As Chair of the Olympia Council of Neighborhood Associations, I was struck while reading the city’s 2023 Community Engagement & Public Opinion Survey by the contrast between how residents feel about the city versus how they feel about their own neighborhoods. The survey shows people feel better about their neighborhoods as a place to live and consider them safer and a better place to raise kids or retire than they do about the city as a whole. By listening and working more closely with neighborhoods we believe the city can improve its survey results and make progress for all Olympians.
As a recent JOLT article noted, when considering the city in its entirety, Olympians have dramatically lowered their assessment of the city as a satisfactory place to live from 92% in 2017 to 53% in 2023. Meanwhile, residents continue to have strong positive opinions about their own neighborhood with positive ratings in the 80% range.
When asked, "How would you say things in the following areas are going? Are they going in the right direction, or are they off on the wrong track?", the survey shows that only 30% of Olympians believe the city is going in the right direction but neighborhoods remain in positive range with 53% of residents believing their neighborhoods are heading in the right direction.
While neighborhoods are still positive, they have not escaped the general decline in attitudes about Olympia as a city. Neighborhoods right direction/wrong track measure dropped from 71% in 2021 to 53% in 2023.
The City’s survey did not track the city’s officially recognized neighborhoods boundaries but did provide some break outs by different areas of the city.
Asked about whether their neighborhood was going in the right direction, only a majority of those living in the Downtown were decisively negative.
|
Neighborhood Right/Wrong Track |
Right Direction |
Wrong Track |
|
All Olympia Neighborhoods |
53% |
47% |
|
Downtown Olympia |
47% |
53% |
|
Northwest Olympia |
50% |
50% |
|
Northeast Olympia |
51% |
49% |
|
Southwest Olympia |
58% |
42% |
|
Southeast Olympia |
63% |
37% |
Accentuating the Positive
Given the City’s policy choices and societal forces that brought Olympia to its current condition, it is important to remember what current residents have valued and still value about their hometown that contributes to their 81% positive opinion of their neighborhood.
Back in 2017, the Elway Poll found 9 in 10 rated Olympia overall as a desirable place to live. Those rating it “Excellent” or “Very Good” most frequently cited the reason for their rating as its “small town atmosphere”. They also frequently cited “…the beautiful setting and civic culture as its most positive attributes”.
The 2023 survey found that those who expressed an opinion (strongly or somewhat agree or disagree) still feel positive about our natural setting and cultural opportunities as well as other features of the community.
The following were positive.
|
Do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements about Olympia? |
% of Agreement who expressed opinion |
|
Olympians have opportunities for recreation |
85% |
|
Neighborhoods have nearby access to goods and services |
83% |
|
Olympians have opportunities for a daily connection to nature |
82% |
|
Olympians value diversity |
71% |
|
Place to experience arts and culture |
69% |
|
People in Olympia respect different perspectives and backgrounds |
64% |
|
Downtown has engaging arts and entertainment |
60% |
In terms of feeling safe, neighborhoods score much higher than the city as a whole. Asked about whether they feel generally safe in Olympia, only 46% responded that they did (survey choices ranged from Very Safe, Somewhat Safe, Somewhat Unsafe, Very Unsafe and Not Sure). However, when asked about how safe they feel in their neighborhood 89% said they felt safe during the day and 61% felt safe
Any assessment of Olympia would be incomplete without considering how homelessness and its downstream effects have influenced community attitudes. Of those expressing an opinion, 92% were dissatisfied with Olympia’s handling of “housing and homelessness services”. It is not surprising that a major driver for residents saying Olympia is on the “Wrong Track” was widely held concerns about homelessness (89%) and safety (71%).
The survey shows that homelessness is the major contributor to negative perceptions of Olympia in general and Downtown in particular.
This “word cloud” taken directly from over 500 statements about the most important issue for Olympia to address in the 2023 survey illustrates how homelessness has come to dominate the thinking of Olympians about Olympia.
Neighborhood Concerns Vary by Area of City
On key issues of concern to residents, there were negative responses for sidewalks, street repairs and parking and policy services but very positive ratings for Fire and Emergency Medical Response (survey choices ranged from Very Satisfied, Somewhat Satisfied, Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied, Somewhat Dissatisfied, Very Dissatisfied).
|
Very or Somewhat Satisfied with… |
Sidewalk Repair & Maintenance |
Street Repair |
Parking Services |
Police Services |
Fire Services |
Emergency medical response |
|
All Olympia Areas |
40% |
40% |
39% |
46% |
90% |
75% |
|
Downtown Olympia |
36% |
27% |
40% |
42% |
93% |
81% |
|
Northwest Olympia |
44% |
51% |
39% |
44% |
81% |
72% |
|
Northeast Olympia |
35% |
42% |
33% |
43% |
91% |
80% |
|
Southwest Olympia |
45% |
40% |
42% |
49% |
100% |
81% |
|
Southeast Olympia |
42% |
40% |
43% |
56% |
94% |
73% |
Many neighborhood associations in Olympia have been sharing similar concerns and frustrations with city officials that were found in the City’s survey. One of the most common complaints by neighborhood associations is the feeling that the city is not paying adequate attention to their concerns. This sentiment was emphatically validated by the survey’s representative sample of the city in general.
Only 16% of residents believe the city listens to the feedback from them. Worse, the intensity of the sentiment has increased from 2021 to 2023 with the percentage strongly disagreeing that the city listens increasing by 8%.
One of the values of neighborhood associations is providing an “early warning system” to communicate to the city about issues facing residents – what is working and what is not -- on an ongoing basis, not a snapshot taken every two years. By working together, the city and neighborhoods can build on the strengths and address the problems identified early on.
We know hiring more communications staff to better tell the city’s “story” will not improve the city’s listening. The city hired several additional communications staff after the previous 2021 survey showed a poor score, but their listening score got worse. The city needs to be open to listening and demonstrating that the residents have been heard through action.
To that end, the CNA and the city have been working on redoing their memorandum of understanding with a particular focus on improving communications and increasing opportunities to collaborate on solutions such as improving sidewalks and supporting low-income home ownership efforts like the Habitat for Humanity’s Boulevard Road project.
Finally, the survey showed that respondents who said they believed their neighborhood was going in the right direction were much more likely to feel the same way about Olympia in general. We believe that healthy neighborhoods are the backbone of successful cities and by working to make our neighborhoods stronger, more caring, and cohesive, we can help get the city going in the right direction again.
Larry Dzieza is chair of the Olympia Council of Neighborhood Associations.
The opinions expressed above are those of the writer and not necessarily those of The JOLT's staff or board of directors. Got something to say about a topic of interest to Thurston County residents? Send it to us and we’ll most likely publish it. See the Contribute your news button at the top of every page.
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rubinken
This reminds me of surveys of public schools. Often people are quite critical of "public schools", but when they're asked about their local public schools, they are often positive. Something's not quite right here if people feel positive about their neighborhoods, but feel negative about the city
Monday, August 7, 2023 Report this
bobkat
@rubinken > People usually feel comfortable with, and about, areas and "things" they have personal day-to-day knowledge of. It is the "things" that they don't have a personal knowledge of, but hear about, that creates apprehension and angst. Perception is a powerful influencer and the City leadership should pay more attention to the real problems which cause these perceptions to fester. lest they become reality.
Tuesday, August 8, 2023 Report this