Results from the third biennial survey of Bloomington residents were presented at the Bloomington City Council meeting Wednesday, according to a press release Thursday.
The survey, sent to a random sample of 3,000 Bloomington households and completed by 527 respondents, allowed Bloomington residents to provide feedback about the quality of life in Bloomington, identify issues in the city and evaluate other aspects of living in Bloomington, according to the release.
Nine out of 10 favorably reviewed Bloomington as a place to live, and 75% of respondents assigned positive reviews to the overall quality of services provided by the City of Bloomington, according to the community survey report.
Perceptions of the quality of police services, crime prevention and interactions with the Bloomington Police Department declined from previous community surveys, according to the press release. Police services were voted as excellent/good by 60% of respondents, down from 83% in 2019 and 78% in 2017.
Less than half of survey respondents rated resident interaction with BPD as excellent/good, with only 42% voting favorably, the first time in the survey’s history that less than half of respondents responded favorably, according to the community survey.
A majority of respondents rated resident interaction with BPD as something for the city community to focus on in the next two years with 80% voting favorably on its importance, up from 78% in 2019 and 2017.
Other categories in which less than half of respondents gave positive responses included the availability of affordable childcare, mental health care, healthcare and housing options in Bloomington, according to the community survey report.
Three in 10 residents gave excellent or good marks to the Bloomington community taking care of vulnerable residents, which was lower than the national benchmark, according to the community survey report.
The full results of the survey are available on the City of Bloomington website.
