On Oct. 10 we shared the latest installment of The Index, the Chamber’s public opinion research project, which included noteworthy changes on voter opinions around public safety and public drug use in our city.

Our latest polling revealed that public safety as a top concern is 10 points higher than in March, in a statistical dead heat with homelessness, and 20 points higher than when the Chamber started The Index in August 2021. Respondents overwhelmingly agreed Seattle’s hands-off approach to people using fentanyl and meth contributed to rampant street crime and hampered economic recovery (81%).

We collect voter opinion data in The Index twice a year because quality of life – and how residents feel about it – underlies attracting and retaining employees to move here or to stay here. It also impacts the decisions of business owners to stay, grow, or locate here.

Because we’ve been doing The Index and other public opinion research for years now, we’ve got a good read on where the voters are.

First, we know that they love this place: voters cite the environment/natural beauty as the best thing about living in Seattle, followed closely by weather/summer (which might be we asked when the sun was still shining!). Most are proud to call themselves a Seattleite. And fewer people report that they are considering leaving Seattle.

We also see alignment among Seattle voters – the historic and stark differences between the opinions across generations, homeowners and renters, newcomers and long-time residents – have not shown up in the data.

We know voters are aligned on the issues they are most concerned about: public safety and drug use, homelessness, and affordability. And voters are aligned on the solutions: they want an all-of-the- above approach.

And we know that, over the last 12-18 months, there has been optimism that things in Seattle are getting better – we have all felt it, and it was showing up in The Index data collected. More respondents were saying the city was on the right track, concerns about homelessness were declining, and the overall Index quality-of-life score was going up. When we got the Index results at this time last year, I noted that voters were feeling a hopefulness that we shared here at the Chamber, and that voters believed we were turning a corner.

We still feel hopeful – and there is good reason to be – but in the last handful of months, we have been hearing more and more concerns about drug use, from the record number of overdose deaths, the debates at city hall about what to do about it, and the everyday experience seeing illegal drug use on the streets of downtown and in our neighborhood parks.

So in this installment of The Index, we asked voters additional questions, and a picture quickly emerged.

Concerns about public safety have escalated across the board, and public safety numbers are the only numbers that have changed since the research was completed last spring.

Here’s what we the data says:

  • Nearly 50% of voters rank public safety as a top concern, the same as homelessness
  • Two-thirds of voters disagreed with a statement that Seattle should not enforce laws against public use of illegal drugs until addressing the underlying issues driving addiction
  • Seventy-four percent of voters now think hiring more police officers is a top priority
  • Concerns about racially biased policing increased 5 points since April, and 67% of voters believe addressing racially biased policing will improve quality of life
  • Three-quarters of voters don’t trust that the Seattle City Council can reform policing without compromising public safety
  • And nearly 9 in 10 Seattleites think addressing gun violence and violent crime would improve quality of life

Public safety and drug use is front and center in the minds of the voters, as evidenced by the numbers in this data. Most of the other numbers remain unchanged or have plateaued, including those that indicate optimism – and the numbers suggest public safety concerns are the sticking point.

All that said, we remain hopeful. We believe that leaders – and candidates for office who may soon be leaders – can help those in need with treatment and housing, enforce the laws to keep people safe, and make positive progress. And when they do, we believe that optimism with voters – and employers – will grow.

With persistence,

Rachel

Rachel Smith
President and CEO
Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce