Most Riverside Residents Like Their Hometown

Riverside is apparently a good place to live and work.

A solid majority of its residents – 85.5 percent – agreed that Riverside is a place they can achieve their goals, while 87.6 percent said the city has good schools, according to the latest Riverside Community Quality of Life Survey.

The telephone survey, which was conducted by the Institute of Applied Research and Policy Analysis at Cal State San Bernardino, found that 92.6 percent of those surveyed agreed, or strongly agreed, that they are proud to live in Riverside, 85.2 percent felt a sense
of belonging to their community and 90.2 percent agreed that Riverside is a good place to raise children.

Also, 89.4 of those questioned agreed that Riverside is a good place to be active and healthy, 83.7 percent said Riverside is a good place to own or operate a business or non-profit and 85.3 percent agreed Riverside offers opportunities to enjoy arts and culture, the survey found.

In most categories, Riverside residents feel better about their community than they did in 2013, the last time the city conducted a quality of life survey, said Teresa Rosales, project coordinator for the city.

“We’re very pleased with what we found,” Rosales said. “For the most part I think it’s what we expected to hear. It showed us what we’re doing well and also where we need to improve.”

One area that needs some work is public safety: 79.4 percent said they feel safe walking in their neighborhoods, but attitudes regarding safety vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood, Rosales said.

“We will meet with the [police department] about that,” Rosales said.

Besides the telephone survey, a separate internet survey was conducted during October. Results of both inquiries can be found at seizingourdestiny.com/survey.