Public perception of Spokane County's quality of life is overwhelmingly unfavorable, a new survey indicates.

The Greater Spokane Incorporated-sponsored survey, titled The Pulse, asked 600 randomly selected registered voters in Spokane County a multitude of questions about their perceptions of the region.

Overall, Spokane County had a quality-of-life index score of 3.6 out of 10, with 10 being the most positive score, 5 being average, and zero being the most negative. The score was formulated using the results of questions on the survey.

The survey was created and conducted by Oakland, California-based market research firm EMC Research Inc.

For reference, a similar survey for the city of Seattle, also created and conducted by EMC Research, resulted in a score of 4.7 in the fall survey for that region.

“What we were looking at here at GSI was trying to get a clear and accurate picture of how voters are feeling about the direction that the region is going, how confident they feel in decisions that are being made, and really to gauge some sentiment on how folks are feeling about some of the bigger questions and issues that are facing the region,” says Jake Mayson, public policy director at GSI, the Spokane region’s business development organization.

The top concerns among Spokane County voters are homelessness, crime, drugs, and public safety.

Half of the survey respondents cited homelessness as one of their top concerns, while 40% listed crime, drugs, and public safety as a top concern.

“That’s the frustration in the business community, and the issues the business community is focused on,” Mayson says. “This poll definitely backs that up.”

He adds that those top concerns were consistent regardless of political affiliation and age.

“It’s a majority of both Democrats and Republicans that are really worried about those issues, and it’s across all age ranges,” he says.

Overall, left-leaning voters rate the quality of life in Spokane County more positively than right-leaning voters. The quality-of-life index score is 4.9 among Democrat voters, 3.1 among Independents, and 2.9 among Republicans.

The index scores varied less across all age groups.

Other top concerns include infrastructure (10%), housing (8%), the government and politics (7%), taxes (7%), and inflation and the cost of living (7%).

Other key takeaways from the survey include:

*58% of respondents think the overall quality of life in the region is getting worse.

*58% of respondents have actively considered moving out of the area.

*89% of respondents are worried about the future of downtown Spokane.

*89% of respondents agree that a thriving downtown Spokane is critical to the region's economic health.

*74% of respondents agree that recent policy decisions by the city are causing local small businesses to close and move away.

*58% of respondents would feel safe visiting downtown Spokane during the day, while only 21% would feel safe visiting downtown Spokane at night.

*51% of respondents reported that they visit downtown Spokane much less than they did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

*94% of respondents agree that downtown Spokane cannot fully recover until the homelessness and public safety problems are addressed.

*54% of respondents don't support the building of a wider variety of housing in their own neighborhood.

*69% of respondents feel less safe in their own neighborhood than they did two years ago.

*72% of respondents think providing funding to mental health and substance abuse facilities is important or extremely important.

*78% of respondents agree that hiring more police officers should be an immediate priority for the city of Spokane.

*77% of respondents don't trust the local government to spend their tax dollars responsibly.

Quantifiable baseline

Despite the unflattering quality-of-life score, the survey provides a quantifiable baseline for local leaders and community members to measure progress, or lack thereof.

“You can’t improve what you can’t measure,” Mayson says. “This is kind of our baseline, being our first survey.”

Going forward, GSI plans to have the survey conducted twice a year—once in the spring and once in the fall.

“Then we’ll have some longitudinal data to look at and start seeing some trends,” Mayson says.

While the survey provides GSI with an additional resource it can use in its economic development efforts, it also is intended to be a resource for local leaders in the community, including within the government.

“We really want to continue to work with local leaders to increase the amount of confidence that people have in the decisions they’re making and that they are creating a business-friendly environment,” Mayson says.

The benchmarks created by the survey can be used by city leaders to measure the public’s trust and confidence in them, as well as the overall perception of policies that are being passed, he says.

Mayson says he hopes the survey will “draw their attention away from what I’ve been calling squeaky-wheel policy making, where often they are listening to the loudest voices in the room, rather than really paying attention to the community as a whole.”

A significant amount of the survey’s focus centered around downtown Spokane.

“There’s just so much that happens down here, and we were aware that there are some perception issues around the safety of downtown, and we really wanted to give the whole community a benchmark by which to measure progress in that space,” says Mayson. “Our downtown core has been historically and continues to be an economic driver for the entire region.”

Despite the overall discouraging results from the inaugural survey, there were some positive takeaways as well, he says.

He notes that there is a great deal of support for local businesses when it comes to addressing public safety concerns.

“Eighty-six percent of people agreed that helping local business deal with public safety would very significantly or significantly impact their quality of life,” he says.

Businesses also play a role in a number of the features people view most favorably in Spokane County, he adds.

Respondents rated nature, scenery, and landscape (26%); outdoor recreation and access to public land (17%); climate, weather, and having four seasons (15%); community feel and friendly people (9%); and entertainment, activities, and businesses (8%) as being among the best things about living in the Spokane region.

The 600 randomly selected registered voters completed the survey between Oct. 1 and Oct. 6.

Among them, 52% were women and 48% were men. Eighteen percent of respondents were ages 18-29, 18% were 30-39, 16% were 40-49, 23% were 50-64, and 25% were 65 and older.

Democrats made up 31% of respondents, Republicans made up 40%, and Independents made up 29%.