Tulsa World: Survey shows Tulsans are unhappy with roads
By Brian Barber World Staff Writer
A new survey shows Tulsans are unhappy with street conditions - and city leaders agree with them.
The ongoing $452 million Fix Our Streets initiative, officials said, is just the beginning of the long-term effort necessary to turn around decades of maintenance neglect.
"We are headed in the right direction, but it's going to take time," said Paul Zachary, Public Works Department deputy director of engineering.
"You can't find your way out of a 30-, 40-, 50-year forest in a couple of years."
Shapard Research of Oklahoma City was hired to conduct the survey by the Tulsa Community Foundation, which paid $51,000 to the firm. The foundation presented the results to the city as a gift.
Two hundred households were randomly selected in each of the nine City Council districts during the survey from Dec. 12 to Jan. 21, ending with a total of 1,803. The survey has a margin of error of ±2.3 percentage points.
While it found that Tulsans love their city and are generally pleased with city services, one of the sore spots was residents' views on the streets.
A total of 61 percent rated themselves as very to somewhat dissatisfied with the condition of major streets, the survey showed.
