Schaumburg Continues to Receive Praise from Residents Through National Citizen Survey

The Village of Schaumburg has received high marks for its quality of life, as a place to live and raise children, and for an overall feeling of safety, according to the most recent results from residents who participated in the National Citizen Survey™ (NCS).

The survey was administered in the fall of 2018 to 1,600 random residents who were asked to provide feedback on the quality and usefulness of village services. Survey findings will be used to guide strategic planning, allocate resources, and provide insights to departments regarding programs and services.

This is the third time the survey has been implemented in the village, and respondents rated several village services more positively in 2018 than in 2014. These services included traffic signal timing, snow removal, bus and transit services, garbage collection, and street repair.

Other key highlights from the 2018 survey include:

• 93% of respondents rate the village as an excellent or good place to live.

• 95% feel safe in their neighborhoods.

• 92% of respondents would recommend Schaumburg as a place to raise a family.

• 91% gave positive ratings to the overall image and overall appearance of the village.

"Information obtained from this survey has allowed the village to measure its performance and to ensure we're addressing items that are important to residents based on their feedback," said Village Manager Brian Townsend. "I am pleased with the positive results we have received and proud that residents would recommend living in Schaumburg to others."

Respondents identified safety, economy, and education and enrichment as priorities for the Schaumburg community in the coming two years. The village exceeded national benchmarks in built environment, recreation and wellness, and education and enrichment. In addition, ratings for overall confidence in village government and government acting in the best interest of Schaumburg were higher than those given in other communities across the nation.

The village previously conducted the survey in 2016 and 2014. By resurveying residents, the village is able to assess its progress and determine areas for future improvement. Overall, ratings in Schaumburg for 2018 generally remained stable, with 14 areas showing an increase from previous surveys. Some notable trends include:

• Mobility ratings have increased since 2014 in areas such as ease of travel by public transportation, street repair, snow removal and sidewalk maintenance, among others.

• Evaluations for crime prevention and animal control improved since 2014.

• Residents in 2018 were more likely than in 2014 to give positive ratings to garbage collection in Schaumburg. They were also more likely in 2018 to have recycled at home.

Positive trends in those categories can be attributed to the village's increase in funding to its local street repair program (from $6 million to $8 million annually) and the optimization of the village's transportation network where new video detection was installed and coordinated with traffic signals at seven key intersections along Meacham Road and Woodfield Road to improve traffic flow. In addition, the village recently provided residents with more than 48,000 new wheeled carts with lids for both refuse and recycling at no additional cost to residential customers to make it easier to recycle.

The National Citizen Survey™ is a collaborative effort between the National Research Center, Inc., (NRC) and the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). The survey and its administration are standardized to assure high quality research methods and directly comparable results across The NCS™ communities. For more information on the survey, visit http://bit.ly/28JlleG, contact Clayton Black at cblack@schaumburg.com or dial 311 in the village.