Department of Communications and Engagement
Reference: Community Survey
To: Mayor Gregory Mills and Members of City Council
Through: Michael P. Martinez, City Manager
Prepared By: Kristen Chernosky, Director of Communications & Engagement
Date Prepared: November 9, 2023
PURPOSE
To present an overview of the City of Brighton’s 2023 National Community Survey results.
BACKGROUND
At City Council’s request, the City of Brighton conducts a citywide community survey biannually. The purpose of this survey is to assess the overall satisfaction of city residents with the delivery of city services, for the residents to rate the overall quality of life in the city, and to garner insight into the residents’ perception of upcoming projects and proposals.
The City contracted with Polco/NRC to conduct the 2023 community survey. Polco/NRC was also used to conduct the 2021 and 2014 community surveys, allowing us to compare results over time. Over the last 25 years, Polco/NRC has conducted more than 15,000 surveys in more than 500 local governments across the U.S.
2023 Survey - Method and Analysis
The National Community Survey contained five pages of standardized questions. The survey was available in English and Spanish.
All households within the City of Brighton were eligible to participate in the survey, either as part of the random sample or part of the open participation survey. For the random sample, Polco/NRC used a list of households from an updated list from USPS to randomly select addresses as survey recipients. In total, 3,000 randomly-selected households received mailings (in English and Spanish) starting June 22, 2023 and the survey remained open for six weeks. For all other residents who wanted to take the survey, there was the open participation survey, which became available to all Brighton residents on July 20, 2023, and remained open for two weeks.
About 3% of the 3,000 mailed invitations or surveys were returned because the household address was vacant, or the postal service was unable to deliver the survey as addressed. Of the remaining 2,915 households that received the invitations to participate, 338 completed the survey, providing an overall response rate of 12%. According to Polco/NRC, the margin of error for the City of Brighton survey is no greater than plus or minus 5 percentage points around any given percent reported for all respondents (338 completed surveys).
Responses from mailed surveys were entered into an electronic dataset using a “key and verify” method, where all responses are entered twice and compared to each other. Any discrepancies were resolved in comparison to the original survey form. Range checks as well as other forms of quality control were also performed. Responses from surveys completed on Polco were downloaded and merged with the mailed survey responses. The demographics of the survey respondents were compared to those found in the 2020 Census and 2022 American Community Survey estimates for adults in the City of Brighton.
Survey Results - Highlights
About three-quarters of Brighton residents positively rated their neighborhood as a place to live, and two-thirds of respondents gave excellent or good reviews to the city as a place to live, the overall quality of life in Brighton, and the city as a place to raise children.
Three-quarters of residents planned to remain in Brighton for the next five years, and two-thirds would recommend living in the city to someone who asked. These scores tended to be lower than the national and Front Range peer benchmark comparisons. However, residents generally feel safe in the city: about 8 in 10 respondents reported feeling very or somewhat safe in their neighborhoods and in Brighton’s downtown/commercial area during the day, and these scores were similar to those seen in other communities.
About 6 in 10 respondents positively rated the overall customer service provided by Brighton employees (with 26% assigning a fair rating), while about half gave favorable marks to the overall quality of City services (with an additional 37% rating this as fair).
As in 2021, aspects of Economy in 2023 tended to be rated positively by about half of residents or less. These included the overall quality of business and service establishments (51% excellent or good), Brighton as a place to work (39%), shopping opportunities (37%), and the overall economic health of the City (36%), among others. However, residents were significantly less likely in 2023 than in 2021 to rate the overall economic health of the city as essential or very important, indicating a shift in resident priorities.
For the full results from Brighton’s 2023 Community Survey, please see the attached report.
ATTACHMENTS
The National Community Survey - Results Report