A new survey has 63 percent of Tulsans saying the city is heading in the right direction.
That’s up more than 10 points from three years ago. Pollster Bill Shapard said citizen satisfaction is up across nearly every major metric, from quality of life to the city’s trash and recycling service.
"This is a true testament to the mayor, the city manager, the city councilors and the hundreds of city employees that provide these kinds of services on a daily basis," Shapard said. "What we're seeing is that Tulsans think that Tulsa is a great place to live and it's getting better."
Seven out of 10 Tulsans are satisfied with city services, according to the survey.
Citizens saying they’re very satisfied overall are up 15 points from three years ago. Water services saw a 12-point jump in people saying they’re very satisfied, city parks 11 points and fire 10. Shapard said the results show city department heads are seeing citizens as customers.
"They are customers. They're paying their taxes, and they should get a good return on what they spend," Shapard said. "What we're seeing in these results is that Tulsans believe that they are."
When it came to the value Tulsans feel they get for their taxes and fees, homeowners and 20-plus-year residents were more likely to be very dissatisfied.
The survey says streets, police and economic development should be city officials' top priorities over the next two years.
Mayor Dewey Bartlett found those results encouraging.
"It does underscore, to me, the good decision we made regarding the Vision Tulsa ... to focus on public safety, on streets, on transit, street maintenance, that those were the things the public wanted," Bartlett said.
Though citizen satisfaction in all street maintenance categories is up from a similar survey three years ago, nearly two-thirds of Tulsans are dissatisfied with street maintenance overall.
SoonerPoll surveyed nearly 1,800 Tulsans by phone or online. Answers to the 120-question survey were weighted by census data.
