Summit County residents believe crime and safety, including the opiate epidemic, are the top problems facing the community, a new poll says.
It’s the first time the issue has topped the Center for Marketing & Opinion Research’s Community Pulse Report, which has been conducted for a decade.
“A big part of that has to do with the heroin epidemic,” center Vice President Amanda Barna said Wednesday when the results were released.
Crime and safety were cited by 30 percent of respondents, and more than 5 percent specifically mentioned heroin or opiate addiction. Crime was at 17 percent last year.
This year, the issue outpaced government/infrastructure (23 percent) employment (21 percent) and the economy (9 percent).
Employment had led the poll for eight of the 10 years.
The Akron center also released its 2016 Community Pulse Report for Stark County. Crime and safety were the top issue in Stark, where 37 percent of respondents called it the most pressing problem.
When it came to identifying the biggest problem in a community, the question was open-ended, allowing people to cite any issue.
Summit County Sheriff Steve Barry and Akron Police Chief James Nice said it’s no surprise that crime and safety would leap to the top, given how the community has struggled so publicly with drug overdoses.
The Akron community was in the national spotlight in July when at least 21 people overdosed and four died within a three-day span. The problem has continued since then.
“Everybody in government and in our circles are talking about the opiate problem,” Nice said. “It’s a massive problem ripping through the nation and ripping through Akron.”
Jerry Craig, executive director of the county Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services agency, called it “a community tragedy.”
“There’s no magic bullet,” he said. “There’s no one solution to this.”
In Summit, the telephone poll surveyed 800 people and has a margin of error of 3.5 percent. It was conducted between Jan. 19 and March 3.
Right track
The majority of respondents were pleased with the direction of the county, with 64 percent saying Summit is on the right track.
But that’s down from 70 percent last year.
“We still think that’s a favorable finding but it is a considerable decrease from last year,” Barna said.
She could not say why there was a decline.
There was a significant difference between the opinions of suburban residents, with 69 percent believing the county is on the right track, versus Akron residents, with only 58 percent feeling that way.
The poll also showed people were more likely to think that the county is moving in the right direction if they were married, had an income of more than $75,000, were employed, graduated from college and were white.
Other results
The poll also showed:
• 41 percent reported being better off financially than a few years ago, up 2 percent from the previous year. The percentage of people saying they were worse off fell 1 percent to 29 percent.
• 74 percent said the county is a good place to live, down 1 percent from last year.
Again the responses varied by where people lived. Eighty-four percent of suburban residents had a favorable view, while 61 percent of Akron residents did.
• 80 percent had a favorable opinion of local health care services, down 3 percent from the previous year.
• 27 percent had a negative outlook when asked to rate job opportunities here, while 26 percent had a positive outlook.
The negative view has dropped from a high of 56 percent in 2010, while the positive responses have climbed from a low of 8 percent in 2009 and 2010.
• More than 34 percent had a positive impression of the economy, while 20 percent had a negative view. Others were neutral.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter at @armonrickABJ.