LOS ANGELES TIMES POLL RESULTS : Voters in Long Beach View Crime, Drugs as City's Top 2 Problems

By CHRIS WOODYARD

May 15, 1988 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

LONG BEACH —

Crime and drugs--a deadly combination threatening a community in the midst of a redevelopment renaissance--are viewed by voters as the two biggest problems facing the city, according to a Los Angeles Times Poll.

The growing scourge of gang warfare also ranked high on the list, indicating that personal safety issues are foremost in the minds of poll respondents. In combatting crime, the Police Department won particularly high marks.

“I get an overwhelming response from the community that they are happy with their cops,” said Police Chief Lawrence L. Binkley when told the poll’s findings. “The cops really are great. They work very hard. That’s no reflection on me. They were that way before I got here (a year ago).”

The poll also found:

Overbuilding, in which neighborhoods are choked by what many regard as runaway development, was listed third among voters’ concerns, just ahead of gang activity. By a two-to-one margin, voters endorse the notion of restricting further growth in an effort to protect the quality of life. Blacks and Latino voters, however, favor continued growth that would would foster a healthy business climate and create new jobs.

While the influx of immigration into Long Beach ranked low as a concern, one out of three voters feel the Asian and Latino life styles have worsened the city environment.

Reform of campaign financing is favored by a large segment of voters who were aware of the issue. Two out of five said they do not know enough to state an opinion.

The Times Poll, conducted under the direction of I. A. Lewis, was taken last Sunday from a scientific sampling of 621 Long Beach residents. Of those, 339 respondents said they are registered voters who will probably or certainly cast ballots in the June 7 election when Councilwoman Jan Hall faces Mayor Ernie Kell in a runoff to become full-time elected mayor.

The Times reported Thursday that likely voters sampled in the poll favor Kell over Hall by 63% to 29% with 8% undecided. Those results were based on a projected 40% turnout, which is typical for municipal elections held in conjunction with a presidential primary. All results have a margin of error of plus or minus 5%.

When voters were asked to choose what they considered to be the city’s two biggest problems from a list of nine issues, crime and drugs easily emerged as the strongest concerns. The two problems were chosen by voters no matter their race, age or years of residence.

Better than two out of five voters listed crime or drugs as major problems, double the number of responses for the next closest concern, overbuilding.

“I remember 30 years ago, I was able to walk the streets at night. Not anymore,” said Ivan McDaniel, 83, a retired Veterans Administration manager who cited crime as a problem when polled.

Police Chief Binkley said he thinks the concern about crime, drugs and gangs in Long Beach reflects a nationwide trend.

Though concern is soaring, the crime rate in Long Beach itself is falling. It has steadily declined in major categories that include manslaughter, robbery, forcible rape, burglary, theft and arson for 15 months through the end of March, the most recent statistics, said police Lt. William Swanson. The frequency of major crimes dropped 9% alone in 1987 over 1986.

Exceptions were a slight increase in the murder rate and bigger rises in aggravated assault and auto theft, he said.

Binkley said heroin and cocaine use remains rampant in the city. Narcotics enforcement has been tripled, but drug use in some areas is so extensive that at least 50 heroin addicts were arrested every week during nine months of last year.

A special 11-member Gang Unit was recently created, Binkley said, but the department is still “not as sophisticated as we should be” in identifying gang-related crime.

Overall, voters think the Police Department is doing a good job by 69% to 13%, the poll found. Eighteen percent did not express an opinion on the department’s performance.

White and black voters lauded police in equal proportions. Poll expert Lewis said that blacks usually are more critical of police. Latino voters were even stronger in support. Four out of five say they are impressed with the department.

More than one out of five voters responding to the poll cite overbuilding as a major problem. However, more than half the blacks and Latinos questioned oppose limits on growth.

“I think they spent, in general, too much money downtown and (the city government) forgot about the other neighborhoods,” said engineering aide Barry Novodvorsky, 33, who was polled. “(The City) Council was too shortsighted to realize how builders were destroying neighborhoods.”

While 55% of the voters favor controls on growth, the poll found that an even higher number--67%--support the redevelopment of downtown Long Beach.

The finding is “a vote of confidence in the redevelopment agency but shows that growth, as an issue, is politically potent,” pollster Lewis said.

Nancy Latimer, chairwoman of the city Planning Commission, said she believes adequate zoning laws are now in place to prevent widespread reoccurences of “buying nice little homes to make way for these monstrous projects.”

Luanne Pryor, the ex-mayoral candidate who rode a theme of controlled growth to within 1.4% of edging Jan Hall out the runoff for mayor, said people are “terribly disillusioned” about growth.

“Their city changed virtually overnight,” she said. “People really value the neighborhoods.”

Immigration was only cited as a problem facing Long Beach by 4% of those polled, the lowest amount of any of the nine issues listed.

In addition, every person surveyed--registered voter or not--was asked whether Asian and Latino immigrant life styles and values have made the city better or worse. Thirty percent of the respondents said worse, 18% said better and half said they are unaware of significant changes due to immigration or are not sure.

Peggy Jernigan, a substitute teacher who was polled, said the city’s influx of immigrants have made Long Beach better because “they draw all these great ethnic restaurants.” People, she added, must be “more tolerant and accepting” of the changes.

Retiree McDaniel, who is white, said he is not prejudiced and does not blame immigrants for wanting to move from their native lands to Long Beach, but that “there are just too darn many of them.”

Latinos sampled in the poll were the only group to overwhelmingly say that immigration has improved Long Beach life.

Jerome Orlando Torres, a Latino activist who recently ran an unsuccessful campaign for a school board seat, said in reaction to the poll findings that Long Beach residents should be aware that the city is undergoing rapid racial change.

“They’re going to have to understand they are part of a new dynamic, and that is a multicultural society,” Torres said. “Latinos and Asians are going to be integrated into every phase of our society.”

Calls for reform of campaign financing have been spurred this year by fund raising in the mayor’s race, which reached $641,651 through March 26 and could go hundreds of thousands of dollars higher by the time of the runoff election.

Voters favor reforming campaign finance by a 51% to 7% margin. But 42% of the respondents said they either are not familiar enough with the issue or have not made up their minds.

Councilman Tom Clark said a public hearing is scheduled at 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall on a reform proposal that would limit contributions and spending in mayoral and council races and include matching public funds. The proposal would go before voters for approval in November. Clark, who chairs the City Council committee that has debated the current reform proposal for months, said he believes there is strong public sentiment for a new law.

RANKING THE ISSUES

According to a Los Angeles Times poll of 339 probable voters in the June 7 municipal election, Long Beach residents picked crime and drugs as the city’s two biggest problems from among the list below. Most residents also want to put limits on local growth and development although 67% favor redevelopment of the downtown area.

What is the biggest problem facing Long Beach?

Crime: 45%

Drugs: 41%

Overbldg.: 22%

Gangs: 20%

Airport Expansion: 12%

Parking: 10%

Pollution: 9%

Traffic: 8%

Immig.: 4%

Other: 5%

Don’t Know: 6%