Naperville received high marks in public safety, the local economy, and parks and recreation amenities, among others, in a recently completed community survey. But other issues, such as mobility and affordability, were identified as areas in need of improvement.
Representatives from Polco, a firm offering a platform specializing in civic engagement and data analytics, presented the findings from a community survey the company administered on the city’s behalf this spring. The report was given at the city council’s meeting Tuesday, Aug. 18.
Key findings from the results
Nick Mastronardi, CEO of Polco, provided a high-level overview of the company’s findings from the survey at the recent council meeting. According to the company, 760 completed surveys were submitted, representing a 16% response rate.
Polco researchers, he said, assembled six big-picture, key findings, which he outlined in his presentation:
- Community members give high ratings to Naperville as a place to live and raise children.
- Residents continue to feel safe throughout Naperville and give high ratings to the city’s public safety services.
- Residents highly rate Naperville’s economy, while affordability remains an area for improvement.
- Residents rated mobility services highly, while ease of travel varied by transportation mode.
- Naperville’s appearance and community design received great marks.
- Naperville’s educational and cultural offerings were well received.
Naperville also was stacked against other comparable communities across the U.S. that Polco has surveyed. Mastronardi described the benchmark municipalities as “arguably the best performing cities across the country.”
From a national benchmarks perspective, 103 of the 123 items Naperville residents rated in the survey were higher, and the remaining 20 items were similar. None of the items were lower than the comparable communities.
A look at statistics gleaned from report
From a livability perspective, Naperville residents ranked “excellent” or “good” with five categories at a 90% or above on the survey: safety, parks and recreation, natural environment, the economy, and health and wellness. Safety topped the list, with 94% satisfaction.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, community design, community connection, and mobility all ranked toward the lower end of the quality-of-life questions, with mobility at the bottom, with 63% ranking it “excellent” or “good.”
Polco also analyzed trending data, comparing Naperville’s 2023 survey to the current one. There were several areas where scores improved, such as a question about the city’s ability to attract people from diverse backgrounds, which inched up from 75% satisfaction three years ago to 81% this year.
But there were a number of areas that also declined in satisfaction in the survey, such as a question about employment opportunities, which dropped from 84% in 2023 to 60% this year. Economic development, land-use and utility billing scores also dipped.
In some instances, Mastronardi said the figures mirror national trends from polling conducted in other communities.
“While you did go down … most of the country is going down in some of these areas as well,” he indicated.
Housing affordability also continued to emerge as an area of concern within the community. When asked about its availability, 31% rated it “excellent” or “good,” which Mastronardi said is in line with national trends. Cost of living also rated low, with a 37% satisfaction score.
Mastronardi suggested the council consider the survey results and weigh them as future policy decisions are mulled.
“I know, on a day to day basis, you guys are navigating very important issues,” Mastronardi said to the council. “We believe some of the most important metrics for a community are the residents’ assessments of their quality of life, what’s important to them, and their satisfaction of public services. We take our job of helping to measure that very seriously.”
Council weighs in on survey results
At the recent meeting, a number of elected officials on the council dais commented on the survey findings.
In terms of mobility, Councilman Ian Holzhauer said bike accommodations could be an area for the city to hone in on in the future. In the survey, 52% of respondents rated the ease of travel by bicycle as “excellent” or “good.”
“It strikes me that bicycle travel is one that we could catch up to communities on … in particular, just focusing on the fact that it’s just so hard to get downtown with a bicycle,” Holzhauer said.
In future surveys, Councilman Josh McBroom suggested structuring them in a way that might offer additional details of residents’ vantage points.
“If there was a way, like on the sustainability question, ‘What would you pay?’” McBroom said in pointing out examples. “Or, it sounds like there were a lot of people who were dissatisfied with the affordability issue. ‘Which of these solutions would you support?’ Apartment development or high-density or those kind of things. If somebody doesn’t like something, what would they like?”
Councilwoman Mary Gibson lauded the police, fire and EMS personnel that comprise the city’s public safety team.
Speaking to the satisfaction numbers, Gibson said, “These numbers are phenomenal, and I think it speaks to how proactive both our police and fire department have been in meeting the changing needs of our community.”
Council hears from residents
The council also heard from two residents on the survey findings at the recent meeting.
John Doyle said he was displeased with the framing of an environmental sustainability question in the survey, which was what Polco described as one of its custom questions, specific to Naperville.
The question on the survey read, “Which best describes your view on addressing environmental and sustainability issues in Naperville?” Ultimately, 73% of respondents ranked it as a high priority.
“It’s a double-barreled question, trying to capture both importance and cost tolerance all at once,” Doyle said. “Avoiding this is survey design 101. Every other question captured a single signal, and when the survey wanted two signals on a single topic, it asked two separate questions, one for importance and one for quality.”
Marilyn Schweitzer implored city decision-makers to take the findings to heart and consider them as future decisions are made. She added the overall positive results are a credit to the staff and elected officials.
“This does not mean we should congratulate ourselves as a community and move on,” Schweitzer said. “Instead … there are areas that warrant attention in the coming years.”
Speaking to the decline in some categorical areas of the survey, Schweitzer added, “I believe this is significant, particularly as we continue to distance ourselves from the effects of the pandemic.”
Stay in the know – sign up for our daily news update!