'People are frustrated': Eugene residents think city moving in wrong direction, survey finds
People generally like living in Eugene and feel a sense of belonging, but they don’t like the direction the city is heading, according to survey results presented to officials.
Those survey results also show around 60% of respondents think livability in Eugene is worse or much worse than it was five years ago.
Eugene got a total of 1,772 responses to its first communitywide survey in a decade, including 958 to a representative survey and 814 to an online version, said Jason Dedrick, a policy analyst in the city manager’s office. Dedrick only presented numbers from the representative survey but said the answers across the two are similar.
Respondents generally had complaints about homelessness, housing and a lack of a sense of personal safety, the results show.
“People are frustrated,” Councilor Randy Groves said. “I’m not surprised at some of the ratings here.”
He added the city’s homelessness crisis and behavioral challenges are the top things he hears about “over and over again.”
None of the topics of concern surprised city leadership or officials, and Dedrick said that’s a good thing because it means the city knows about community concerns and is working to address them.
“We are working on the things that people reflect on as being concerns,” Councilor Claire Syrett said. “Some things have gotten worse despite working on issues.”
Yet Councilor Mike Clark said he thinks the survey backs up something he hears all the time — that people think city officials are doing things that “in their minds, are just nuts, just crazy.”
Clark has voted against the majority of council on key topics. He said many of the things his colleagues decide “in the way of direction for solutions to problems won’t help at all and may make matters worse,” adding he thinks the survey results reflect that.
“I think these results are a very clear message that most people think the actions we are taking toward the problems all of us see are not the right ones, and we have to consider that,” Clark said.
Satisfaction high with Eugene community, low with city government
People generally enjoy living in Eugene, the results show — 61.7% rated the overall quality of life as excellent or good, and 62.9% said it’s an excellent or good place to live. More than half said it’s a place they feel they can thrive.
But that doesn’t hold true for how people feel about city government, results showed.
“People like to say they like their neighborhood but don’t think they receive a good value for their taxes and fees and don’t like the overall direction the city is taking,” Dedrick said.
Around a quarter of people rated the overall direction of the city as excellent or good, while more than 40% rated it as below average or poor. Another 25% or so were neutral, and 5.6% said they didn’t know.
Results were slightly better for the use of taxes and fees, with around 30% saying the overall value for their taxes and fees paid is excellent or good and just less than 40% saying it’s below average or poor.
But the majority of respondents who have lived in Eugene at least five year say livability isn’t improving — 60% said it was worse or much worse than five years ago.
Another 30% said it’s about the same, and less than 10% said it’s better or much better.
Inflation, the pandemic, homelessness and housing prices all weigh into that, Dedrick said.
“While this is a big number, it doesn’t feel all that surprising given what’s been going on in the world the last five years,” he said.
Wrong direction on housing, homelessness
To improve quality of life, officials would need to address several issues, especially homelessness, housing and safety, respondents said.
The majority also say they think the city is on the wrong track for both homelessness and housing.
More than half of people — 55% — said they think the city is headed the wrong direction addressing the homelessness crisis.
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Hundreds of those people added they think the government is trying and has made some progress, but it just isn’t enough, Dedrick said. Some people who think the city is on the right track echoed that sentiment, he said.
It’s notable that 21% said they don’t know how the city is doing regarding homelessness, Dedrick said.
Some councilors agreed and said the city needs to do a better job of communicating about what it’s doing.
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More than half the respondents – 51% in this case – also said the city is headed the wrong direction regarding housing.
A low supply of affordable housing and building density or quality were the top reasons cited by people, Dedrick said.
Around 30% of people said they don’t know how the city is doing addressing housing issues.
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Split levels of confidence in city’s ability to handle key issues
Five attributes emerged as the top attributes people want Eugene to have:
Sense of personal safety
Quality in K-12 education
Cleanliness of public spaces
Parks, public spaces and open spaces
A healthy natural environment
Of those five, people only think Eugene has a high rate of delivery on parks.
It isn’t surprising that people rate the city’s delivery as lower than the importance of attributes, Dedrick said, because it’s a typical human bias not to rate anything as perfect because it doesn’t leave room for improvement.
There were some large expectation gaps for key items, including affordable housing, personal safety, cleanliness of public spaces, education and career opportunities.
The city doesn’t have direct input on all of those, Dedrick said, but can work with partners to address some gaps.
People don’t seem to have much faith that the city can handle key issues, though.
Just 3.3% of respondents said they have a lot of confidence in city officials’ ability to handle issues, while 17.5% have none. Around 35% have some confidence, and about the same amount don’t have much confidence. Another 10% said they weren’t sure.
There’s more trust for staff, with 9% saying they have a lot of confidence in staff and only 11.9% saying they have none. Another 40% have some confidence, 26% don’t have much and 12.5% weren’t sure.
Those numbers show room for improvement, Dedrick said, but look pretty good compared to the Pacific Northwest region and the country.
Less than 40% of people say they have at least some confidence in the ability of regional and national staff and officials to handle issues in recent polls, he said. That’s compared to 42% and 56% of respondents having at least some confidence in Eugene officials and staff, respectively.
Arts, culture, environment positive highlights
Dedrick ended his presentation on a high note, going over things that respondents said make Eugene special.
He highlighted five areas people indicated in open-ended responses along with some examples:
Community and culture: Arts, culture, Hult Center for the Performing Arts, overall vibe of the community
Location: Close to the ocean, mountains and farmland, home to University of Oregon
Environment: Beauty, nature, weather, trees
People: Caring, friendly, welcoming
City facilities and infrastructure: Park system, bike paths
Gaps between expectations and service levels as mentioned earlier in the presentation were lowest for arts and culture institutions, events and recreational opportunities and safe and accessible biking and walking infrastructure.
What's next?
City officials have started strategic planning to help plan for the upcoming budget, which will cover two years instead of one and focus more on service systems than departments.
They’ll use the results of the survey to guide goal-making and budget decisions and make sure they match community priorities.
Staff will get a final report from the company that conducted the survey then do more analysis to compile their own final report, Dedrick said. Those results will be available online.
The city also will use the results to guide future surveys.
By the numbers: Answers to some survey questions
How would you rate Eugene as a place to live, compared to five years ago?
Much better: 1.3 %
Better: 7.3 %
About the same: 26.7 %
Worse: 35.8 %
Much worse:16.6 %
Have not lived in the area for five or more years: 12.3 %
Rate the following:
Overall quality of life in Eugene
Excellent or Good: 61.7%
Neutral: 19.8%
Below average or poor: 16.8%
Don't know: 1.7%
Overall direction that City of Eugene is taking
Excellent or Good: 25.5%
Neutral: 25.8%
Below average or poor: 43.1%
Don't know: 5.6%
Overall value that you receive for your city tax dollars & fees
Excellent or Good: 29.6%
Neutral: 25.9%
Below average or poor: 39.3%
Don't know: 5.2%
Contact city government watchdog Megan Banta at mbanta@registerguard.com. Follow her on Twitter @MeganBanta_1.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Eugene residents unhappy with homelessness, housing: Survey
