How do New Yorkers rate their quality of life?

It’s no secret that New York City has its issues when it comes to several services and there is definitely room for improvement but for the most part, residents are generally satisfied with the city’s overall performance. A new citywide survey from the Citizens Budget Commission highlights 44 categories of city services and functions that New Yorkers are happy with in their neighborhood and areas where they feel needs some work, reports the New York Times.

For the study, the Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) teamed up with the National Research Center (NRC) to find out how quality of life and municipal services are rated among residents, based on responses from 72,000 random households. To help visualize the responses, the New York Times broke the data from each of the 44 categories down into maps that illustrate how the responses varied across various neighborhoods, from garbage pick-up and recycling services to crime control and much more.

Based on the results of the survey, New Yorkers across the city are generally happy with things like emergency services, park safety, and subway safety. When it comes to issues like public housing, services for the homeless, traffic, and the way the city spends tax dollars, New Yorkers across all neighborhoods reported, on average, being dissatisfied. Subway service was a mixed bag of responses and Staten Islanders were the most unhappy (understandably) while most of Manhattanites were content.

Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Lincoln Square, and Manhattan Valley neighborhoods, part of District 7, scored the highest satisfaction rates while overall, Staten Island residents were less satisfied since the last time the survey was conducted in 2008. Positive opinion increased dramatically in Brooklyn since the last survey and more than half of the total responses agreed that New York City is a good place to live.

• The Best and Worst New York Neighborhoods for Subway Service, Rat Control and 42 Other Joys of Urban Life [New York Times]
• NYC Resident Feedback Survey: Community District Results [Citizens Budget Commission]