Adeseori sunt intrebat cum de pot trai, intr'un "colt de lume", departe de marile metropole si de atractiile pe care acestea le ofera! Mai jos, un jurnalist si un sondaj raspund pentru mine.
Metro enjoys great quality of lifeCity Think poll finds 87 per cent of Metro residents enjoy great quality of life
By Brent Mazerolle
Craig Wight, vice-president research for Bristol, delivers the survey’s findings during a breakfast meeting yesterday.
The results of Bristol Omnifacts' fourth annual City Think survey are in and, for the fourth year in a row, the residents of Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview have declared themselves happy with the lives they lead here.
A whopping 87 per cent of respondents rated their quality of life as either good or excellent in this year's polling, while only 11 per cent ranked it as fair, and just two per cent reported a poor quality of life.
More than half of all the respondents rated life as good in Metro, and an impressive third of those surveyed were willing to rank their lives as excellent.
An interesting part of the responses was how consistent they were across the board. When the survey's margin of error is taken into account, the results are largely indistinguishable between men and women, old and young, and among the three communities.
While the Bristol Omnifacts poll speaks eloquently of what people living here think, former Metro Monctonian Eugene Duke spoke from Toronto yesterday to validate all that from a whole new perspective.
He and his wife Michelle lived here for five-and-a-half years after she transferred from Vancouver with RBC Royal Bank. She eventually ran RBC's Royal Direct contact centre here in Moncton and Eugene went to work for Moncton success story Spielo.
Michelle's job has since seen them relocate to Toronto, but the east coast home they had adopted isn't far from their minds.
Though Vancouver and Toronto are, of course, both among the world's great cities, the Dukes say they will retire back to our neck of the woods.
"Absolutely," says Eugene. "If not Moncton, then at least Atlantic Canada. We learned a lot about living in the east."
The first thing they had learned when they came to Metro was how affordable housing can so greatly improve the quality of your life. They quickly settled into a grand home on Lavoie Street in Dieppe and, as they picked up some French, discovered the lovely irony that their grand maison was built by local developer Valdo Grandmaison.
"It was beautiful and enormous but, for us (coming from Vancouver's housing prices), it was on sale," Eugene said.
He can also regale anyone with a grimly funny tale of trying to fit their half decade of Dieppe life into a new Toronto home on a lot that with 25 foot frontage is, "not as wide as my garage used to be."
The mover who had packed them up in Dieppe and met Eugene two days later in Toronto said it all when he pulled up out front. "Oh, that's two houses."
After a long painful day of trying to fit their belongings into the house, about half of it went back into the moving truck and into storage. The Dukes then spent many months selling off possessions they didn't have room for. That allowed them to make room in the house to bring their other possessions out of storage long enough to sell them off too.
Meanwhile, Eugene said, "my wife now enjoys an hour-and-15-minute to an hour-and-a-half commute each day."
"Round trip?" a reporter asked.
"Oh no, Each way."
Of course, there must be some excitement and wonder to Toronto that Moncton just can't compete with, the reporter ventured.
"Sure, there's a great amount of entertainment, but my wife and I hopped on a plane to Moncton to go see Elton John."
While the Dukes' experience is an eye-opener and a worthy reminder for all of us, it is refreshing to think the residents of Metro Moncton do already appreciate what they have.
"Survey says," as the late Richard Dawson used to put it.
In addition to rating their overall quality of life, respondents to the 2009 City Think survey were asked to weigh in on whether Metro Moncton is, "a great place to raise a family; a city where you feel safe; and a community committed to maintaining and developing green spaces.
Where the tri-community's perception of itself is constantly improving is in public safety. Metro residents' feelings of safety and security climbed for the fourth straight year. In 2006, just 64 per cent felt strongly that Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview were safe communities. Today, that figure stands at almost 80 per cent.
Supt. Wayne Gallant, the Codiac Regional RCMP's officer in charge, said the high number is reflective of the reality of the community. He noted that the survey was done around the time when a murder in nearby Shediac and related home invasion in Moncton were front page news, but people were able to see that even violent crimes are usually isolated incidents. Gallant said recent public meetings have shown that crimes involving youth and illegal drugs are a concern and his force will continue working to find a solution.
People's happiness with their sports and recreation facilities remains very high as well, with more than six out of 10 of us giving them the thumbs up, even as the aging Moncton Coliseum becomes a growing concern.
However, Dieppe has an aquatic centre in the works that, controversial or not, is bound to be a jaw-dropper. Our area's slo-pitch facilities have been improved, a world-class track stadium is in the works, the splash park at Centennial Park is a gem and the new Crossman Community Centre-Kay Arena has opened.
One surprise, especially given Moncton's push to accelerate the Millennium Trail system, is the low public opinion of our community's commitment to green spaces.
Respondents to the annual random phone surveys began ranking green space commitment at just over an uninspiring 50 per cent in 2006, and that has dropped each year. Now only about 46 per cent of citizens are satisfied with this aspect of their local lifestyles.
"I take it as sign that people want us to do better," Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc said of the latest slight decline in people's ranking of green space. He was quick to add that in Moncton, at least, there was "something interesting coming at this Monday's council meeting."
While he floated that hint out there, Moncton's mayor said overall, "I think we have to turn our good intentions into action now."
Perhaps the greatest endorsement of the community by the community, however, is Metro Moncton's response to the question of whether or not this is a great place to raise a family. The response has stayed virtually identical ever since the annual Bristol Omnifacts survey began in 2006. Fully 80 per cent of us believe this a great place to engage in this most important aspect of our lives.
