What attitudes do the Pensacola residents hold about their city? The 2020 Resident Satisfaction Survey has been delivered to the city by the UWF Haas Business Center.
Almost 1,300 respondents completed the 7th annual survey, highlighting areas of success with city services and Pensacola’s image, along with identifying opportunities for improvement.
“Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete and let us know what’s most important to you,” said Mayor Grover Robinson. “To view the survey results you can visit cityofpensacola.com.”
The survey was conducted during four weeks in June, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Nicole Gislasen is a vice president at the Haas Center. She was asked if the virus led to a skewing of the numbers.
“I speculate that could have been an influencing factor;” said Gislasen. “Pensacola has been conducting this particular survey, or one like it, since 2014. And perhaps it is that residents have come to expect the survey, so responses have increased accordingly.”
Participation increased this year by 56%, up from about 53% in 2018. One difference this year, says Gislasen, is that residents wanting to take the survey on the phone were allowed to do so, rather than online.
“The other thing we did is, we made an extra effort to contact relavant organizations within the city that would want their constituents to answer the survey,” Gislasen said. “We did restrict it to city residents, and that’s been pretty consistent over the years.”
The questions are tweaked from year to year, and 2020 was no exception, adjusting to the pandemic. Pensacola International Airport scored the highest in resident satisfaction, at 87%.
“The fire department too; so responses in those received high scores, but I’ll defer to the mayor office,” said Gislasen. ”I’ll let him brag on his departments and identify areas of growth.”
“More than half of respondents – 57 percent – said they were either very satisfied or satisfied with the ease of obtaining information about city services,” said Mayor Robinson. “And an increase of 5% from 2019.”
Robinson added that 54% said they’re also satisfied or very satisfied with public access to the waterfront.
“Fifty-eight percent of the residents said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the city’s performance in promoting city’s image,” the mayor said. “The data will be used to identify budget priorities in areas for improvement, and to improve high-quality services [and] provide high-quality services to residents.”
When rating infrastructure improvements, stormwater infrastructure improved seven points from last year, with 37%. Continued improvements were also seen in neighborhood safety and infrastructure, along with housing affordability.