[DIV class=storyheadline]We're unanimously happy about our city
[DIV class=storysubhead]It's just the traffic jams that get most us down, a new Decima Research study suggests
[TABLE width="100%" border=0] [TBODY] [TR] [TD colSpan=2] [/TD][/TR] [TR] [TD colSpan=2][FONT class=storybyline]Wency Leung[/FONT][/TD][/TR] [TR] [TD colSpan=2][FONT class=storypub]Vancouver Sun[/FONT][/TD][/TR][/TBODY][/TABLE] [DIV class=storydate]
Monday, January 15, 2007[/DIV]
[DIV class=storytext][!--begin story text--] [TABLE style="FLOAT: right" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=3 width=250 align=right border=0 valign="top"] [TBODY] [TR] [TD] [TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 border=0] [TBODY] [TR] [TD][img height=210 src="http://media.canada.com/canwest/111/vs_loving_vancouver2_050107_210.jpg" width=210 border=0][/TD][/TR] [TR] [TD class=storycredit]CREDIT: Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun file[/TD][/TR] [TR] [TD class=storycredit]the Decima Research study, which surveyed 1,453 Greater Vancouver-area residents by e-mail, said 73 per cent of respondents enjoy living in the area "greatly," 23 per cent enjoy it somewhat, and only two per cent do not like it.[/TD][/TR][/TBODY][/TABLE][/TD][/TR][/TBODY][/TABLE] Greater Vancouver residents are almost unanimously happy to be living here, but the majority believe traffic, the cost of local government, the quality of health services and the environment are diminishing the quality of life, a new Decima Research study says.
The market research firm's study, which surveyed 1,453 Greater Vancouver-area residents by e-mail, said 73 per cent of respondents enjoy living in the area "greatly," 23 per cent enjoy it somewhat, and only two per cent do not like it.
Of the total respondents, only two people said they hate living in the area.
The level of satisfaction between immigrants and those born in Canada did not differ, and while homeowners were more likely to respond positively, most renters and lower income households were "overwhelmingly prepared to say they enjoy living in [Greater] Vancouver," Decima said in a summary of the study released late last week.
"It was crystal clear that people like Vancouver, they're proud of Vancouver, but they'd like various issues to be addressed," Cam Davis, senior vice-president of Decima, said Sunday.
Close to 40 per cent of respondents believe the overall quality of life in the Greater Vancouver area is getting worse, compared to 23 per cent who think it's getting better. The rest said it's not changing.
When asked about specific categories that indicate quality of life in the area, in only one did a majority say things were getting better.
That category was the economy, which 60 per cent said was improving.
But a majority said things are getting worse in four other categories.
Some 93 per cent of all respondents said the amount of traffic in the area is a growing problem. The cost of local government, the quality of health services and the environment were also perceived to be getting worse by more than half the survey participants.
Residents were almost equally split on the subject of racial tolerance, with 27 per cent saying it's getting better, and 25 per cent saying it's getting worse. The rest said they were not sure or saw no change.
Fifty-eight per cent of respondents said they are satisfied with their mayor's performance, compared with 33 per cent who are dissatisfied.
Three out of four people said they were happy with the job the police are doing, while less than half said they are satisfied with the public transit authority TransLink.
Transportation and traffic congestion were dubbed the number one issue facing Greater Vancouver residents, followed by poverty and homelessness, housing affordability and crime.
Decima said the survey, which was conducted in late December, has a margin of error of two percentage points 19 times out of 20. The participants were weighted to represent the population characteristics of the Greater Vancouver area.
Davis said the market research firm has conducted similar surveys in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa.
Although he was not immediately able to give detailed comparisons between the cities, he said Greater Vancouver residents were slightly more positive about the quality of life.
"All I can say is, Vancouver is at the top of the list," he said.
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A Decima Research survey of 1,453 residents in the Greater Vancouver area found an overwhelming majority are happy with where they live:
73% enjoy greatly living in the Greater Vancouver area
23% enjoy it somewhat
2% do not really enjoy it
38% say the overall quality of life in the area is getting worse
23% say the overall quality of life is getting better
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