City Releases Residents' "Customer Survey"
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From rats to recycling, and from subway service to sanitation, city officials released a survey Wednesday that shows how residents rated the city's conditions and services.
The New York City Feedback Citywide Customer Survey is the largest municipal survey ever undertaken by a U.S. city, broken down borough by borough, community board by community board.
"The best way to rate services is to do what I know from personal experience and from what private businesses do as a matter of routine," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "And that is to survey their customers, and in this case, our customers are the people of New York City."
A majority approve of city services. The survey found that 44 percent of New Yorkers rated city services as fair, 38 percent found them to be good and 4 percent deemed them excellent.
The public school system also received good marks. About 75 percent rated the public school system as at least fair, although only about a third said public education was good or excellent.
Mass transit service and public safety also got high marks.
Although Bloomberg is proposing controversial changes to senior centers, senior services and community centers got the highest grade, with 64 percent calling them good or excellent.
New Yorkers were less happy with social support to low income communities, giving those services a failing grade.
"Going to the root of what these problems are, we hope will make our capacity to deliver services better," said Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum.
The top five most important issues to New Yorkers were, in order, housing, education, mass transit, crime and cost of living.
Most people who spoke with NY1 said they were happy with the city services, while others were less pleased.
"I like how it has so many opportunities for everything, everything's pretty accessible," said a New Yorker.
"I happen to be laid off and rent is very expensive, and unemployment certainly cannot carry that," said another
People living in Manhattan's Upper East Side gave their neighborhood top marks, while those who live in the Morrisania section of the Bronx gave it the worst.
Non-Hispanic residents generally gave more positive ratings than Hispanics, as did whites and Asians compared with black New Yorkers.
And those with higher incomes, gave their neighborhoods the highest grades.
The survey was sent out last June, before the economic meltdown.
To see the full neighborhood-by-neighborhood report, visit www.nyc.gov.