Survey Results: Tulsans Are Proud To Live In Tulsa, But...

NewsOn6.com & Emory Bryan, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- Tulsa's Mayor and City Council got their first look Wednesday afternoon at an extensive citizen survey, which asked residents what they think about all aspects of city government.

The survey results conducted by Shapard Research were released during a special city council meeting at city hall.

The president of Shapard Research, Bill Shapard, said he was pleased with the response to the survey.

"Tulsans care about their community and they wanted to participate," said Shapard. 

He said the majority of Tulsans are proud to live here, with 30% of Tulsans saying they are very proud to be Tulsans and only 3% saying not proud at all.

View a portion of the results

"There was no gloom and doom that I was kind of worried about, but that didn't come out, no gloom and doom, it was very positive," Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett said.

The survey results showed that city council District 1 had the least positive perception of living in Tulsa, with a majority saying Tulsa is a "good" place to live as opposed to an "excellent" place. 

Shapard says citizens in Districts 1, 2, and 3 were the least satisfied with city services and feel more disenfranchised from city government.

Shapard says the positive factors for Tulsa are it's a good place live, raise children, work and retire. 

"The jury is still out on whether Tulsa is moving in the right direction," said Bill Shapard.

Of the people who participated in the survey, 54% said they are somewhat satisfied with service delivery by the city while 19% said they were very satisfied.

Concerning shared services with Tulsa County, Shapard says 44% strongly support the idea.  He said 40% strongly support public-private partnerships for the city of Tulsa's parks. 

See the results regarding public safety, parks and recreation, city street maintenance and more

The survey also showed the public wants more money set aside for police and fire academies, the rainy day fund, pothole repairs and mowing public property.

Other results include:

• 79% supported private development along the Arkansas River.
• 51% were very satisfied with response time for fire, 31% with police, 49% with EMSA.

Shapard said the survey showed Tulsans want stricter enforcement of the existing codes on mowing and cleaning up junk.

When it comes to maintenance of city streets and enforcement of city codes, citizens said these are key opportunities for improvement for the city of Tulsa.

"The public wants to see more emphasis on code enforcement, we're not doing a good job there and we can address that through the budget process, through more material, and more support and more people," Bartlett said.

Tulsans stated they were not satisfied with the condition of streets.  It was one of the few areas where people were mostly dissatisfied with city government and that dissatisfaction was spread evenly across the city's nine council districts.  

One area of dissatisfaction was the progress of ongoing street repairs under the Fix Our Streets initiative.

Shapard says the research shows citizens want more information about what progress is being made. He says 70% of citizens get their news about city government from TV news.

The survey was conducted November 15 to December 31, 2010.   

Tulsa city officials say surveys were distributed to 200 households in each of the nine city council districts asking residents what they think about all aspects of their local government.

Each household randomly selected for the survey answered more than 100 questions about Tulsa.

Officials say the results of the survey will help the City of Tulsa determine budget decisions and other actions that need to be taken in order to provide more efficient and effective services for the citizens of Tulsa.