Outstanding place to call home, a nearly unmatched quality of life and a right neighborly island.

Quality, affordable housing? Not so much.

Job opportunities? Few and far between.

Parking? Fuhgetaboutit.

Those are the big takeaways from the latest survey of Bainbridge Island residents.

City officials received the mixed bag of results earlier this month from the National Citizen Survey, and it’s the third year in a row the city has used a random survey to try to gauge the island’s collective opinions about everything from governance at city hall to the economy, recreation, education and community engagement.

Overall, the survey — conducted by the National Research Center, Inc. in Boulder, Colorado and the International City/County Management Association in Washington, D.C. — found that ratings for Bainbridge Island were generally stable from 2014 to 2015. Of the 133 items in the survey, the ratings were similar over the past two years, and declines were only noted in four areas: public parking, traffic flow, the power utility and participation in spiritual or religious activities.

“The fact is that the results are not where I would like them to be, but the trend over the past three years in almost every category is upward,” noted City Manager Doug Schulze.

“Building trust is a given and takes a long period of time so, the fact that we are at least moving the needle in the right direction is encouraging,” he added.

A total of 584 residents returned surveys, and the margin of error was 4 percent.

Schulze said the survey was sent to both full-time and part-time residents of the island.

Bainbridge Island received its highest marks in the area of public safety, with 98 percent saying they felt safe in their neighborhood, and had an overall feeling of safety (ratings were based on responses to “excellent/good” and “very/somewhat safe). A total of 99 percent of those surveyed thought the downtown was safe.

The numbers were more mixed between police and fire services.

Police received an 88 percent positive rating, while the fire department was 97 percent, and ambulance/EMS service was 96 percent.

The natural environment, and K-12 education on Bainbridge, also rated well.

The positive rating for the overall natural environment, and cleanliness of Bainbridge, hit 96 percent; air quality was 97 percent.

K-12 education also received a 96 percent positive rating.

Islanders also gave high marks for the public library (96 percent) and parks (92 percent).

Mobility issues received lower ratings on several topics. Overall ease of travel earned a positive rating of 70 percent, while traffic flow was pegged at 45 percent, and public parking, 29 percent.

Also getting poor marks: the cost of living on Bainbridge (19 percent positive), employment opportunities (16 percent) and affordable quality housing (19 percent).

City governance also received less-than-majority positive ratings in many areas, although city officials were quick to point out that those numbers continue to rise from previous years.

Respondents to the survey put their confidence in city government at 35 percent positive (up from 28 percent last year), and the overall direction of the city at 43 percent (up from 41 percent in 2014). “Being honest” hit 43 percent (up from 33 percent last year) and “treating all citizens fairly” came in at 45 percent (up from 38 the year prior).

This year marked the third year for the survey, which cost the city $12,510.

Schulze said the survey results contained some items that deserve a closer look — he noted disconnects between how residents feel about the overall appearance of the island (which received a 96 percent positive rate) and the rating for the overall built environment, which was 64 percent.

“There are some areas where I scratch my head when we look at the results. It’s like, really conflicting,” he said.

New development also came in at 40 percent, which is lower than last year, where the positive rating was 44 percent.

Schulze said the city would do more to plumb residents’ thoughts about Bainbridge and the direction of the city.

He said the city is planning on hosting informal coffee chats with residents in the coming year, and will also form focus groups to bring clarity to the results of the latest survey.