Oklahoma Poll: Life is Good Here, but Could Be Better: Tulsans Hopeful, Concerned in Poll

By Randy Krehbiel, Tulsa World, Okla.

Apr. 2–Crime, the economy and the City Council top respondents’ lists of concerns. Tulsans may be worried about crime, ticked off at the City Council and less than enthusiastic about their mayor, but they still seem to think their city is a pretty good place to live.

Nearly 80 percent of the 511 Tulsans surveyed March 25-27 for an Oklahoma Poll said Tulsa’s quality of life is good or excellent. Only 3.5 percent rated it poor.

But, said poll consultant Al Soltow, “that doesn’t preclude them from complaining about specific areas.”

With the city election only days away, 20 percent of those questioned rated the city’s quality of life as excellent and 58 percent said it is good.

Eighteen percent said Tulsa’s quality of life is fair.

Despite those numbers, 41 percent said the quality of life has gotten worse in the last four years, while only 15 percent thought it has improved.

Sixty-two percent said the City Council performed worse during the last four years, and 45 percent said the mayor’s office was less effective.

“When I moved here, Tulsa was much like Austin, where I grew up,” said poll participant George Robertson, a Tulsan for 25 years. “Now I just see the community being what it was.

“The people here have a certain community spirit that has suffered, but could still be rallied,” Robertson said.

Indeed, despite some dissatisfaction with the recent past, Tulsans remain optimistic. Sixty-one percent said they expect the quality of life to improve during the next four years, while only 6 percent expect it to get worse.

“I’m an optimist,” said Lucy Adams, who expects better days ahead despite what she believes has been a decline in recent years. “With the right leadership, we have a good chance of doing better.”

Robertson agreed.

“We need the right leadership — from the mayor’s office, the Legislature and the governor’s office,” he said.

Soltow, vice president of research at the University of Tulsa, pointed out that almost twice as many Republicans (25 percent to 14 percent) said Tulsa’s quality of life is excellent. Republicans (20 percent to 8 percent) also were more likely to say things had gotten better in the past four years and significantly less likely (33 percent to 52 percent) to say things had gotten worse.

Crime seemed to be foremost on poll respondents’ minds. Eighty-one percent said crime has gotten worse during the past four years, and 47 percent said it should be the first priority of Tulsa’s next mayor, easily putting it first in that category.

How much of that is reality and how much is perception is difficult to gauge. The city’s overall crime rate has been essentially unchanged in recent years, but violent crime has been up.

“Crime is encroaching on our neighborhood,” said northeast Tulsa resident Janice Ipock. “People just feel uneasy. We just got a big guard dog.”

“I have never had to call the police myself,” said Corentha West, who said she lives “a pretty good life” on the city’s near north side. “But you get to 46th Street (North), that’s hell.”

Economic development was second to crime as the top priority, getting 28 percent. Education, at 6.3 percent, and streets and roads, at 6 percent, followed.

Other poll results include:

* Education fared better than most quality-of-life measures in the survey. Twenty-six percent said education in general improved during the past four years, and the same share said Tulsa Public Schools were better.

Forty-one percent said education in general stayed the same, 23 percent said it got worse, and 11 percent didn’t know.

Thirty-nine percent said Tulsa Public Schools stayed the same, 20 percent said the district declined, and 16 percent didn’t know.

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Randy Krehbiel 581-8365 randy.krehbiel@tulsaworld.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, Tulsa World, Okla.

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