Since 1969, the City of Thousand Oaks has conducted a communitywide attitude survey every 5 years to sample city residents' views on planning and other issues. Beginning in 2013, the survey will be performed every two years.
The 2013 survey was conducted once again by True North Research of Escondido. They phone surveyed a "statistically representative" sample of 400 Thousand Oaks residents out of 96,607 adult residents (there are about 128,000 total residents). True North is 95% confident that survey results are within a +/- 4.89% margin of error, consistent with the 2009 survey.
True North is also doing a supplemental web survey, sending postcards to residents this past week to complete the survey at www.toaks.org/survey/default.asp. But this survey is not considered "valid" because people are self-selected, not randomized.
Thousand Oaks residents by a landslide continue to be happy living here. 97% of residents are happy with the quality of life, with 61% (66% in 2009) rating it excellent and 36% (31% in 2009) rating it good. This is consistent with previous surveys, where this has ranged from 96% to 98% of residents. This is a fantastic statistic.
There is lot of other information in the 69 page survey report accessible at www.toaks.org/survey/ but here are some things I found of particular interest:
Commuting
56% (52% in 2009) of Thousand Oaks residents commute outside of the Conejo Valley for their jobs, and 48% (35% in 2009) of those commute over 60 minutes round trip. Ouch. This statistic infers that roughly 27% of city residents spends over an hour in the car each day, up from 18% in 2009. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
What We Want More Of
Half of the survey takers said they'd like to see additional retail establishments in Thousand Oaks. Of these people, 21% want more family restaurants like TGI Fridays and Black Angus (which is ironic because the city used to have both of these). It is interesting to note that the top two mentions in the 2009 survey, Olive Garden and Red Lobster, are both now in operation here. 19% of these people would like to see large discount stores like Costco or Big Lots and 16% would like another Targe or Wal-Mart uggh (up from 11% in 2009).
Information Sources for News, Events, Programs
Now, for the most telling statistic in our humble opinion here at Conejo Valley Guide! True North asked people to list their top 3 information sources used for learning about City news, services, programs and events.
Conejo Valley Guide (CVG) has plugged away for years, attracts well over one million annual page views and is active in Twitter and Facebook. CVG highlights thousands of events, activities and things to do in the Conejo Valley, Greater Ventura County and surrounding areas. Yet CVG was not listed among the two dozen survey answer options. Gosh darn it!
YET...the top vote getter in the survey was...<drum roll>..."Internet (general)" with 40% of responses, up from 26% in 2009. One could venture to guess that, ahem, Conejo Valley Guide was the primary driver behind this spectacular 50% increase, eh? Perhaps :)
Following CVG, er, I mean "Internet (general)" the most mentioned information choices were The Acorn (36.5% vs 41% in 2009), VC Star (24% vs 29% in 2009), City website (19.3% vs 22% in 2009) and City mailings (7.8% vs 8% in 2009).
For a wealth of information about City of Thousand Oaks, visit www.toaks.org.
Sunset at the base of Tarantula Hill in Thousand Oaks
Sunday, May 19, 2013 at 08:00AM 
On a recent visit to Conejo Creek Park North, located at 1379 East Janss Road, Thousand Oaks, we were surprised when we found dozens and dozens of koi in the lower pond area, cohabitating with the ducks.
Where did they come from? We don't know, but there are sure fun to watch.
