From the issue of quality of life, the city is an administrative fact with visible and representative actors for the public. This paper presents some of the results about the research on quality of life in the metropolitan area of Bucaramanga (Colombia) from the perspective of citizens. A multipurpose instrument was applied to 349 city residents selected by simple random sampling, which covered the four municipalities that currently make up the city. The terrible image that citizens have of actors from the public sector is highlighted, particularly of politicians, the city council, the traffic police and City Hall, which is key to the actual analysis of the quality of life for citizens.