The City of Portland Auditor’s office has released the results of the Citizen’s Survey, where you can find out (by neighborhood) just exactly what folks think of the city. When I found out about this, my immedate reaction was something along the lines of “This is fucking cool!” so I started to take a look at the details. As someone who lives in Vancouver, used to work in Portland, and often travels to Portland for personal purposes, I decided to examine a few of the indicators to see if my perceptions of the city differ from those of you who live in the limits.

• Traffic flow: This is one of my biggest frustrations with Portland… I keep getting stuck in traffic jams on the freeways and arterials. Apparently the residents aren’t real happy either. Satisfaction with rush hour traffic flow was only 25%
• Dumping sewage in the river: For being such an eco-centric population, I chuckle at the reports of dumping sewage into the Willamette anytime it rains. Apparently I’m not the only one. 75% of Portlanders aren’t happy about the protection of rivers and streams from drainage.
• On a happier note, folks like the city overall. In the category of overall livability, over 75% of the citizens rate things as “very good or good”. To me that says volumes… overall folks are happy.
• Government performance is always a touchy subject, and only around half of the residents think the folks in charge are doing a good job providing services.

Overall I wasn’t surprised… perhaps deeper within the data are some shocking facts or revelations. I would love to hear from anyone who participated, specifically on how their individual neighborhood fits as a piece of the city-wide puzzle. You can see all of the survey results at this link.

Related posts:

1. Did you get your city survey yesterday?
2. Survey: Portland Has the “Most Courteous,” Least-Likely-To-Tailgate Drivers
3. Maybe We’re Not So “Courteous”: WSJ’s “Numbers Guy” Debunks That Driver Survey
4. TriMet Bike-MAX Survey
5. Vision Survey: Weigh in on Portland’s Future