AURORA | Close your eyes and think about the city of Aurora’s attributes. Do you see the city as a growing metropolis? Diverse? Just close to Denver International Airport?
A community survey released earlier this month says residents think all of those things about the city of nearly 370,000 people. According to the report, seven in 10 surveyed gave Aurora and their neighborhood a “good” rating. About three-quarters said they’d recommend the growing suburban metropolis as a place to live.
Aurora’s close proximity to Denver and DIA was what came to mind for the greatest proportion of respondents when they thought of Aurora, the report says. 70 percent put that as their answer when asked what they think of the city.
Compared to results from reports from recent years, the livability ratings have remained stable.
The respondents were given a list of adjectives to describe Aurora. Nearly 70 percent chose “growing.” 60 percent also said the city is “diverse,” and rightly so. Nearly one-fifth of residents are foreign born, according to the city’s diversity report.
Even so, the report does highlight where residents want improvements, namely safety and transportation.
Just more than half of respondents said they feel safe in Aurora. That’s up about 5 percent from the 48 percent who said they felt safe in 2014. While it’s an increase, the surveyors said the small bump isn’t statistically significant.
Other areas of safety have largely remained the same.
“In 2018, about 2 in 10 respondents reported a household member had been the victim of a crime in Aurora, similar to what was seen in other survey years. About a quarter of residents indicated that they had reported a crime to the police, also similar to previous surveys,” the report says.
On navigating the city, 80 percent of respondents said is is essential or very important that the city put more emphasis on transportation needs, including road projects, bikeways and sidewalks.
There were some improvements from the 2016 report, though.
“Respondents gave higher ratings in 2018 compared to 2016 to ease of walking and availability of paths and walking trails, and they were more likely to have carpooled
instead of driving alone and walked or biked instead of driving,” the report says.
— KARA MASON, Staff Writer
