PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Mayor Angel Taveras continues to enjoy broad approval among city voters, but they remain pessimistic about the local economy, according to a poll released Thursday morning by the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University.
Despite the pessimism, 26.3 percent of the voters polled rated the local economy at excellent or good, a jump of nearly 10 percentage points from a similar survey conducted last year.
In September of 2012, just 16.5 percent of the voters said the local economy was excellent or good. The number of voters who felt the city was on the "right track,'' also jumped from 38.4 to 48.8 percent in the same time period.
Researchers at the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions and John Hazen White Public Opinion Laboratory at Brown surveyed a random sample of 465 Providence voters between Nov. 13-16. The poll has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percent.
Taveras's approval ratings were pretty much unchanged since last year. This year they were 59.1 percent compared to 60 percent last year.
Taveras, a Democrat and the state's first Latino mayor, has announced that he will run for governor next year.
On a more troubling note, 43.5 percent predicted there would be ``widespread unemployment,'' over the next five years, while 29 percent felt there would be ``continuous good times,'' and 27.5 declined to predict what the future holds.
Voters overwhelmingly approved city services with fire and ambulance service at 84.1 percent, garbage collection at 80.9 percent, police at 61.9 percent. The majority, 60.3 percent, were satisfied or very satisfied with the condition of city roads, a figure that nearly doubled form the 31.6 percent reporting satisfaction a year ago.
Approval of public schools grew to 47.4 percent from 36.2 percent a year ago, but they expressed displeasure with their neighborhood schools. Satisfaction for city parks dropped from 71.1 percent last year to 58.2 percent today.