The report is a product of the Envision Lehigh Valley initiative.
Lehigh Valley residents are most concerned about economic development and affordable housing.
That's the conclusion of a report released today by a planning research group that surveyed more than 1,100 people over six months in 30 public meetings between last July and January.
It was part of an effort by Envision Lehigh Valley, a regional sustainability project that will last into next year and is funded through a $3.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Seventy-nine percent of those surveyed rated economic development and housing affordability as "very important" quality-of-life issues.
That was followed by access to fresh food (76 percent); climate and energy conservation (65 percent); and transit choice (62 percent), the group said.
"We had expected participants in different locales to hold, on average, different views concerning issues in the four focal areas of the study," said Michele Deegan, associate professor of political science at Muhlenberg College. "When we divided up the data and looked at the focus groups from different locations separately, however, we found little to distinguish them.”
The survey showed that just 22 percent of respondents agreed that there are enough job opportunities in the Lehigh Valley. That's compared to 57 percent who disagreed that there are enough job opportunities.
Of those ages 45 to 54, only 23 percent agreed there were good job opportunities for them. That number rose to 33 percent for those ages 18 to 24.