Residents:We love our city

It’s official: Huntington Beach residents love their city — and it shows.

A city-sponsored study to identify issues of concern and level of satisfaction among locals found mostly positive responses.

“Residents said they had a very favorable quality of life,” said Timothy McLarney, president of True North. “This score is among the best I’ve seen for many cities.”

About 56% of residents interviewed for the survey reported “excellent” and about 40% indicated “good,” when asked about the overall quality of life in Huntington Beach.

This was arguably one of the most important questions in the survey, McLarney said. “The response was across the board and the highest I’ve ever seen is in the 90% range.”

About 400 residents were randomly selected to answer a 20-minute telephone or Web survey conducted in August.

The study, conducted by Encinitas-based True North Research, had a 5% margin of error.

The question of where they would like the Fourth of July fireworks to take place caused some confusion. About 77% of residents interviewed said they prefer the pier to the Huntington Beach High School location. When they were told about the extra cost of $100,000 involved in putting on the fireworks at the pier, many changed their minds.

But Councilwoman Cathy Green and Mayor Dave Sullivan asked McLarney if respondents thought the city had to pay the extra money to hold it at the pier.

Locals in the survey also gave high marks to the city in providing services and for communication. About 48% of people that True North interviewed said they strongly agree the city is accessible to residents. Another 41% of people said they “somewhat agreed” with the statement.

About 79% of people said they felt very safe during the day in commercial/retail areas, but only 60% said they felt safe in their neighborhood after dark and about 38% felt safe after dark in commercial, retail areas.

The responses to public safety was also pretty typical with what McLarney has observed in other cities, he said.

Issues such as closing Main Street to automobile traffic were rated as a mediocre priority by the people True North spoke with, compared with choosing to fix potholes, which was the top priority for the majority.

Another nugget that True North dug up was that the city’s website was the No. 1 way for locals to get information about the city.

“You get a lot of traffic to your website, which is very impressive,” McLarney said.