Press release
City of Aspen releases 2024 Aspen Community Survey results
Aspen, CO - The city of Aspen is pleased to share the findings of the 2024 Community Survey, which provides valuable insights into resident satisfaction, quality of city services, and community priorities. This biennial survey, conducted since 2006, is an essential tool for evaluating city performance and shaping future initiatives.
For the 2024 survey, Aspen partnered with Polco, a national survey firm, utilizing the National Community Survey (NCS) to deliver a comprehensive and standardized assessment of local governance and livability. This data-driven approach allows Aspen to benchmark itself against communities both nationally and within Colorado, providing a clearer picture of the city’s strengths and opportunities for improvements.
The 2024 survey shows that Aspen remains a good place to live, and residents are generally happy with their quality of life and with city services. The NCS measures 10 key quality metrics known as the facets of livability. Compared to national benchmarks, Aspen rated well above benchmarks in five facets and above in three. Looking deeper, the survey findings revealed five areas that merit continued action to address, with the city having already begun work on them.
Key findings:
- Safety in Aspen is a community asset: General feelings of public safety and safety-related services contribute to the high quality of life experienced in Aspen. More than nine in 10 residents gave the city a rating of excellent or good for the overall feeling of safety, and nearly all residents reported feeling very or somewhat safe in both their neighborhood and Aspen’s downtown/commercial area during the day. Further, about nine in 10 residents reported feeling safe from both violent and property crime, giving positive marks to crime prevention (89%) and police services (89%).
- Residents praise both parks and recreation as well as the natural environment in Aspen: Parks and recreation are a bright spot in Aspen, with residents giving every item within this facet marks that were higher than national averages. Nearly all residents gave favorable ratings to the overall quality of parks and recreation opportunities in Aspen (97% excellent or good), the availability of walking paths and trails (97%), city parks (95%), as well as recreational opportunities (92%). Residents had similar feelings toward the natural environment, including the cleanliness of Aspen (91%), air quality (89%), and Aspen open space (86%).
- Multi-modal mobility: 90% of respondents rated the overall quality of Aspen’s transportation system favorably. Ratings for multi-modal transportation options like walking and biking are very positive, yet car travel ratings fall short of national and state benchmarks.
- Residents identify the economy as a potential area of focus: Several aspects of the economy in Aspen garnered positive marks from residents, including Aspen as a place to visit (92% excellent or good), as a place to work (67%), and the economic health of Aspen (62%). About half of residents had favorable views of employment opportunities, the vibrancy of downtown/commercial areas, as well as the overall quality of business and service establishments in Aspen. Items that were lower than the national benchmarks included shopping opportunities (25%), variety of business and service establishments in Aspen (23%), as well as the cost of living (4%).
- Community design may be an area of opportunity for Aspen: Survey items within the facet of community design received mixed results. A strong majority of residents gave excellent or good ratings to their neighborhood as a place to live (85% excellent or good), the overall design or layout of Aspen’s residential and commercial areas (77%), as well as public places where people want to spend time (73%). Items in this facet that asked about growth or housing tended to be lower than the national benchmark comparisons. These items included overall quality of new development in Aspen (30%), well-planned residential growth (22%), well-planned commercial growth (17%), availability of affordable housing (11%), as well as the variety of housing options in Aspen (8%).
The survey was distributed to 3,500 randomly selected households, with an additional open-participation survey launched on July 1. Both survey options closed on July 29. In total, 449 responses were collected, with a margin of error of no more than plus or minus 5%.
The city of Aspen is committed to addressing the areas for continued action highlighted in the survey. Ongoing and upcoming projects include, but are not limited to:
- Affordability initiatives: Expanding affordable housing through the Lumberyard projects, and the completion of the Burlingame housing units.
- Community design: Continued work related to the entrance to Aspen/Castle Creek Bridge, consideration of land use code revisions to support community priorities, and improvements to neighborhood sustainability with projects such as onsite childcare center at the city-developed Burlingame Ranch affordable housing subdivision.
- Commercial vibrancy: Selection of new tenants for the Wheeler art space and Rio Grande Place, and exploration of a community land trust to create residential and commercial spaces that serve locals, reinvigorating the city’s downtown services function.
- Sense of community: Prioritization of community events such as Mactoberfest, Art Cart, and Community Picnic, development of the Cultural Vibrancy Fellowship, connecting adult and youth artists, the launch of Aspen’s public art program pilot, and leveraging the city’s recreation facilities and programming to connect our residents.
- Government approachability: Implementation of city-wide customer service standards, development review optimizations, and enhancement of a digital-facing customer experience.
For more information and to view the survey results, please visit aspen.gov. Residents are encouraged to explore the findings and stay engaged with ongoing efforts to enhance the quality of life in Aspen.
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