Nine in 10 people rate their quality of life average or above in the city of Visalia

By Reggie Ellis @Reggie_SGN

VISALIA – Visalia residents are pretty happy with their city government and the services it provides.

The Visalia City Council received a report of the city’s annual public opinion survey earlier this month and respondents spoke highly of their quality of life in town. About 9 in 10 residents rated the quality of life in Visalia as average to very high across all income brackets. Even the city’s poorest residents, those making less than $15,000 per year, rated Visalia’s quality of life at average or above (75%).

The primary concern of residents remained homelessness, followed by crime which included drugs, gangs and safety. More than half of residents (59%) said the city was doing an average, good or excellent job of dealing with the homeless issue.

Three-quarters of residents also rated the city’s efforts at providing a safe community as average or better. Those living in the southwest and northwest part of town rated safety efforts the highest (43% rated the city high or very high) while residents in the southeast rated safety efforts the lowest (16% rated the city low or very low).

A little over a third of those surveyed had contact with the Visalia Police Department and their interactions were good. Nearly two-thirds rated police service good or excellent, a 10% increase from last year. Respondents living in northwest Visalia rated public safety the highest while residents in the northeast part of the city rated it the lowest.

About 80% rated the Visalia Fire Department’s service good or excellent. Of the 14% who had contact with the Visalia Fire Department, those living in the southeast portion of the city rated fire service the highest and those living in the northwest portion of the city rated it the lowest. Less than 8% had a poor or very poor experience.

Besides public safety, 39% of respondents said their main concern was road maintenance, with traffic signs and signals the next closest at 29%. Demaree Street and Shirk Road were at the top of the list of roads people would like to see repaired or widened, followed by Goshen Street and Riggin Road, and then Tulare Avenue, Akers Road, Caldwell Avenue and Mooney Boulevard. Road maintenance was more of a concern in Northern half of Visalia than the Southern part of town, where residents were more focused on crime and litter. Higher income residents, those making more than $70,000, were more concerned with road maintenance while lower income residents, those making less than $70,000 were twice as likely to be concerned with recreation activities. Overall, residents gave street lighting and fire emergency response the highest rating among city services and traffic management and road maintenance the lowest.

About 80% of residents have visited a city park in the last year and nearly two-thirds (64%) of residents have attended an event at the Visalia Convention Center. Park usage is slightly up from last year with one-third of residents visiting a park at least five times during the year. Those making $100,000 per year are the most likely to visit parks more than five times per year but those making less than $15,000 are the least likely to visit a park at all. At least 40% of respondents of every age group visited parks at least three times last year. The interest in attending events at the Convention Center dropped slightly from 2017 to 2018’s survey. Price seems to be the determining factor as those making more than $70,000 are twice as likely to attend an event those earning less than $15,000. Not surprisingly, people ages 35-54 are the most likely to attend events at the Convention Center.

Less than half of residents (47%) have either used a city walking/bike trail or attended a game at Rawhide Stadium. Less than a quarter of residents (24%) used city trails more than twice in the past year. Higher income residents were more likely to use trails than low income residents. Just 19% of those surveyed had attended more than two baseball games at Rawhide Stadium in the last year. Higher income residents were more likely to attend baseball games but those making between $40,000 and $70,000 per year were just as likely to attend five or more games as those earning over $100,000.

The survey was conducted in person on Saturday, April 7 and online between Feb. 26 and April 13. The nearly 1,300 respondents were mostly Caucasian (60%), female (59%), homeowners (62%), between the age of 35-54 (45%) and have lived in town for at least 10 years (76%).