Politics & Government

La Mesans Give Two Thumbs Up to Quality of Life, Survey Finds

A $45,000 phone poll of 800 residents details residential satisfaction with city services, recreation and cultural offerings—with misgivings about crime and traffic.

The vast majority of La Mesans give the city high marks for its quality of life, with 32 percent reporting in a January phone poll that life here is “excellent,” says a survey by True North Research Inc.

An additional 57 percent rated La Mesa life “good” with only 2 percent calling quality of life here “poor" or “very poor.”

“When asked what city government can do to improve the quality of life in La Mesa, the most common response was ‘not sure’ and ‘cannot think of anything specific,’ mentioned by 19 percent of respondents,” says a summary by Timothy McLarney and Richard Sarles of True North.

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The survey of 800 residents—conducted Jan. 6-15 at a cost to the city of $45,000—was released in advance of Thursday’s all-day workshop meeting of the City Council and staff at the main fire station on Allison Avenue. The survey was ordered for the sake of the city’s General Plan revision.

The survey called both land-line users and cell-phone users for interviews averaging 20 minutes each—200 residents per quadrant of the city. Among many other things (noted in attached report), residents were asked whether a public-safety issue was a big, moderate or small problem.

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“The most commonly experienced neighborhood problem among those tested was speeding vehicles (51 percent at least a moderate problem), followed by crime (44 percent), and the presence of sex offenders (24 percent),” the authors say.

In an 80-page report, True North saluted La Mesa for its good grades.

“When compared to similar studies that True North’s research team has conducted for California municipalities, the scores found in this study place the City of La Mesa comfortably within the top 15 percent of municipalities in terms of service performance,” said the authors.

The survey asked residents which areas of La Mesa life need improvement, and McLarney and Sarles said two stand out as priorities: improving police services and street repair/maintenance.

“Considering the perceived importance of these service areas to residents, they are the best candidates for the city’s attention as they represent the best opportunities for increasing residents’ overall satisfaction in the short and long-term,” the authors said.

But the Encinitas-based researchers said the right strategy for addressing these concerns “is often a combination of better communication and actual service improvements.”

“It may be, for example, that many residents are simply not aware of the city’s true crime rate, the performance of the Police Department, or related public safety matters,” the authors said. “Choosing the appropriate balance of actual service improvements and efforts to educate the public on these matters will be a key to maintaining and improving residents’ overall satisfaction in the future.”

In fact, La Mesa Police Chief Al Lanning and his top lieutenants have been making the rounds of neighborhoods to bat down perceptions of a high crime rate, which gained traction in August 2010 when The San Diego Union-Tribune publicized a spike in the city’s crime rate.

At neighborhood meetings in local schools, Lanning has been telling relatively small turnouts that the SANDAG figures quoted by the Union-Tribune were an aberration and La Mesa’s crime rate is actually among the lowest in decades.

Survey authors noted the public relations aspect, saying: “It is important to keep in mind ... that public safety is as much a matter of perceptions as it is a matter of reality. Regardless of actual crime statistics, if residents do not feel safe then they will not enjoy the many cultural, recreational and shopping opportunities available in the City of La Mesa that will enhance their quality of life.”

According to True North, 27 percent of respondents felt that La Mesa had become a less safe place to live in the past five years, 11 percent said it was a safer place to live, and 52 percent felt it was about the same.

However, nearly all surveyed residents indicated that they felt safe walking alone in their neighborhood and in retail areas (96 percent) during the day. After sunset, 72 percent felt safe in their neighborhoods, and 74 percent felt in business areas.

“The findings of this question and the previous question show an interesting split in how La Mesa residents view public safety in the city,” the authors said. “There were no statistically significant changes in perceived safety over the past five years—residents interviewed in 2011 felt as safe today as those who were asked five years ago in the 2006 survey.

“However, when the 2011 respondents were asked to compare the safety of the city overall today versus five years ago, more than one-quarter felt it is less safe today—suggesting that perceptions of the past are more optimistic than reality when it comes to public safety.”

High marks also were given to emergency medical services, fire protection, adequate traffic signals and community festivals.

McLarney and Sarles noted that in most California cities, traffic congestion ranks among the most pressing problems that residents would like local and regional governments to solve.

“Indeed, in the 2006 survey, reduced traffic congestion was the second most commonly mentioned change cited by residents to make La Mesa a better place to live. In the current study, however, the issue has fallen out of the top 10 mentions.”

In fact, 88 percent of residents rated traffic circulation in residential areas as excellent or good, the authors said.

“Perceptions of overall circulation (73 percent), as well as circulation on major streets (70 percent), were somewhat less positive,” they said. “It should be noted that even in the case of major streets, however, only 6 percent of respondents rated traffic circulation in La Mesa as poor or very poor.”

When asked about city efforts to communicate with residents—by newsletter, Internet or other means—72 percent of respondents indicated satisfaction. Some 22 percent were dissatisfied.

“The most frequently cited source for city-related information, mentioned by … 34 percent of respondents, was the Internet in general, followed by the city’s website (22 percent), and The San Diego Union Tribune (22 percent),” the authors said.

The survey found that 52 percent of La Mesa residents indicated that they had visited the city’s website in the 12 months prior to the interview.

“Overall, 83 percent of those who had visited the city’s website in the past year felt it was very easy (35 percent) or somewhat easy (48 percent) to find what they were looking for,” the report said. “Thirteen percent said it was somewhat difficult, and only 2 percent found it very difficult.”

Eighty-four percent of respondents indicated that their household subscribes to cable television, and 19 percent of all La Mesa households surveyed indicated that they had watched a City Council meeting on Channel 24 during the 12 months before the interview.

Residents also were asked about the city’s recreational and cultural offerings, and these got high marks, too. Ninety percent said their quality was either excellent (38 percent) or good (52 percent), with 6 percent judging the programs as being of fair quality.

Less than 1 percent indicated that their quality was poor or very poor.

The City Council originally planned to survey 400 residents, as recommended by True North, but ordered a survey of 800 residents, broken down by city quadrants, for an additional $15,000.

Councilwoman Ruth Sterling was the lone dissenter in the 4-1 vote last November to authorize the extra spending. She said the last survey, in 2006, revealed La Mesans’ main concerns to be speeding in residential districts and local crime.

Sterling said she didn’t think survey results would change enough to justify thousands of dollars more.

True North, which also did the 2006 survey, compared those figures to the latest and found most in similar ranges.

“In the 2006 community satisfaction study, 93 percent of residents indicated
that they were generally satisfied with the City of La Mesa’s overall performance
in providing municipal services,” True North said.

“Five years later, the 2011 survey reveals that the city has effectively maintained this very high level of satisfaction, as 90 percent of residents continue to be satisfied with the city’s overall performance.”

Story updated at 9 p.m. March 21, 2011.


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