The Times Poll : People Turn Pessimistic About Life in Los Angeles

People are turning pessimistic about life in metropolitan Los Angeles as the area heaves against the social strains of gang violence, rising housing prices and traffic congestion made worse by the growing population, the Los Angeles Times Poll found in a new survey.

The clearest evidence of the new discontent came when people in Los Angeles County were asked how they believe things are going these days. In the latest poll, 52% said either fairly well or very well. But when the same question was asked less than three years ago, 70% said things were going well.

Looking at the same issue another way, 43% said things were going badly today, compared to only 24% who viewed things badly in the March, 1986, poll.

Further evidence of the pessimism arose when the poll asked people if they believed that the quality of life has changed for better or worse in the last 15 years, a period that has seen the population of Los Angeles County grow by about 1.6 million.

About 60% said life has changed for the worse, and only 17% said things have gotten better. About half of the people polled also said they had considered moving from Los Angeles in the last year.

Crime was cited as the strongest pressure forcing people to consider leaving Los Angeles. Most said that if they did move, they hoped to stay somewhere in California, primarily in the southern half of the state. Among those who had thought of leaving, San Diego was more popular than any other area of Southern California.

As in previous polls in Los Angeles County, which have been conducted periodically to assess how attitudes are changing, fear and resentment of crime were the strongest social pressures. Asked to say which problems were worst in their lives, 78% of the people mentioned crime. About 46%--including more than half of those polled at homes inside the city of Los Angeles--said they do not feel safe walking in their own neighborhood at night.

Past polls have found that the crime toll is felt most keenly by blacks, and the latest survey found that pattern continuing. An astonishing 95% of blacks put crime on their list of most distressing problems, compared to 78% for the population at large. Blacks more than any other--54%--said they do not feel safe walking the streets of their neighborhood at night. By comparison, only 44% of whites and 38% of Latinos said they fear for their safety on neighborhood streets after dark.

Not surprisingly, the idea of adding 525 new Los Angeles police officers a year appeals to a strong majority of those polled, whites and minority group members alike. In the city of Los Angeles, where the plan would apply, 68% approved and only 14% disapproved, even after being told that the plan could cost as much as $400 million annually.

Law Enforcement Backed

Despite the feelings about crime, the public continues to speak highly of the job done by police and sheriff’s deputies. In the city of Los Angeles, 60% said they approve of the way the Police Department is doing its job, about the same as when that question was asked in 1986 and 1987. The performance of Chief Daryl F. Gates was approved of by 48% and disapproved of by 22%, again about the same as in previous polls.

In the rest of Los Angeles County--areas more likely to be served by sheriff’s deputies--the Sheriff’s Department was rated highly by 49% and disapproved of by 14%, similar to the approval found in earlier polls.

After crime, the physical environment was found to be the most criticized aspect of life in Los Angeles County. Traffic congestion, pollution and the all-encompassing issue of “growing population” were cited as serious problems by many people. However, as in past years, attitudes varied among those from different ethnic backgrounds.

For example, Anglos ranked their most pressing problem, after crime, as the growing population. Traffic and environmental degradation were seen as somewhat lesser problems.

Blacks mentioned traffic more than whites, but blacks were less concerned with the environment and with population problems. Instead, they mentioned “the economy” more than others, perhaps because poverty and unemployment are more common among blacks than many other minority groups.

Most Pressing Problem

Latinos also listed traffic as the most pressing problem after crime, but ranked the size of the population, the environment and the economy about equally in third place.

In a poll of this size, it has proved impractical to accurately separate Asians and other smaller ethnic minorities from the overall results. The poll was conducted between Feb. 11 and Feb. 14 and surveyed 2,046 people in Los Angeles County by telephone. Some interviews were conducted in Spanish. With a sample of this size, poll director I. A. Lewis said, the poll is accurate to within 3 percentage points in either direction.

The poll found considerable indifference to the performance of local government officials. A third of the people polled had no opinion about the job being done by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the five-man body considered one of the most powerful local governing bodies in the country. About 39% said they approved of the board’s work, while 28% disapproved.

Within Los Angeles, which includes somewhat less than half of the county’s population, 41% approved of the job done by the City Council, 35% disapproved and 24% declined to state a position.

There was no lack of strong feelings about the bus service provided by the Southern California Rapid Transit District, with sentiment shifting decisively against the transit agency.

Half Disapprove of RTD

Exactly 50% of the respondents disapproved of the RTD, while only 21% had a favorable response. Those findings are a sharp turnaround from a Times Poll in 1986 that found a 53% favorable rating of the RTD with only 27% unfavorable. Since that 1986 poll, RTD service and management have come in for numerous bouts of criticism, including an abortive move by the Legislature to disband the agency.

There was strong support, meanwhile, for the idea of assisting in recycling by having residents separate their household trash into different containers. Under most recycling schemes, newspapers and easily recyclable containers such as drink cans and bottles are separated from the other trash. By a margin of more than 3 to 1, poll respondents said that separating trash is a reasonable thing to do.

HOW MUCH DO WE LOVE L.A.? The Los Angeles Times Poll surveyed a scientific sampling of 2,046 Los Angeles County residents by telephone. The poll was conducted between Feb. 11 and Feb. 14 and has a possibility of 3% error. The director of the Times Poll is I. A. Lewis.

1. How do you feel things are going in Los Angeles?

All county residents

Mar.86 Feb.89 Well 70 52% Badly 24 43% Don’t know 6 5%

County residents by race,location

L.A.city Non-L.A. Whites Latinos Blacks residents residents Well 55 49 53 52 53% Badly 41 48 45 45 41% Don’t know 4 3 2 3 6%

2. How has quality of life changed in last 15 years?

L.A.city Non-L.A. Whites Latinos Blacks residents residents Better 15 19 13 16 17% Same 15 25 13 13 20% Worse 63 53 73 63 59%

3. What are biggest problems facing Los Angeles?

L.A.city Non-L.A. Whites Latinos Blacks residents residents Crime 75 76 95 79 77% Traffic 21 28 28 20 24% Population 24 19 11 17 18% Pollution 19 17 8 17 20% Economy 6 14 18 11 9%

4. Do you feel safe walking in your own neighborhood at night?

City resident Elsewhere in Mar.86 Feb.89 Mar.86 Feb.89 Safe 47 45 60 61% Unsafe 51 54 37 38%

5. How do you rate bus service provided by the Southern California Rapid Transit District?

Mar.86 Aug.87 Feb.89 Favorable 53 43 21% Unfavorable 27 41 50%