Politics & Government

Poll: NW Philadelphians Believe City's Declined But Approve of Nutter's Performance

The poll was conducted by the Pew Charitable Trusts' Philadelphia Research Initiative.

A recent poll suggests that Northwest Philadelphians approve of Mayor Michael Nutter's work more than most, are more pessimistic about where the city has gone in the past five years and feel better than others about the effect immigrants are having on the city.

The poll was conducted by the Pew Charitable Trusts' Philadelphia Research Initiative in January. It broke up the results into a variety of categories like race, age, gender, education level and income.

It also divided things up by neighborhood. Here's what Northwest Philadelphians had to say about a mixed bag of city issues:

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  • 59 percent of people here approve of the job Nutter's doing, while 30 percent disapprove and 10 percent either don't know or didn't answer. It was Nutter's second most supportive neighborhood—61 percent of South Philadelphians said they approve of Nutter, while 37 percent of North Philadelphians said they disapprove of him.
  • Pessimism about the city's progression abounds in the Northwest. 35 percent of people think Philadelphia, as a whole, has gotten worse over the past five years, while 20 percent say it's gotten better and 39 percent say it's remained the same. Only Northeast Philadelphians were more pessimistic (15 percent said they think things have improved). About 30 percent of North Philadelphians, meanwhile, say things have gotten better.
  • People are a little bit more hopeful about the positive effects immigrants can have here. 56 percent said they think they'll strengthen the city, while 28 percent said they think they'll hurt Philadelphia. Meanwhile, 40 percent of Northeast Philadelphians said they believe immigrants will help things (compared to 44 percent who said they'll burden the way the city operates).
  • About 21 percent of Northwest Philadelphians said they think their personal financial situation will improve in 2012, while 35 percent said they think it will get worse and 34 percent said they believe it will remain stagnant. That's about as optimistic as things got, although North Philadelphians were slightly more optimistic. Northeast Philadelphians, meanwhile, were the most pessimistic group in this category.

The poll is full of lots of other good nuggets of information. Overall, the poll concludes, residents have primarily voiced their concerns about violent crime and the city's overall direction even though they approve of Nutter's work. 

To read the entire poll, click here.

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