More Dayton residents believe the city is moving in the right direction.
That's according to results from a 2024 city-wide survey. The annual Dayton Survey measures how residents feel about city services, programs and overall performance.
Just over 1,300 completed the most recent questionnaire.
Some of the results include
- 68% said they are satisfied with Dayton’s recycling services
- 78% reported satisfaction with waste collection
- Almost 46% of Dayton residents agreed Dayton Police are responsive to their neighborhood’s needs. However, some in the northern neighborhoods strongly disagreed.
It also captures opinions regarding neighborhood life and where improvements are needed.
Jennifer Custer, a city management analyst, said many of the results are encouraging.
"In 2017, we started tracking satisfaction with Dayton as a place to live. And in 2017, that satisfaction, the very satisfied or the satisfied residents were 49.8%. And so now this year by 2024, satisfaction increased to 60%.What that strongly suggests is that residents are recognizing and appreciating the city's efforts and initiatives and investments," Custer said.
Although, Custer acknowledges residents aren’t happy about the condition of streets and sidewalks.
"We are moving the needle in the right direction, and residents are starting to appreciate and see some of that, and it's really encouraging to see."
"Our very dissatisfied folks — that was 52.1% for this year and that is pretty dissatisfied," Custer said.
According to the 2024 Dayton Survey, residents are most concerned about crime/safety, housing conditions (abandoned homes/blight), drug use and gun violence.
Each year, an independent company sends out the surveys. Participants must be 18 and live in Dayton.
Custer said numerous departments are reviewing the results to develop programming and service delivery changes.
According to the survey, she says overall residents are pleased with water services, parks and feel safe.
Also, more residents feel good about their neighborhood.
"That was up almost three percentage points from last year, to 57%. Again, that's a great one," she said. "Again, dissatisfaction is dropping. We're really excited about seeing this general sentiment. We are moving the needle in the right direction, and residents are starting to appreciate and see some of that, and it's really encouraging to see."
Dayton leaders are reviewing the data to develop programming and service delivery changes.
