Life Buzz News

Better streets, policing, housing top concerns for Dallas residents, survey finds


Better streets, policing, housing top concerns for Dallas residents, survey finds

Perceptions of crime and drugs as a 'major problem' were down almost 10 points in this year's community survey findings.

Dallasites are satisfied with a majority of city services but want officials to focus more on better streets and policing, according to survey results released last week.

Each year officials ask residents how they feel about the largest services the city provides and areas of improvement. The community survey found that residents were satisfied with 15 out of 21 major categories of city services, one more from last year.

Why This Story MattersA community survey found Dallas residents are satisfied with 15 out of 21 major categories of city services, but want more work done to improve areas such as streets and policing. Knowing the results of the annual survey can help residents ensure city leaders are listening to their concerns.Advertisement

Neighborhood code enforcement and social services received higher marks this year along with nine other areas. However, the issues residents cared about most -- which was infrastructure and policing -- stayed largely consistent with last year's results.

AdvertisementTop Dallas priorities

For the second straight year, respondents considered infrastructure maintenance to be the top issue the city should prioritize.

Political Points

Get the latest politics news from North Texas and beyond.

SIGN UP

Or with:

GoogleFacebook

By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Residents were more satisfied with such maintenance this year than last by five percentage points. Still, they singled out street and thoroughfare improvement as a concern the city should prioritize.

Criticisms of the city's infrastructure are not new.

Advertisement

A 2022 study conducted by Southern Methodist University found 62 "infrastructure deserts" in Dallas. Those were defined as low-income neighborhoods that lacked proper streets, sidewalks and housing that "creates a safe, functional and economically viable area to live."

In May, Dallas voters passed a bond package to address needs that included more than $521.2 million for roads, alleys, bridges, traffic signals and other related projects.

In the survey, the majority of respondents from nearly all City Council districts considered infrastructure maintenance as Dallas' top priority. Residents from District 4, which includes the South Oak Cliff area, selected policing services as their top priority.

Advertisement

Council member Carolyn King Arnold said crime and homicide rates are down in the city. For example, through April 15 of this year, violent crime rates in Dallas were down 19.6% from the same time frame in 2023.

Advertisement

But her District 4 residents may not be receiving the same information, she said.

"Their knowledge is more headline-driven," she said. "So when they see the news, no matter what monitor it's on [or] what screen it's on, that's their data."

Still, policing remains a "very high priority" for all respondents who noted that they wanted an increase in officer visibility in neighborhoods. It ranked the second-highest rated priority almost the same as it did last year.

Advertisement

Many residents want an increased officer presence as well as quicker response times, Arnold noted.

In recent years, Dallas police have relied on overtime to fill staffing shortages as department officials seek new ways to recruit and retain officers.

Meanwhile, residents didn't see crime and drugs as much of a problem as last year.

Just more than half of respondents, 52%, selected crime as a major problem, down from 61%. Similarly, 51% selected drugs as a major problem compared to 60% last year.

AdvertisementHomelessness and affordable housing

Dallas residents are concerned about affordable housing, the survey found.

Along with infrastructure, topping major problem areas identified by residents was homelessness. Nearly three quarters of respondents, or 73%, consider homelessness a major problem.

Advertisement

In 2021, homelessness peaked at 4,570 for Dallas and Collin counties. That number has declined since, with recent data showing that both counties are seeing their lowest number of people experiencing homelessness since 2015. This January's point-in-time count for the two counties saw a 12% drop from the previous year.

Affordable housing topped the list of "quality of life characteristics" that residents want the city to prioritize with just over half ranking it in their top three choices.

Over the past decade, housing has become less affordable in Dallas-Fort Worth. While incomes have risen more than 45%, median home prices have more than doubled.

The city has attempted to tackle affordable housing shortages through programs such as the Dallas Housing Opportunity Fund. The fund has raised nearly $30 million since its launch in 2021 and aims to create affordable housing projects throughout the city.

Advertisement

Also ranking high among characteristics was access to living-wage jobs and a quality education.

Meanwhile, residents were consistently more satisfied with some Dallas services -- such as libraries, fire, sewer, and parks and recreation -- than residents of other major cities were to their own services.

For example, the survey found that Dallas residents were more satisfied with their parks and recreation system than residents of other cities were to theirs by 32 percentage points.

But Dallas lagged behind other cities in the two key categories residents listed as among the most important: police services and infrastructure maintenance. Less than a quarter of respondents were satisfied with the infrastructure maintenance in Dallas compared to 28% for residents of other cities.

AdvertisementSurvey background

Dallas began the community survey in 2005 and sought resident feedback every two years starting in 2006. That trend changed in 2023 when officials decided to conduct it each year, according to a memo from Dallas Chief Financial Officer Jake Ireland.

"Management recognizes the need for a standard mechanism to engage residents and to receive customer feedback that will allow the city to monitor long-term aggregated trends related to customer perceptions," he wrote in the memo. "The Community Survey allows the city to understand and respond to the trends."

This year the survey questioned at least 150 residents from each of Dallas' 14 City Council districts, up from at least 100 residents per district in last year's survey.

Advertisement

The city partnered with market research company ETC Institute, which has collaborated with other Texas cities including Austin, San Antonio and Fort Worth for their surveys.

The survey was mailed to a "random sample of households" in Dallas from April through May, said Ireland. More than 2,100 participants completed it compared to last year's 1,475. The margin of error for this year's survey was also down to 2.1% from last year's 2.5% figure.

Previous articleNext article

POPULAR CATEGORY

corporate

8852

tech

9980

entertainment

10774

research

4922

misc

11512

wellness

8420

athletics

11367