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Commentary : Think Orange County Has Problems? Just Look at the Soviet Union

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<i> Mark Baldassare is a sociology professor at UC Irvine. Cheryl Katz is a research associate. They are the co-authors of the Orange County Annual Survey, UCI. </i>

The frustration on the roads continues to mount, and once again residents tell us that traffic is the county’s worst problem.

The 1989 Orange County Annual Survey of 1,000 randomly selected households found that satisfaction with freeways has hit bottom and that traffic woes are seriously eroding the county’s quality of life. Pessimists about the area’s future outnumber optimists 2 to 1, and an unprecedented one in six residents is now thinking of moving away.

But even as drivers sit steaming on gridlocked roads, they are in fact fortunate to live in a place where traffic is the most pressing problem. New York, Detroit and other American cities struggling with unemployment, drugs and crime have long been telling us this. It took a recent lecture tour of the Soviet Union, however, to really drive this point home.

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In September, we visited three Soviet cities as part of an exchange program between Leningrad State University and the University of California. During the lecture tour, we spoke to scholars about the survey research methods we use to study community issues in America.

Only a few years ago, polling was a taboo subject in the Soviet Union. But today, surveys are an integral part of glasnost, perestroika and the other new ideas sweeping the country. Obviously, the new leaders trying to change their country’s old ways are eager to understand the Soviet public’s moods, needs and desires.

Our academic hosts in Leningrad, Moscow and Tallinn were very impressed with the Orange County Annual Survey, but everywhere there was surprise and envy for the annual survey’s findings.

“How can traffic be the worst problem?” a sociologist interrupted during the first lecture in Leningrad. We tried our best to explain what traffic conditions were like in Orange County during rush hour. Bumper-to-bumper on the San Diego Freeway. Snail’s pace on the Santa Ana Freeway. Many minutes to get through a light on Beach Boulevard, a mile-long backup on Bristol Street.

But still there were puzzled faces. “Is it true that all Americans are happy?” a graduate student asked as a seemingly incongruous follow-up. Perhaps something was lost in the translation from English to Russian. This certainly did not follow logically from the description of fuming Orange County commuters.

Our hosts’ unusual responses to Orange County’s most troubling issue only made sense when we asked them to name the biggest problem in Leningrad. One member of the faculty group we were addressing said “getting food for meals” was the biggest problem. Another answered, “Finding goods to buy in stores, such as clothing and other personal items.” A third spoke of “alcoholism crippling the city’s spirit.” And a fourth concluded, “It would be impossible to name just one problem, since we have so many serious problems in Leningrad.”

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The scene was similar at the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow, where a distinguished group pondered their answers to the biggest-problem question. “Health care” was one of the memorable responses. Afterward, the stories we heard about their health-care system made us understand why. Many described long lines to see doctors at city clinics, spoke about shortages of antibiotics and anesthetics, told of unsanitary conditions in the local hospitals. Although medical care in the Soviet Union is free, they said, it is far from adequate.

In the Estonian capital of Tallinn, one of our hosts declared “the wait for housing” as the biggest problem there. We learned that placing one’s name on a list for an apartment meant a wait of years and maybe even a decade while sharing an overcrowded apartment with extended family. And today, the new high-rise apartment complexes are typically situated outside the cities, with no place within miles to buy food or household supplies. This was told to us by others, who said that “no stores” was their biggest problem. And, of course, with separatist feelings running high today, many in this Baltic republic say “the Russian occupation” is the biggest problem they face.

We should also note that Soviet cities have hardly been spared from traffic and that residents are keenly aware of this.

Each of the cities we visited had a very extensive system of buses and trolleys, which will take one virtually anywhere for 5 kopeks, or less than a dime. Moscow and Leningrad also have modern subway and rail systems. But many of the major roads in the big cities are congested and in disrepair. And there is a rush-hour crunch every bit as annoying as ours.

It’s not that the traffic goes unnoticed there either, according to our hosts. It is that other problems take obvious precedence over traffic. Unlike Orange County, these Soviet cities have many issues more annoying and discomforting. And some clearly are life-threatening.

It seems obvious that we are fortunate to live in a region that has been spared the dire problems faced by others in the 1980s. Traffic is truly abominable in Orange County today; it has gotten worse and is clearly in need of solutions. We have a major task ahead of us if it is to improve in the next decade, a task that probably will require some sacrifices by all residents.

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As we ponder the coming decade, however, it may be helpful to know that other communities face much more daunting tasks in the 1990s, and with much greater uncertainty for the future.

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