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Polco survey: Newport News residents report good overall quality of life; safety and economy show largest gaps
Summary
At a City Council work session, Polco presented results from the Newport News National Community Survey showing generally positive ratings for quality of life but notable gaps on safety and economic indicators; the random-sample component drew 313 responses (±6% margin of error) and an open participation survey drew 698 responses.
Polco presented results from the Newport News National Community Survey (NCS) at a City Council work session, telling council members the random-sample portion of the survey received 313 responses and produced a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percent. Sonya Wittingk, executive vice president of data insights at Polco, said the survey will inform the city’s upcoming strategic plan and the council’s July retreat.
Polco described the methodology: staff randomly selected 7,000 addresses to receive an online invitation, mailed paper surveys to an additional 5,000 addresses, offered the survey in English and Spanish, and left data collection open for six weeks beginning April 8. Polco also provided an open participation (self-select) version that received 698 responses; the presentation was based on the statistically sampled 313 responses. Wittingk said Polco benchmarks Newport News against a set of roughly 500 peer jurisdictions and statistically weights results to match Census/American Community Survey demographics.
Wittingk said, “Your residents have a good quality of life. About 9 in 10 residents rated the overall quality of life in Newport News as excellent, good, or fair.” She told council that roughly 6 in 10 respondents plan to remain in the city for the next five years and would recommend living in Newport News to someone who asked.
Polco highlighted two topic areas with the largest importance–quality gaps: safety and the economy. On safety, the presentation showed about 8 in 10 residents reported feeling safe in their neighborhood during the day, roughly half felt safe from property crime, but ratings for safety from violent crime and safety in the downtown area ranked below Polco benchmarks. Wittingk noted police and fire services rated near benchmarks, saying “this may be a perception issue, but it’s something…whether it’s a perception or a true quality issue, they’re both ones that need to be addressed.”
On economic measures, Polco reported lower ratings for cost of living and for the vibrancy of the downtown area; ratings for the vibrancy of commercial areas outside downtown were higher than downtown ratings. Of 122 evaluative survey items, Polco said about three-quarters were similar to benchmarks.
Council members asked about the potential for public education or communications campaigns to shift perception scores. Councilman Long asked whether other cities had used education to raise safety perceptions; Wittingk described smaller informational campaigns and larger branding efforts she said have changed perceptions in other communities.
Polco’s full report and the open-participation results were included in the council packet; Wittingk said staff can run demographic cross-tabs and other analyses on request. City staff and councilmembers were told the NCS findings will be used as one data input for the city’s strategic planning process.
The presentation and Q&A were informational; no formal council action was taken on the survey results at the work session.
