A fresh, city-commissioned survey delivered to the Cincinnati City Council on Monday confirmed what plenty of residents are already grumbling about: people feel less satisfied with how the city is doing, and they are especially unhappy about safety and battered streets. The Community Perceptions check-in, which the city runs on roughly a two-year cycle, shows overall ratings slipping compared with recent polls and offers a clearer to-do list for what residents want fixed first. City officials say the results will feed directly into spring budget talks as the council sorts through competing priorities.
According to The Cincinnati Enquirer, the briefing laid out numbers showing more residents now say they feel unsafe and that a majority are dissatisfied with how the city maintains its streets. The Enquirer summed up the overall picture as “not good results” for city leadership, a framing that immediately sharpened questions about where a limited pool of dollars should be spent next.
Survey details: safety and potholes rise to the top
ETC Institute’s formal report for the city ranks resident and community safety as the single highest priority for new investment, followed by neighborhood cleanliness and then transportation and pedestrian infrastructure. In ETC Institute's findings report, 68% of respondents listed filling potholes as their top transportation concern, 62% said alternative responses to nonviolent crises should be prioritized, and 54% flagged pedestrian safety measures as important. The report also estimates that tens of thousands of Cincinnati households have unmet needs tied to safety and cleanliness, underscoring how widespread those worries are.
How the city will use the results
The Community Perceptions Survey was created by the city’s Office of Performance & Data Analytics in partnership with ETC Institute to capture what residents want city hall to invest in over the next two years. The city’s survey page notes that the results help Cincinnati compare its service performance with peer cities and guide key budget decisions. Public budget hearings are already underway as council works on the fiscal-year 2027 budget, and leaders say the survey gives them data to back up tough trade-offs among public safety, street rehabilitation, and housing. As reported by Spectrum News, council members have been warning about ongoing fiscal pressure and have lined up a series of hearings and a priority vote ahead of the city manager’s recommended budget in May.
What it could mean
The high ranking for safety, streets, and neighborhood cleanup effectively hands neighborhood groups and service providers a ready-made list of talking points for budget hearings. That reading is rooted in ETC Institute’s priority investment rankings and the city’s stated practice of folding survey results into budget planning. With officials signaling there is not much room for brand-new spending, the poll could intensify debates over whether to shift existing funds toward pothole repair, sidewalk fixes, more visible patrols, or cleanup programs.
Council members now have the numbers in front of them as they lock in their FY27 priorities. The city manager is expected to unveil a recommended budget in May, and the new fiscal year starts July 1. Residents who want a say can review the full survey materials and track the council’s budget calendar to see when and where to weigh in.
