Parks City Survey Presentation
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Meridian’s first formal citizen survey was completed in November 2010 to:
Identify citizen requirements, expectations, and priorities for services
Measure current performance on key
quality of life and service metrics
Establish tools with which to measure changes in performance over time
Determines citizens’ priorities for services
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Central Meridian – East of McDermott and west of Meridian Road, and north of Interstate 84 and south of Cherry Lane
Northeast Meridian – East of Meridian Road and north of Interstate
84
Northwest Meridian – North of Cherry Lane and west of Meridian Road
South Meridian – South of Interstate 84
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Demographic Profile
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575 respondents
34% Cell Phone Only
62% online
No greater than +- 4%
Quality of Life
Meridian’s quality of life exceed the majority of residents’ expectations
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Nearly nine out of ten (89%) residents report that the quality of life in Meridian exceeds (70%) or greatly exceeds (19%) expectations.
Ratings across the four regions are consistent.
There are a few significant differences in residents’ perceived quality of life based on several demographic characteristics. Residents who rate the quality of life higher are:
Female
– 24 percent say that the quality of life greatly exceeds expectations,
Younger – Nearly three quarters (74%) of residents between 18-34 and 73 percent between 35-54 say that the quality
of life exceeds expectations,
Single family homes – over one in five (21%) say it greatly exceeds expectations, and
Households with children – three quarters (75%) say the quality of
life exceeds expectations.
Residents were given the unaided opportunity to list qualities that make Meridian a good place to live. The best attributes of the city are its location (33%), being a safe place to
live (33%), and the small town feel (24%).
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Residents with children are most likely to rate Meridian as a safe place to live 38%, providing good parks and recreation services 18%, and being a place with good family values 12%.
Overall Quality of Service Metric
While overall ratings on the 24 service attributes are relatively high, they are significantly lower in Central and South Meridian
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City Services Rated Above the Mean
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City Parks—Meridian city does a very good job providing fun, safe, and convenient parks to residents as three of the five top-rated services provided by the city involve parks. While
residents in South Meridian rate parks in the top 25 percent, they give significantly lower ratings than do the other regions. As discussed later in the report under Service Usage Profiling,
residents in South Meridian use the parks less often than residents in the other regions. This may be explained by the lower ratings for the availability and location of city parks,
residents with children, and may also explain some of the lower scores for the other attributes such as quality and appearance and safety in the parks.
City Services Rated Below the Mean
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Providing recreational opportunities in the form of recreational programs, centers, and special events is an important service for cities to provide and it is an area where the residents
feel the city could use improvement. Overall, two-thirds (66%) of residents feel that Meridian exceeds (50%) or greatly exceeds (15%) their expectations in providing recreation programs
and classes, but this varies by region with nearly a quarter of residents living downtown (22%) and in South Meridian (21%) feel that the city does not meet their expectations—a rating
of 2. Scores are slightly lower (57%) when asked about providing recreation centers and facilities. South Meridian residents rate this the lowest with one-third (33%) saying that the
city does not meet their expectations—a rating of one or two.
= Key Driver Analysis
Green = Strength; Red = Priority; Yellow= Monitor
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Unaided Budget Priorities
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Residents were asked, using an open-end question, to indicate what they think the city should make its highest budget priority when allocating funding to programs and services for the
community. Note “unaided” means residents were not given a list to choose from, they provided programs and services without being prompted.
Aided Budget Priorities
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After defining the top budget priorities for Meridian, residents were given a list of ten spending priorities (“aided”) and were asked to order them in terms of importance for the city
for the next two years. The list includes: parks and open space, retaining and attracting businesses, public transportation, public safety, community services, visual and performing
arts, planning for growth, environmental programs, pathways and bike lanes, and downtown redevelopment. The rankings were run through an algorithm to create an overall priority score
summing to 100 possible points.
Budget Priorities by Neighborhood
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Residents of South meridian place the least emphasis on parks and open spaces with no residents indicating that it should be the most important priority and only two percent saying it
should be the second and the same number indicating parks as the third most important priority.
Bike paths and sidewalks are significantly more important for residents in Northeast and
Northwest Meridian. In Northeast Meridian, sidewalks is tied with downtown redevelopment in importance and only slightly behind planning for growth.
Spending Priorities
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There is a clear trend toward providing more and better transportation options such as public transit and building new bike lanes and pathways; (66%) of residents say that bike lanes
should be a priority (43%) or high priority (23%).
Building dog parks and a performing arts center are the lowest priorities; (56%) of residents say that dog parks should be a low priority
(28%) or not to invest any money at all (28%).
Dogs and Dog Parks
Half (51%) of Meridian households have one or more dogs
Dog-owning households have an average of 1.5 dogs
There are an estimated 16,821 doggie residents in Meridian with the highest
per capita in Northwest Meridian
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Smoking in Meridian’s Parks
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Questions?
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