Our Community Survey: Piqua Residents Sound Off

Vol. IV, No. 12 - Twenty-eight Piqua Residents Participate in Our Survey

Every other month, this publication asks a simple but loaded question: is our community going in the right direction? In May, we asked Piqua residents. Twenty-eight of you answered. And what you said is worth understanding — clearly and honestly.

Sixty-eight percent of Piqua respondents said the community is heading in the wrong direction. Only 18 percent said right direction. That gap — 50 points — isn’t a mild dissatisfaction. It’s a signal that deserves serious attention.

But here’s what makes this data more than just a mood reading: the people who answered aren’t disengaged. Nearly three-quarters of respondents described themselves as extremely or very aware of what’s happening in Piqua. These aren’t residents who stumbled onto a survey. These are people who are paying attention, following local decisions, and still walking away pessimistic.

That combination — high awareness, low confidence — is the civic equivalent of a trust deficit. It means residents aren’t uninformed. They’re unconvinced. And that gap between awareness and optimism is worth understanding — and worth addressing.

The Confidence Numbers Are Harder to Ignore

This publication also asked whether respondents were confident things would improve in Piqua within the next year.

Forty-three percent said they were not confident at all. Another 14 percent said somewhat not confident. That means 57 percent of respondents have little to no belief that Piqua will be in a better place twelve months from now.

Only 11 percent said they were extremely confident in improvement. Eighteen percent said somewhat confident.

When more than half of residents can’t muster even cautious optimism about the near future, that’s a meaningful signal — one that community leaders and residents alike should want to understand more deeply.

The Emotional Attachment Question

Perhaps the most underreported dimension of community health is how residents feel about where they live — not what they think about policy, but whether they have a genuine emotional investment in the place itself.

This publication asked that too.

Thirty-six percent of Piqua respondents said they love their community. Another 36 percent said they like it. But 18 percent reported no emotional attachment at all. Four percent said they actually loathe Piqua.

Those numbers might seem small in isolation. They aren’t. Emotional detachment from place is a leading indicator of what comes next: people who stop feeling connected to a community tend to stop volunteering in it, stop investing in it, and eventually stop living in it. Economic developers talk constantly about talent retention and quality of place. This data suggests there’s a quiet erosion worth watching — and worth taking seriously before it deepens.

Some Important Context

This survey was shared through the Civic Capacity newsletter throughout the month of May. Twenty-eight Piqua residents participated, which gives us a margin of error of roughly 18 percent. These findings are directional — they tell us something real about sentiment among engaged residents — but they aren’t a statistically representative sample of all 20,000 people who live in Piqua.

What this data does represent is the opinion of residents who are actively following local affairs. If the most informed and engaged segment of your community feels this way, that’s a signal worth taking seriously.

Why We’re Publishing This

This publication exists because we believe residents who are better informed are better partners in shaping their community. That belief is simple: when people understand what’s happening around them, they’re more capable of contributing to solutions — and more likely to stay invested in outcomes.

This data isn’t published to assign blame or score points. It’s published because residents deserve to know what their neighbors think — and because community leaders benefit from an honest read of where public confidence actually stands. Good decisions start with accurate information, and that goes for residents and city hall alike.

We’ll continue tracking these numbers every other month. If sentiment shifts — in either direction — you’ll see it here first.

This is what it looks like when residents stay informed. If you find value in this work, share it with a neighbor, a colleague, or anyone who cares about this community. Paid subscriptions keep it going — $5 a month.

This Month, we are doing something different! We are partnering with the Troy-Miami County Public Library by using this platform to raise funds for the Dolly Partin Imagination Library locally here in Miami County! Through the Dolly Partin Imagination Library, children from birth to Kindergarten, can get a book delivered every month to their home at no cost.

And while Dolly is a huge help, she picks out the stories and she works with the publishers, there is still a local cost to the program. Your donations through our “Buy Me A Coffee Page” will help get these youngsters on the right track to a life-long love of reading!