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Adding fuel to Surrey election fire, Surrey scores D in safety and getting around on first vital signs report

October 7th, 2014 · 2 Comments

All of a sudden, after nine years of relative calm, Surrey seems like a very unhappy place. The report issued today will add to that.

SurreyCares, in partnership with the Surrey Board of Trade, released the results of Surrey’s first Vital Signs study this morning. The report investigated updated statistical data as well as public opinion on issues ranging from crime to the economy.

“This reports gives the laser-like focus needed to create a more vibrant, livable city,” states Anita Huberman, CEO of the Surrey Board of Trade.

“We were surprised by some of the things we learned,” states Jeff Hector, president of SurreyCares. “The study reveals that residents have an honest, community-driven pride and a deep interest in where we are going.”

The report includes the results of a public opinion survey where residents assigned ‘grades’ on eleven areas that measure quality of life. Overall, the community scored C, or ‘Average’, on its first report card. The areas rating the greatest interest of residents are:

Safety…………………………D+

Arts and Culture…………..C

Environment……………… C

Economy & Work…………C

Getting Around…………… D+

Report available in full here.

Categories: Uncategorized

  • Kirk

    Surprisingly, after a couple of days, still no comments on this. I’ll say what everyone else is thinking. No one cares about Surrey. I’m saying that objectively.
    In Vancouver, 35% vote. Probably just 10% can name the mayoral candidates. I can’t even tell you all the candidates from the top two parties, and I try to keep myself up to date. Surrey has even less voter turnout. It’s like a third less than Vancouver. Yet they have higher home ownership rates and more families. Andy Yan’s cresent of civic engagement must be a blip in Surrey.

    In Vancouver, we put up one tower or bike lane, and the blogosphere goes nuts. In Surrey, they’re terraforming, and there’s not a peep. If a report card like this came out for Vancouver, it’d be lighting up the comment section.

    Maybe people in Surrey follow a different set of blogs and tweets?

  • boohoo

    I agree. People don’t care.

    It’s crazy that people don’t care, and it’s not just Surrey. But that’s how myopic Vancouver is.

    What they do in Surrey directly impacts what happens in Vancouver and other cities, but it’s like you pass Boundary and you just fall into a black hole. You could probably even say once you pass Victoria people stop caring.

    Surrey is doing some things right, the biodiversity conservation plan they passed is great. Google it. But they are still doing a lot of the same old 1980’s cul-de-sac garbage in other places so…

    I guess as a City it’s like a teenager, it’s trying so hard to be grown up (city centre, new city hall, big towers) but it still reverts to what it’s always known as a child (more highways, sprawl, etc) in others.