Infrastructure and crime prevention are the priorities among a small percentage of Dallas residents who responded to a 2023 community survey, city officials said Wednesday.
A decrease in local satisfaction was reported in access to quality affordable housing, but the matter — while charting high in cities nationwide — did not make the top three priorities for any of Dallas’ 14 City Council districts.
The purpose of the community survey was to assess the quality of city services, determine community priorities, track the city’s performance over time, and identify opportunities for improvement.
Dallas has conducted the survey 11 times over the past 18 years, most recently in 2020.
“More information is better when trying to figure out the needs of our residents from their perspective,” said Mayor Eric Johnson. “I think this is a great thing to do. I think in the back of our minds we need to be thinking about how we want to address some of these [issues in the] budget versus [the 2024] bond.”
View the council presentation, including survey results, here.
About 1,475 surveys were completed, amounting to more than 100 for each Dallas City Council district. Each district has about 91,000 residents, according to 2022 redistricting data.
Dallas spent $46,500 to contract with ETC Institute for the survey.
Housing and Homelessness
It’s uncommon for a council briefing to not circle back to housing, but Wednesday’s presentation showed that the small sample of respondents is more concerned with public safety and potholes than housing opportunities.
Project Manager Jason Morado of ETC Institute said Dallas residents’ high prioritization of police and infrastructure is typical for large cities. He didn’t have much to add about why housing didn’t make the cut.
“Affordable housing has really become a high priority, especially over the past year or so, across the country,” he said.
District 12 Councilmember Cara Mendelsohn pointed out that 40 percent of respondents saw homelessness as a major problem in 2014. That number rose to 64 percent in 2018, and to 75 percent in the current survey.
Morado acknowledged that’s a big jump.
“There could be a lot of reasons for that,” he said. “It’s something that’s been a trend in a lot of large communities.”
District 13 Councilwoman Gay Donnell Willis noted that residents are more concerned with homelessness, aggressive panhandling, and litter than they have been in past surveys.
“Maybe it didn’t hit the top priority list, but we all need to give that consideration,” she said.
Perception Versus Reality
Mendelsohn said the survey results can reflect perception rather than reality.
“I think it’s really important to do this; however, it’s also about a person’s perception as opposed to actual data,” she said. “The perception in my district was that people felt very unsafe. I think it was the highest percentage of people who felt unsafe, but data-wise, my district is the safest. Sometimes just asking the question versus reality doesn’t always align.”
Willis said that, in addition to knowing where people stand, the survey results also point city leaders toward better ways to publicize existing programs or create new initiatives.
“I know there were concerns about public safety in the violent crime category, and we have our violent crime plan,” she said. “Another one that really jumped out was around property crime. I would say that’s something we’re going to need to give a hard look at with regard to programs next year.”
City Manager T.C. Broadnax said department directors will incorporate the data as needed when crafting new programs.
“We reach out and work with the departments, particularly if there are issues and challenges we can identify to try to figure out how they can improve,” he said. “In some respects, perception is something that you’ve always got to chase, and it’s day-to-day. We try to focus on areas where we know there may be challenges. The survey helps us and we use it that way, beyond budget. We will look at this as a part of our budget process.”
District 6 Councilman Omar Narvaez said a wealth of misinformation was spread during the municipal election campaign this year.
“Two years in a row, we’re the only major city in the entire nation that violent crime across the board has gone down and is continuing to go down,” he said. “If we keep this trajectory, we could go down a third year in a row. That’s not what’s being perpetuated. What gets perpetuated by a lot of folks is that we’re 400 officers short and crime is on the rise. Chief Eddie Garcia has done a phenomenal job of changing that trajectory here and we have to give our police officers that support.”
