Resident survey shows strong overall satisfaction; streets and homeless response remain top priorities

ETC Institute presented the city’s 2025 resident survey to the council, reporting that 1,283 residents were surveyed with a margin of error of about ±2.7% at the 95% confidence level. Chris Tatham, the presenter, said roughly 71–72% of respondents believe the city is moving in the right direction—about 30 points above the national average for large cities—and that the city rates substantially above national averages on many service metrics including police, trash and customer service (SEG 316–437).

Tatham emphasized the survey’s representativeness (about 150 responses per ward) and noted the largest recurring priorities remain condition of streets and effectiveness of the homeless response system. He described how the city dashboard allows staff and council to drill into ward-level and demographic trends and cautioned councilmembers about over-interpreting very small subgroup counts. Council members asked for clarity on response counts per item; Tatham confirmed that item-level respondent totals and the full datasets are available on the dashboard and will be accessible for follow-up.

Councilmembers used the presentation to connect resident concerns to other agenda items: several councilmembers tied the street condition data to planned bike-lane projects and to MAPS-funded street improvements, and asked transportation staff how the planned projects might affect resident satisfaction measures in future surveys. Tatham said trends were relatively steady from prior years, with only modest percentage changes for most items, and that the city’s consistently high customer-service ratings helped sustain strong overall sentiment despite areas that lag (streets, transit coverage). The presentation concluded with Tatham offering more detailed ward-level and trend dashboards for council review.