Every two years, the City of Decatur works with the National Research Center to send out a Citizen Survey to over 1,000 randomly selected list of residents and asks them a number of questions.  The survey asks residents for their opinions on everything from city services, to how safe residents feel, how often they use the DeKalb Library or how often ride a bus.

You get the the picture.  It runs the gamut.  That includes questions about your household.

And here’s one very apt question – considering the city’s school enrollment drama – that the city has asked since the survey’s inception in 2006 – “Do any children 17 or under live in your household?”

We’ve charted the percentage of households that answered “Yes” to that question each time the survey has been conducted above.

As you can see quite clearly, the slight over-index of the 17-and-under crowd in 2006 to the current national average has become a giant advantage in 2014, with a cool 41% of households in the City of Decatur answering “Yes” to that question.

It should be noted that the resident majority still favors the childless household – an important consideration for the School Board and City Commission if they decide to put an $82 million bond referendum for all city residents to vote on in November.

And before anyone brings up the accuracy of a the survey, the confidence level is “plus or minus five percentage points around any given percent reported for the entire sample.”  So yes, technically, the child population could be flat from 2012 to 2014, but that’s pretty unlikely.  The upward trend is certainly real, as well as the fact that Decatur far outperforms the national average when it comes to households with kids.

You can view all the detailed data from Decatur’s 2014 Citizen Survey HERE.

*2013 National average estimate taken from US Census

Another interesting “special topic” question from Decatur’s 2014 Citizen Survey.

As you can see, over half of Decatur residents either strongly or somewhat support a 25 mph speed limit on Decatur roads.  Notice the question says “most” Decatur road.  State route speed limits, like Scott Boulevard, are controlled by the state.

After the jump, you can view from a proposed map, which was taken from the city’s Speed Limit study from a couple of years back.  As you can see, basically all Decatur residential streets would be affected if Decatur implemented this new across-the-board speed limit of 25 mph.  The city held public input sessions on this topic back in 2013. If the city moves forward with this change at some point in the future, the major change would be on 35 mph streets, like Commerce, Clairemont, College, South Candler, West Howard, etc.

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So, I’ve realized we haven’t spent much, if any, time looking into the results of the always interesting Decatur Citizen Survey.

The survey is conducted once every two years and was most recently released in September 2014.  And there are always some interesting little tidbits in there worth highlighting.

For starters, here’s an interesting bar chart showing resident feedback of the city’s various “technology services”.

Smart 911 – a free service that allows residents and business owners to create a safety profile of vital personal and household data, which is available to emergency “call takers” immediately –  and the CodeRed Emergency Notification System – a phone notification system for emergency situations – ranked #1 and #2 in residents’ opinions. (Click the links above to sign up for and learn more about these programs.)

Meanwhile, the city’s free wi-fi initiative, which was pulled out of residential neighborhoods back in 2013 and is now only offered in public spaces, rated lowest with only a total of 49% of residents rating it “Excellent” or “Good”.

Every two years, the city of Decatur commissions a city-wide survey of its populace from the National Research Center to get an updated read on opinions on everything from “quality of life” to safety perceptions, to opinions of various city’s services.  As has been the case in other years of late, the full survey made its first appearance in the appendix of the city’s budget, so you’re already welcome to view it HERE (PDF).

The ever-changing “custom questions” for this year seem to indicate that Decatur is pretty evenly divided over whether the city needs a stronger tree ordinance, is OK with the current level of traffic enforcement, and a large majority “strongly” or “somewhat” support using tax funds to renovate Beacon Hill.

Among questions that have been asked in previous years, the quality of life is at an all-time high with 92% rating it as “excellent/good”. The quality of economic development is up from two years ago to 73%, but still a bit below 2006 and 2008’s ratings.  Quality of natural environment is also notably higher at 81% excellent/good vs. 75% two years ago. Ease of bicycle use is also up 6 points to 69% from 2 years ago.

Among the lower scores, positive views on the amount of public parking is higher than previously perceived (38% vs. 32%) but still comparably low, while quality of traffic enforcement dipped 6 points to 65% from 71% two years ago.   Additionally, 45% of residents rated the availability of affordable quality public housing as excellent/good (up 2 points from 2 years prior), with only 9% rating it as “excellent”.  Availability of affordable quality child care registered at similar levels.  You can see many of the year-to-year comparisons throughout the budget’s narrative section.

Overall, according to the survey’s summary, “Most ratings tended to be stable or show an upward trend over time.”

Apparently the City is posting the three extra questions on the currently in-the-field Citizen Survey on the Open City Hall website.  Here’s the second one…

Do you think that the current level of traffic enforcement by the Decatur Police Department is too little, too much or about right?

38 people have replied so far.

Don’t mind me.  I’m just going to back slowly out of this virtual room.  (Clop, clop, clop…scamper, scamper, scamper)

According to the City Manager’s budget message, 82% of those who took the Decatur Citizen Survey think that the city does an “excellent” or “good” job at welcoming citizen involvement.

How does that compare to the 280 other jurisdictions who asked that same question on their 2010 citizen survey?  It’s #1.

Another Decatur Citizen Survey question…

In the future, the City may be considering expanding the City limits by no more than one square mile, with the expectation that existing service levels for the City and the City Schools of Decatur would be maintained or improved and that annexation would be financially positive after the first two years.  To what extent would you support or oppose an annexation that met the above criteria?

• Strongly Support: 22%
• Somewhat Support: 53%
• Somewhat Oppose: 15%
• Strongly Oppose: 9%