Neighborhoods Rate Higher, Seniors Are Happier: What Dallas Residents Told City Hall

The Dallas City Council learned what residents want prioritized in the next budget as the results of the 2025 Community Survey were presented during a June 18 council briefing. Overall, Dallasites have a positive perception of the city, with 71% of respondents rating their neighborhood as an excellent or good place to live — up from 66% in 2024.

“The city is headed in the right direction,” said Jason Morado, the vice president for community research for ETC Institute, the marketing research firm that has conducted the city-wide survey for the past several years. The survey is statistically valid with a 95% confidence level. “Satisfaction ratings have increased in 113 out of 128 areas since last year’s survey. I think that’s one of the big highlights this year on the survey.”

Community Survey: Perception vs. Reality

“The satisfaction ratings have increased by five percentage points since last year’s survey,” Morado said. “If you look at the top of this chart, you see that most residents gave positive ratings to Dallas as a place to do business, as a place to work and as a place to live.”

While pleased with the results, some council members questioned whether the positive ratings correlated with specific actions the City of Dallas has taken.

“Can I ask if there has been any actual change in what we’ve done?” asked D12 Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn. For instance, the category of senior services saw a 9% increase in satisfaction.

“I hosted a senior listening session. I know many of my colleagues did as well. But I’m wondering if just having the activity and the discussion changed the perception of if we actually provided more services.

“In the case of seniors, we actually provided more services,” said Janette Weedon, director of Budget and Management Services. “We dedicated more resources in the budget as part of the city manager’s recommended budget specifically for seniors.”

“We really did demonstrate in the current budget the support for the overall strategic plan to focus on those age-friendly programs and activities with the senior affairs commission,” said City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert. “I think that there is a lot of support out there in our senior community because we pay attention to that.”

Council Districts Share Same Top Two Concerns

“I mean this is a priority based budgeting playbook,” said Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Gay Donnell Willis. “This is very telling, it is very consistent, quite honestly.”

“There’s also a message of unity,” Willis said in reference to all 14 council districts ranking the number one priority being the maintenance of infrastructure and 13 out of the 14 districts ranking police services as the number two priority. District 4 ranked social services as the number two priority.

In the category of perceived problems in the city, the survey shows a decrease in the top four issues residents perceive as issues to be addressed.

“In this year’s survey, 65% of respondents said homelessness is a major problem, which is an improvement because last year it was 73% and two years ago it was 75%,” Morado said. “So there’s been some movement but it’s still number one.”

To compile the data used to create the survey, Morado said randomly selected residents were asked to complete questionnaire either by mailing them, completing the survey online or over the phone.

More than 150 surveys were received from each district to ensure that not one district was over represented, he said. 

The results of the survey will play a significant role when the council begins creating the 2025-2026 budget.

“I think it’s a very good snapshot of what the city told us that we needed,” said D9 Councilwoman Paula Blackmon. “There’s a narrative here. It does show that we are listening and we’re moving in the right direction. I just think that Dallas’ days are bright ahead of us.”

Review the 2025 Community Survey in its entirety here.