Lawrence residents generally are pretty pleased these days — unless they happen to be on a city street.

Results from a new scientific survey conducted by City Hall found that residents — even as the economic downturn produced public belt tightening — ranked the city and its government higher in many key categories this year than they did four years ago when the survey was last conducted.

“We went up in many areas where other communities, on average, went down,” City Manager David Corliss said. “I think that says the City Commission has been putting the resources where they need to be, and city employees have worked very hard to accomplish our goals. But we clearly still have work to do.”

Streets are where a lot of that work ought to take place, the residents suggested. The survey — which was mailed to 2,500 households this spring — found that only 28 percent of Lawrence residents were satisfied with the condition of city streets. That’s well below national and regional averages. In the Kansas City area, 51 percent of residents are satisfied with streets conditions, and nationally the average is 46 percent, according to Olathe-based ETC Institute, which conducted the survey.

Corliss said the results did not surprised him.

“We just historically have not put enough money into streets,” Corliss said. “We’re trying to change that, but I’m not about to unfurl the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner on street improvements.”

The city began collecting a new sales tax in April 2009 to fund additional street and infrastructure repairs, but survey respondents gave no sign that they thought the tide had begun to turn. The percentage of people who said they were satisfied with the condition of major city streets held steady from 2007, and the percentage of people who were satisfied with the condition of neighborhood streets declined by 4 percentage points.

Corliss, though, said he didn’t take those results as a sign that the city’s plan for improving streets was inadequate. Instead, he said the survey just shows that the city will have follow its street improvement plan for many years to get streets back to a more acceptable level.

“I still think we have a long road ahead of us,” Corliss said.

Here’s a look at other findings from the survey:

Quality of life

Lawrence: 82 percent satisfied

KC metro average: 77 percent

National average: 80 percent

Trend: Lawrence’s average fell by 2 percentage points from 2007, but keep in mind that the margin of error for the survey is plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

Police services

Lawrence: 83 percent satisfied

KC metro average: 75 percent

National average: 73 percent

Trend: Lawrence is up 4 percent from 2007

Fire and medical services

Lawrence: 93 percent satisfied

KC metro average: 90 percent

National average: 90 percent

Trend: Up 3 percent from 2007

City growth planning

Lawrence: 27 percent satisfied

KC metro average: 49 percent

National average: 44 percent

Trend: Up 5 percent from 2007

Trash and yard waste services

Lawrence: 85 percent satisfied

KC metro average: 76 percent

National average: 77 percent

Trend: Down 1 percent from 2007

Parks and Recreation

Lawrence: 81 percent

KC metro average: 75 percent

National average: 72 percent

Trend: Down 4 percent from 2007

Public Transit services

Lawrence: 50 percent satisfied

KC metro average: 31 percent

National average: 43 percent

Trend: Down 4 percent since 2007. That’s despite voters approving two new sales taxes in 2008 to boost funding for the service.

Water service

Lawrence: 74 percent satisfied

KC metro average: 76 percent

National average: 74 percent

Trend: Up 1 percent from 2007

Management of traffic flow and congestion

Lawrence: 40 percent satisfied, with that number dropping to 36 percent when asked specifically about east-west traffic flow.

KC metro average: 64 percent

National average: 54 percent

Trend: Up 9 percent from 2007

Overall value received for city taxes and fees

Lawrence: 50 percent

KC metro average: 43 percent

National average: 45 percent

Trend: Up 6 percent from 2007

Customer service provided by the city

Lawrence: 64 percent satisfied

KC metro average: 50 percent

National average: 56 percent

Trend: Up 2 percent from 2007

The city paid just under $30,000 to have the survey conducted. City commissioners will review the results at a Tuesday afternoon study session, and are expected to use the results in a future goal-setting session.