Why live anywhere else? Our city is awesome. This survey proves it!
People are far more satisfied than they have ever been about their quality of life in Carlsbad and the caliber of their local government services, new survey results find.
The city's residents have long been a fairly happy bunch ---- they've been telling researchers year after year in annual community satisfaction surveys that they have little to complain about. In fact, last year, City Council members joked that Carlsbad comes out looking like the fictional "Lake Wobegon," where everyone is above average.
But in the latest survey, which was conducted in fall 2010, Carlsbad folks reported record-setting levels of happiness.
Ninety-eight percent of those surveyed rated the quality of life in Carlsbad as "excellent" or "good" and 94 percent said they were satisfied with the quality of city services, according to a new report that the City Council will discuss Tuesday.
The quality-of-life figure has been steadily growing for several years. A year ago, 96 percent of Carlsbad residents rated their city's quality of life as excellent or good, while two years ago that figure was 95.8 percent, and three years ago it was 94.5 percent.
When it comes to city services, the figure has hoovered around 90 percent for several years. A year ago, 91.6 percent of the city's residents said city services were satisfactory. Two years ago, that figure was 88.9 percent, and three years ago, the figure was 90.9 percent.
Calling the latest survey results "very impressive," Mayor Matt Hall said Monday that he believes Carlsbad residents had a more upbeat attitude than ever before because they know how bad it is in other towns in these tough financial times.
In response to the national economic recession and the state budgetary crisis, cities across California have been cutting back on everything from library services and street lighting to pothole repair and park maintenance.
"People pay attention to those things," Hall said, adding that Carlsbad's service levels "have remained the same" despite the recession.
Unlike other cities in the region, Carlsbad still keeps its government offices open every weekday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and its city libraries are open on Sundays as well as Saturdays, he said.
BW Research, which has offices in Carlsbad and Massachusetts, conducted the survey for the city, calling about 1,000 residents from Sept. 13 to Oct. 2. The survey has a margin of error of 3.08 percentage points, the company reported.
Researchers asked residents a series of questions to gauge their feelings about city services, their sense of community, their confidence in city government, and their views on the downtown Village area. Individual telephone interviews typically lasted about 20 minutes, the company's follow-up report states.
Carlsbad residents' satisfaction rates were particularly noteworthy because regional, statewide and national measures of quality of life have fallen of late, researchers wrote.
"Earlier this year, California residents gave the state its lowest quality of life rating in almost 20 years," the report states, adding, "Other regional and national measures of quality of life and resident well being have been equally dismal ... and yet Carlsbad residents have bucked the statewide and national trends... ."
In the latest Carlsbad residents' survey, researchers found that:
- 99 percent of those surveyed felt safe walking alone in their neighborhoods during the day, and 90 percent felt safe walking alone after dark.
- 96 percent were pleased with the city's library services.
- 95 percent thought the city did well on its parks maintenance.
- 94 percent were pleased with the level of fire and emergency medical protection.
- 93 percent thought garbage collection was satisfactory.
- 92 percent were happy with the city's law enforcement services.
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