Is It Going to Snow Again in San Jose
An aerial view of downtown San Jose is pictured in this file photo.
When asked to rate life in San Jose, residents still largely requite it a "meh" or worse.
A plurality of residents — 42% — rate the quality of life in the city every bit merely "fair" and another 16% rates information technology as "poor," co-ordinate to a recent report. Those ratings are substantially unchanged from the previous year, merely are upward markedly from earlier years. And the portion of people giving the metropolis a "fair" rating is equivalent to the combined percentage of those who charge per unit San Jose's quality of life "excellent" or "good."
Mark Majors is amongst those who are dissatisfied with life in the city. A teacher who has been living in San Jose for 52 years, Majors is unhappy with the dirtiness of the city, the cost of living and the high tax rates.
"What we get for our taxes is not much," Majors said. "I can't remember the terminal time I saw a police officer make a traffic stop."
The study — San Jose's annual report on city services, which information technology issued concluding calendar month — is based on the National Community Survey, a study the city has participated in for the last x years. The 2020 version polled 3,750 San Jose residents on how they feel virtually metropolis services, the quality of life here, the cost of living, the local economy and more.
Residents have reasons to be unhappy
The overall cess of residents of the urban center has dropped off dramatically in recent years. Prior to 2015, around 60% of residents routinely rated the quality of life in San Jose as "first-class" or "practiced." In the years since 2015, the proportion that gave a positive rating has consistently been beneath 50%.
At that place are certainly good reasons for residents to exist concerned or unhappy with life in the metropolis, the study details. Last year marked the third in a row in which the median price of a home in the city exceeded $one million, co-ordinate to the study. That'due south more than than 4 times the median price of a home nationally and far beyond the reach of most residents.
Meanwhile, the average hire beyond all types of units was almost $2,452, co-ordinate to the report. That amount was down slightly from the prior year but was nonetheless upwards more than than 9% from 6 years ago.
The median household income increased from 2018 to 2019 — the last year for which information was bachelor — by $three,000 to $116,000, but that affluence was spread unevenly. Some 15% of San Jose households earned less than $35,000, and xiii% received supplemental income or public help.
By contrast, the living wage for San Jose is about $41,500 for a single developed for one year including nutrient, housing and transportation. But that does not include retirement savings or savings for purchasing a home.
The city's overall poverty rate in 2019 was vii.1 percent, with the Black population experiencing more than double the overall poverty rate.
Just 18% of respondents in the resident survey thought that the economy would accept a positive bear upon on their income over the next six months.
The COVID-xix pandemic affected city services
In improver to polling residents near their overall assessment of life in the urban center, the survey asked them to charge per unit a variety of community features on a scale from "splendid" to "poor" and assess certain statements on a scale ranging from "very likely" to "very unlikely."
The top five rated community features in San Jose were shopping, diversity and quality of businesses, volunteer opportunities and the openness of the community. The 5 everyman-rated features in the city were cost of living, availability of affordable housing, city cleanliness, residential growth planning, and public transit.
Residents' assessments of the metropolis'southward economic wellness, shopping and employment opportunities all declined from the prior year, noted Joe Rois, San Jose's city accountant. And then too did their ratings for certain city services, such as recreation centers, he said. Simply that decline isn't surprising, given how hard the community was hit by the coronavirus pandemic and how it forced the closure of businesses and some services, he said.
The rating declines were "expected in this environment," he said.
But residents' concerns go beyond things that were affected past the epidemic. Majors, for example, is fed up with how dingy San Jose is.
"Certainly, the cleanliness of our city is a joke," said Majors, a sixth-form math and science instructor who lives in the Willow Glen neighborhood. "Information technology's disgusting."
Majors has three children, anile 23, 20 and 18. He doesn't think they'll exist able to beget living in the area. His oldest son and his son's girlfriend each brand six-figure salaries, merely even they would take a tough time buying a home in San Jose, he said. Putting xx% down on a $ane million home all the same ways coming upwardly with $200,000.
"It'south crazy," Majors said. "Nosotros've all said this. Unless our kids hit information technology big with a start up, they'll never be able to afford something here."
Residents are concerned with rubber and the economy
Residents had mixed opinions of authorities services, co-ordinate to the report. Some 80 percent gave the urban center'southward fire services an "excellent" or "good" rating, largely unchanged from last year. Other highly rated regime services include public libraries, the ease of using the the Mineta San José International Aerodrome (SJC) and garbage collection.
By contrast, merely 13% thought the city's job of code enforcement was "excellent" or "proficient."
When asked about their priorities, residents overwhelmingly listed safe as their first concern, followed by economic health.
"The priorities of our residents track very closely to what nosotros see on a daily basis working with our community," San Jose Vice Mayor Chappie Jones said. "I hear repeatedly the concerns from my residents with crime that is happening in the neighborhoods. We are doing our best to accost their concerns, only with the most thinly staffed big urban center police force department in the country, we are going to have to exist creative in how we meet resident expectations."
Jones said he isn't surprised by residents' concerns about the urban center's economic health and the quality of utility infrastructure.
"Nosotros hear all the time from big, medium and modest businesses about the business climate in San Jose and how that is impacting their decisions to maintain their existing operations and grow and expand them in the futurity," Jones said.
Contact Madelyn Reese at [email protected] and follow her @MadelynGReese
Source: https://sanjosespotlight.com/san-jose-residents-largely-arent-thrilled-with-living-here/
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