents also rated the city favorably for the quality of its roads and parking availability.Approximately 8-in-10 said the quality of major roads is either good or excellent (81%)and three-fourths (75%)felt the same about its local roads.A combined 72% feel that parking availability is good or excellent.77%consider Azusa a good/excellent city for walking. Schools/Raising Children •Most residents rated Azusa favorably as a place to raise children (68%)but fewer gave it a favorable rating on the quality of its public schools (56%).Note that a relatively high proportion of respondents,however,are not sure about the quality of its Azusa’s public schools (14%). Safety •Nearly everyone (94%)feels safe in their neighborhood during the day --56%say they feel “safe”while another 38%feel “very safe”.A smaller combined percentage (79%)say they feel safe in their neighborhood after dark. 3ThinkNow Research Downtown Azusa •Residents were asked about their usage and perception of the downtown area of Azusa. The vast majority visit the downtown area at least once a month (77%) and nearly half visit at least once a week (47%). Most rate the downtown area positively (75%), with 22% saying it is excellent and 56% saying it is good. Only 3% say it is poor. •When respondents were asked what they felt was lacking in the downtown area, “more retail businesses” (25%) and “more restaurants” (24%) were mentioned most often, followed by “more small businesses” (21%) and “more parking” (20%). City Activities and Events •Respondents were asked about their awareness and participation across a number of the city’s activities and events. Overall, close to two-thirds (57%) indicated they had attended at least one city activity/event in the past 12 months. The most attended were Azusa Golden Days (33%), Summer Concert in the Park (27%) and Summer Movies in the Park (25%). •Nearly everyone rated the city’s activities and events favorably (97%), with 42% saying they were excellent and 55% saying they are good. The vast majority (66%) think the city puts on the right amount of activities while 20% believe they don’t have enough. Only 4% say the city puts on too many. •Residents stated that they like to receive information about community events and programs mostly through flyers (50%), followed by local newspapers (25%) and mail (25%). Parks •Most residents (60%) say they visit Azusa parks at least once a month and approximately one - third visit at least once a week (35%). The most frequented park in the city is Memorial Park (48% visited in past 12 months), followed by Pioneer Park (38%), Zacatecas Park (37%), Gladstone Park (34%) and Slauson Park (34%). •Residents were asked to rate each park they have visited in the past 12 months. Across all the parks, an average of nearly 9-in-10 rate the parks either good or excellent (88%), with an average of 35% giving them an excellent rating. Library •Close to half of respondents (46%) had visited the Azusa Library in the past 12 months. Nearly 9-in-10 library visitors rated their programs good or very good (87%). •The fact that many households have computer and internet access is the main reason why many residents do not visit the library (37%). Others feel they have no reason to go to the library (26%) while some say they are simply too busy (19%). 4ThinkNow Research Senior Center •Nearly 30% of respondents indicated they had visited the Azusa Senior Center in the past 12 months. This is, of course, driven by residents who are 60 years of age and older. Over half of them had visited the center in the past 12 months (55%). A combined 82% of visitors rated the center either excellent or good. Gold Line •19% of respondents say they ride the Gold Line at least once a month and 10% ride it at least once a week. 71% rarely or never ride the Gold Line. Among Gold Line users, Azusa Downtown is the most commonly used station (72%). Downtown LA / Union Station (60%) is the most popular destination by Azusa riders. Pasadena is a distant second (20%). Service Priority •When respondents were asked what level of priority the city should give to various services, emergency preparedness/disaster recovery (78%) and police street patrol (77%) were considered the highest priority (“very high” and “high” combined). Next were maintenance of city public recreation facilities (75%) and downtown revitalization (73%). Lowest priority was given to maintenance of islands and medians (55%). City Improvements •When residents were asked what one thing they would like to see improved in Azusa, comments that centered around the appearance of the city were most common (24% combined). These included comments about the overall look of the city, as well as improved maintenance of streets/roads/sidewalks and cleaning up the city/streets/graffiti. Improved security/patrol (12%), improve/modernize the city (11%) and more programs and activities (10%) were the next most common mentions. Satisfaction with City •Residents’ overall level of satisfaction with the city of Azusa is very high (92%). Nearly half (47%) indicated they are very satisfied and another 45% said they are somewhat satisfied. Only 4% said they were not satisfied (either very unsatisfied or not very satisfied). Azusa Long-Term •The majority of residents are planning to live in Azusa long-term (61%). 27% are not sure while only 12% plan on living here short-term. Homeowners are much more likely to feel that they will live in Azusa long-term compared to renters (77% vs. 49%, respectively). Direction of City •Nearly 9-in10 residents (89%) say they are pleased with the overall direction of the city of Azusa, with 41% who strongly agree and 48% who somewhat agree. A combined 7% disagree. 5ThinkNow Research Measure 10 Years or More Less than 10 Years Quality of life (good/excellent)85%71% Image and reputation (good/excellent)74%58% Overall appearance (good/excellent)80%62% Satisfaction with city (very satisfied)59%31% Perceptions and Length of Residence •There is a significant difference in the perception of Azusa by length of residence. Residents who have lived in Azusa for 10 or more years tend to rate the city higher across a number of perception measures compared to those who have lived in Azusa less than 10 years. See examples below. Perceptions by Hispanic Ethnicity •Hispanic residents appear to have a more positive opinion of the city compared to non - Hispanics –in particular, on areas like quality of life (85% excellent/good vs. 67%), overall appearance (79% vs. 58%), overall image and reputation (71% vs. 60%) and as a place to raise children (76% vs. 49%). When asked what one thing in the city needs improving the most, Hispanic residents were five times more likely to say “nothing/everything is fine” compared to non-Hispanics.