OFFICE OF THE CITY AUDITOR
Roland E. Smith
City Auditor

November 20, 2000

TO: HONORABLE IGNACIO DE LA FUENTE, PRESIDENT
AND MEMBERS OF THE OAKLAND CITY COUNCIL

CITY AUDITOR’S REPORT ON THE AUDITOR’S CITIZEN SURVEY OF BLIGHT ISSUES IN THE CITY OF OAKLAND

Blight: Blight is exposed trash or debris in the streets, lawns or on the outside of property. It also includes buildings that are in disrepair, improper commercial activity and abandoned or disabled automobiles. A full definition of blight according to Oakland’s Blight Ordinance is in Addendum A.

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this survey was: (1) To assess what the citizens of Oakland perceive as the major blight problems within the City; (2) to obtain a picture of how informed and active the citizenry is around blight problems; (3) To understand if the citizens see the City of Oakland as responsive and fair in administration of blight-related services.

Research

Design: Cross-sectional survey of 424 citizens of Oakland.

Survey: Five-minute telephone interviews conducted from July to September 2000.

Respondents: An 8.5% response rate was obtained. Of the respondents, 55% were women, 43% were between the ages of 40-65 years and 37% were between the ages of 20-40 years. African-Americans led the ethnic breakdown with 44%. Caucasians had a 30% representation, followed by Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American and Multi-Racial community representation.

Results: 53% of respondents rated the cleanliness of Oakland as "average," 23% rated it "poor," 21% rated it "good" and 3% rated it "excellent." 32% had heard of the Oakland Blight Ordinance with 21% having reported a blight condition to the City. Of the people who reported a blight condition to the City, 56% were satisfied with the City’s response to their complaint. 42% of the respondents felt that the blight laws were equally enforced in their neighborhood.

Conclusions: The City is doing an average job of maintaining cleanliness. However, the City could: (1) Encourage more citizen involvement in keeping Oakland clean through education of the citizenry about blight conditions; and (2) Enhance its response to citizen complaints to raise the assessment from the "average" rating to "good" or even "excellent."

Statement of Purpose

The survey on blight was conducted to obtain viewpoints from the Citizens of Oakland on the following issues:

1. How do the citizens of Oakland rate the cleanliness of Oakland?

2. What do the citizens of Oakland consider the most important blight issues?

3. Are there any differences between the blight problems in the City in general and those encountered in the neighborhoods?

4. Are the citizens of Oakland aware that there is a Blight Ordinance?

5. Have citizens requested blight-related services from the City of Oakland?

6. If they have requested blight-related services from the City, how do they rate the City’s effectiveness in resolving blight problems?

Methods

From July 17, 2000 to September 8, 2000 a telephone survey of the citizens of Oakland was conducted by the Oakland City Auditor’s office. It was conducted between the hours of 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on weekday evenings and from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on some Saturdays. The survey instrument was created within the Office of the City Auditor. It had two parts: the first focused on the City of Oakland in general and the second section targeted each respondent’s neighborhood. A copy of the survey is attached to this report as Addendum B.

A random sample was achieved by using a computer program to generate random telephone numbers. 7,837 calls were made resulting in a total number of 424 completed surveys. The majority of the numbers were not-in-service or belonged to businesses and consequently not useful for this study. Attached as Addendum C, is a Random Number chart.

Most of the survey associates were senior citizens, who participate in programs sponsored by the Aging, Health and Human Services Agency of the City of Oakland.

Results

Citizens were given a rating scale of (1) excellent, (2) good, (3) average and (4) poor to assess the cleanliness of Oakland. Most of the surveyed citizens felt that Oakland is average in terms of cleanliness. See page one of Addendum D, which are the descriptive statistics and graphs for the survey data. The respondents noticed more blight violations on residential property than business property, even when it related to toxic waste.

The largest blight problems in the City of Oakland, as perceived by the respondents, are:

Citizens expressed the least amount of concern about toxic waste and water with garbage and overgrown vegetation.

In the neighborhoods the following were considered the major blight issues:

The presence of standing water containing garbage or vegetation and flyers on any structures received the lowest rating as blight concerns in the neighborhoods.

Consequently, while the presence of trash and garbage was considered a major blight problem for the City as a whole, it was not seen as an issue in the neighborhoods. The respondents noted that abandoned vehicles and run-down buildings were equally menacing problems in the City in general as well as in the neighborhoods.

Thirty-two percent of respondents were aware of the Oakland Blight Ordinance. Forty-two percent perceived the law as equally enforced throughout their neighborhood. Twenty-one percent of the respondents had called the City of Oakland to complain about a blight violation. Nearly 50% of the citizens that complained to the City were dissatisfied with the City’s response. See Addendum E – Satisfaction Quotient for results of this interaction with the City.

The demographic data demonstrates an ethnicity breakdown that appears to be an accurate representation of the City of Oakland. There were more women polled than men and more individuals between the ages of 40 – 65 years responded to the survey. The geographic information is widely dispersed with a large proportion of the respondents coming from the East Oakland Flatlands.

Satisfaction Quotient

The satisfaction quotient is the satisfaction rating of citizens who called the City of Oakland. Twenty-one percent of the -surveyed citizens contacted the City to report a blight condition. Fifty-six percent of the people who contacted the City were satisfied with the City’s response and forty-three percent were not satisfied with the way the City handled their request.

The following chart indicates the reasons for the dissatisfaction of the citizens. The dissatisfaction percentages are juxtaposed to the number of people who called the City, not the total surveyed sample.

Conclusion

Although there are clear problems within the City of Oakland regarding blight, it appears that the citizens are moderately satisfied with the City’s cleanliness. Of course, more emphasis can be placed on certain services and blight conditions, but the administration is doing an average job of keeping the City clean.

Only one-third of the citizens were aware of the Oakland Blight Ordinance. As this law gives clear guidelines about blight infractions, knowledge of its contents could contribute to greater citizen awareness. This awareness could lead towards more responsible participation in keeping Oakland clean.

Trash and garbage on the streets, sidewalks and yards is the number one concern of respondents in the City in general. However, in the neighborhoods abandoned automobiles sitting on the street for long periods of time takes first place. Run-down buildings with missing windows and doors were considered one of the top problems in both the City in general and the neighborhoods.

Only 21% of the surveyed citizens had contacted the City to complain about blight. Of this 21% that called the City, 56% were satisfied with the City’s response and 44% were dissatisfied. The dissatisfied respondents stated that there were four main reasons that they were dissatisfied: (1) The City took too long to respond; (2) The City only partially completed the job; (3) The City never responded; and (4) The City did a poor job.

Recommendations

Although the City of Oakland has been given an average rating by its citizenry, the City could aim to have cleaner face. This could be done by

1. Informing citizens about the Oakland Blight Ordinance so that the residents can become knowledgeable about what causes blight;

2. Conducting a promotional campaign, such as the "Buy Oakland" campaign, to encourage more responsible disposal of trash within the City;

3. Encouraging citizens to work within their neighborhoods to clean up blighted property; and

4. Shoring up the appropriate City departments that respond to blight complaints. Making sure they are full equipped and staffed to handle the complaints in an efficient and expeditious manner.

NOTE:

For additional Statistical Charts and Graphs and further documentation that provides the basis for the information contained in this report, please contact the Office of the City Auditor at (510) 238-3378.

Prepared by: Vivian Crawford, Manager, Survey Systems