Our Community Survey: November Results from Troy
Vol. III, No. 194 - What our readers said in a recent community survey
Here in Troy, the sentiments of our community towards the nation, state, and local governance provide a revealing glimpse into the collective mind of our tight-knit community. For a number of months, this publication has conducted reader surveys at different intervals; these results present a nuanced picture of civic engagement, awareness, and optimism within our community.
Where are we headed?
As of this survey, a growing number of residents believe the nation is on the right track, with 22% expressing positive sentiments, down from 31% two months ago. This same sentiment stands with those who think the state is heading in the right direction, which also dropped from 46% to 43% over the same period.
The percentage of individuals that are optimistic about our community’s future has steadily grown since May (which bottomed out at 9%) to a current position at 30%. In our last survey, 43% of respondents believe our community is headed in the wrong direction, which is the lowest figure since July 2023. Of note, 27% of respondents were unsure of the community’s direction.
Civic Awareness and Hope for the Future
Awareness levels about civic issues show a significant increase in those who are extremely aware, improving from 21% to 26%, suggesting a possible trend towards more civic engagement, which happens to be the overriding goal of this publication.
Confidence in positive changes within the hometown shows nearly a community that is showing some signs of being optomisitic. 49% of respondents were do not expect to see any changes. 18% of respondents are either not confident or somewhat not confident that things will improve. 33% of respondents are confident or somewhat confident that things will improve.
The survey also asked about the respondents’ emotional connection to the community, and the answers continue to a strong emotional attachment to the community. 59% of respondents love their community, and another 41% of respondents like their community.
Open Ended Questions and Answers
The survey also asked residents to provide answers to open-ended questions on what they believed to be the most positive attributes in the community and some of the biggest challenges facing the community. The responses were pooled into word clouds which shows the relative strength of the answers provided.
Attributes
Challenges
For this survey, 39 respondents participated, and the survey has a 15% margin of error at a 95% confidence level.
A Note on Demographics
As part of this survey, we asked demographic questions of our those that were wiling to answer those questions. Here are some demographic highlights of those that completed this survey:
Over half of our respondents (61%) were over age 65. Nearly one in four respondents (23%) were aged 45-64.
Most of our respondents were female (62%).
Over three-quarters of our respondents (80%) were long time residents, stating they have lived in Troy for more than 20 years. Another 10% of respondents have lived in Troy for 10–20 years.
A New Handbook to grow Civic Capacity!
Recently, we created a new digital handbook, “The Citizen’s Guide to Public Records”. This handbook is designed to help residents have a better understanding of public meetings and meeting records. It’s filled with templates, ideas and other information that will open a new world of public affairs.
Also, if you have ideas for future handbooks, please let us know at pinnaclestrategiesltd@gmail.com.
Want to Learn More About Troy’s Businesses?
Our publication has recently released our September 2025 Economic Abstract, the most comprehensive and up-to-date report on the businesses and industries in the City of Troy. For those that want to understand our community’s business and industries, this is a must-have report.
Thank you to our New Media Partners!
Recently, many of our stories has been showing up on the local news website, www.mymiamicounty.com. We are grateful for the good folks for sharing our work with their audience and we would encourage our readers to check them out at their website!
Our publication would also like to recognize the good work being done at www.piquanewsnow.com. Piqua News Now is a new web-based news and information site for the Miami County area, with a specific focus on Piqua!
In addition, the good folks at Piqua News Now have started a new, 24-hour streaming YouTube channel. This channel is awesome with continuous weather updates and more importanly, it provides a 24-hour audio feed from county wide dispatch. Check it out here!
You Can Help Support This Work!
Our readers and subscribers have been asking for a new way to support the work being done here at Civic Capacity! Some of our readers do not like the idea of having to sign up for another subscription service. Some of our subscribers occasionally want to give more support through a one-time transaction.
Civic Capacity is partnering with “Buy Me A Coffee” to give our readers, subscribers and friends an opportunity to give one-time support to Civic Capacity. Personally, I don’t like coffee, but I will never turn down a nice iced tea. If you feel compelled to support this effort, just click the button below. In other words, this is an online tip jar.
Also, thanks for reading today’s Civic Capacity Newsletter! Please feel free to share this information with your friends and neighbors.
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