City Hall

The Biggest Takeaway from the 2014 Dallas Community Survey: We're Not Getting Worse

By Stephen Young Mon., Nov. 3 2014 at 11:45 AM
Categories: City Hall

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Kent Wang
Not exactly a bastion of civic responsibility, says Dallas.
Digging through the this year's community survey, which you can see in full below, is like looking at one of those magic eye posters. You have to look past it to see what is really going on.

On its face, the results of the survey are positive. The survey's "major findings:"

  1. "Residents generally have a positive perception of the City"
  2. "While there are some differences for specific services, overall satisfaction with City services is about the same in most areas of the City"
  3. "The City of Dallas is setting the standard for service delivery compared to other large cities"
  4. "The City continues to maintain high overall satisfaction ratings even though the results for most other large U.S. cities have decreased"
  5. "Although the City is generally heading in the right direction, there are still opportunities for improvement"

"Opportunities for improvement" puts it very lightly, especially with regard to how Dallasites feel about about the city's government and schools. Fewer than half of residents surveyed agreed with any of the following statements: I receive good value for the taxes I pay; city government welcomes citizen involvement; city employees are ethical in conducting business; Dallas city government listens to citizens.

The rampant distrust of city government evident in the findings is not presented as such. Positive response rates to the survey's questions about city government are compared to those of previous years. They haven't declined, so the city must be doing great, the results presentation to be given to the City Council on Wednesday implies. That only 31 percent of people in Dallas thinks their city government listens to them seems like it should be cause for immediate concern. But what would we know, we also think the most powerful person in a city should be elected, which is just crazy.

As you can see on the presentation's 16th slide, much of the negative sentiment expressed in the survey is concentrated in southern Dallas, which is disheartening but not surprising. Same goes for residents' perception of Dallas public schools. Only 27 percent of Dallasites rated them "excellent" or "good."

2014 Dallas Community Survey Results

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MikeWestEast
MikeWestEast

How could anyone rate DISD as Excellent or Good?  Maybe Fair as opposed to Poor, but Excellent?  Come on  Man!

wcvemail
wcvemail

For the record, it's incorrect to capitalize "city" except when used as part of a formal title, such as "The City of Dallas is being sued..." This shows a poor education, so maybe I'm qualified to join Schutze on that old folks' lawn.

Further, London was the first and still foremost entity to claim "The City", although NYC and San Francisco also lay claim to that. But that's just informally, not spelled out in an official document.

dmay1
dmay1

I like how they sneak in the "Traffic Signaling" as one of the high priorities in the city. Right under "Law Enforcement" and "Code Compliance". If you aren't following, the city is preparing to ask residents to approve $800B in debt to upgrade our traffic lights. 

TheCredibleHulk
TheCredibleHulk topcommenter

Not to get too picky, but how is a resident of Dallas supposed to objectively evaluate whether or not the services that Dallas provides are better or worse than, say, Seattle?

Myrna.Minkoff-Katz
Myrna.Minkoff-Katz topcommenter

I like Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston; and a few interesting spots here and there.  The rest if it is backward and full of ignorant bigots dumb as ditchwater. 

WylieH
WylieH

[Fewer than half of residents surveyed agreed with any of the following statements: I receive good value for the taxes I pay; city government welcomes citizen involvement; city employees are ethical in conducting business; Dallas city government listens to citizens.]

GrammarNatzi
GrammarNatzi

@wcvemail According to its City Charter, "City" is part of the formal name for the municipal entity, the "City of Dallas."  Therefore, when referring to the municipal entity Dallas as "City" with a capital "C", the reference is correct.  When referring to the region confined within the geographical limits of the City of Dallas, then the lowercase "city" should be used.  So, I live in Dallas.  It's a great city.  But few who live in the city trust the City.  And that, is a shame.

casiepierce
casiepierce

@dmay1 Um, is it $880B or $800M.... I don't even think our whole entire city budget is $800B.

TheCredibleHulk
TheCredibleHulk topcommenter

@dmay1

800 Billion for traffic signals seems a little over-the-top if you ask me.

dmay1
dmay1

@WylieH Either 1) citizens generally don't actually know how much they pay in taxes, or 2) don't really understand that things like police and schools cost money -and are espectially expensive considering they are spread out over low density suburban development. Dallasites pay very low taxes per acre compared with the rest of the nation and world. 

wcvemail
wcvemail

@GrammarNatzi @wcvemail


I stood first in Mrs. Kidd's Jr AND Sr English classes, and I stand now to be corrected. Thank you, GrammarNietzche. 

What? Oh, I said "cough," not "comma," as in your last sentence. :-)

dmay1
dmay1

@casiepierce Yeah, I'm pretty sure the total cumulative budget inflation adjusted to today's dollars for the City of Dallas since it's founding probably doesn't add up to $800,000,000,000. 


I may have had a typo. 

mavdog
mavdog topcommenter

@casiepierce @dmay1 

$900 Million will be in the next bond election to repair streets and to replace the traffic signal systems and replace most of the light structures (the metal that holds them up).

casiepierce
casiepierce

@dmay1 @WylieH True but, the question asked isn't whether or not citizens feel like taxes in Dallas are lower than in the rest of the nation, but if we feel that we are getting a GOOD VALUE for our taxes. I, for one, do not feel that we are getting a good value since you cannot drive one day in Dallas without needing a new alignment. Also, WHERE ARE MY DAILY CRIME REPORTS???????

ScottsMerkin
ScottsMerkin topcommenter

@mavdog and didnt they say it would take 20 yrs to replace them all, meaning by the time its done, they have to do it all over again?

mavdog
mavdog topcommenter

@ScottsMerkin 

my recollection is the typical lifespan of a street is 20 years...I don't think it is a 20 year project to repair/replace the existing streets, 4-6 yrs?

could be wrong...

ScottsMerkin
ScottsMerkin topcommenter

@mavdog after some searching


So imagine your surprise to learn that 80 percent of Dallas’ 1,500 traffic signals blink on today past their recommended 25-year life spans. The city replaces them as they fail or are damaged by weather or accident, but that’s about it. Dallas has never had a comprehensive replacement program.

Dallas’ streets department has been raising the alarm since last fall that this is not a good long-term plan, which doesn’t seem too revolutionary. It believes the City Council would be smart to find the money to replace about 60 signals per year. The problem, of course, is that this would cost about $250 million over 25 years.


http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20140711-caution-light-ahead.ece


and


That briefing says it will cost $196 million right now to replace all the traffic signals that are 25 years old or older — and, thus, “past their useful life.” That’s way out of the city’s price range. So the Department of Street Services is asking the council to “consider a program to replace 60 traffic signals annually,” at the cost of $10 million per year over the next 25 years at the cost of $250 million. The briefing doesn’t say where that money would come from.


http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/2013/11/most-of-dallas-traffic-signals-are-obsolete-and-in-need-of-replacing-at-the-cost-of-200-million.html/

wcvemail
wcvemail

@ScottsMerkin @mavdog


Your good research tells me that the street lights will NEVER be upkept properly. Not even a scifi writer could be so ironic to write that the last signs of civilization are when the last traffic lights wink out. (cut to scene of tumbleweeds, feral eyes in the dark alley, ominous music) 

Seriously, this is like the overall U.S. infrastructure, or Roman aquaducts before us: It's inexorably decaying as is the society.

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