O.C. Poll Shows Growing Concern for Environment : Ecology: Residents are ‘worried,’ but few are making an all-out effort to conserve and recycle, professor says.

Nine out of 10 Orange County residents say environmental problems pose a very serious or somewhat serious personal threat, and that concern has led many to conserve water and recycle, according to the 1990 Orange County Annual Survey released Monday.

The ninth annual index of Orange County attitudes, however, shows that despite concerns over air pollution, only 35% of those surveyed often limit driving their car. And only 13% of the 1,017 adults polled between Sept. 5 and 21 are taking action on all four poll indexes of environmental concern: conserving water, recycling trash, buying environmentally safe products and reducing driving.

“People are worried, and they are worried in large numbers,” said UC Irvine social ecology professor Mark Baldassare, who conducted the survey with researcher Cheryl Katz.

And those fears have made people willing to make some lifestyle changes, Baldassare said.

“They are not broad changes yet to save the environment, but people are at least making efforts that they weren’t a year ago,” he said. “The biggest change residents are making is water conservation--54% are more likely to conserve water this year than last year.”

The survey also showed that amid fear of a national recession, worries about transportation gridlock, the high cost of local housing, and drug abuse, 44% of those surveyed believe Orange County will become a worse place to live, down from 47% in 1989.

The decline is actually an indication that the rising pessimism of the 1980s, which peaked at 54% in 1987, has bottomed out, Baldassare said.

“In the past, pessimism about Orange County’s future has been directly tied to the two perennial top problems: traffic and development,” he said. “If we see a slow-down in growth and if we see traffic improvements with the passage of Measure M (a half-cent county sales tax for transportation) and the state gasoline tax, then attitudes about the county should improve. We know now they are not getting any worse.”

The wide-ranging survey, which has a 3% margin of error, was conducted at UCI’s Center for Survey Research. It is paid for by 35 Orange County public agencies, private foundations and corporations, including The Times Orange County Edition.

Increasingly, regional governments are being touted by many Southern California experts as a way to solve common problems of air pollution, rampant growth, overburdened traffic networks, and lack of landfill and airport facilities. But Orange County survey respondents expressed deep-seated antipathy to such a regional entity.

Only 18% favored a regional government for all of Southern California, and only 23% favored a regional Orange County government. But 27% of the survey respondents from South County said they would prefer a regional government that included only their area.

“People have great misgivings about regional government, and any attempt to go beyond the county borders in terms of solving problems in transportation, jobs and housing . . . (is) going to be met with great resistance by Orange County residents,” Baldassare said.

The reason is that most people are not persuaded that it would be better than the current system, he said. Only 44% say a regional authority would be “more effective” than local government in solving the region’s problems, and 46% say it would be less effective or only as effective.

More telling was the belief of 56% of the respondents that such a regional government would constitute more unnecessary bureaucracy. Another 40% said it could undercut local government power.

“The experts think it’s a terrific idea, but the average citizen thinks it’s just a new layer of government,” Baldassare explained.

This is especially true in South County, where cityhood drives have been on the rise in recent years. There, the idea of “regionalism” equals separatism, Baldassare said.

Among South County survey respondents, 27% said a regional government should represent only their area, south of the junction of the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways. Only 20% of South County respondents would include the rest of the county.

“The South County thinks of itself more and more as a separate entity,” Baldassare said. “They view themselves as having a distinct set of issues, from transportation, growth, housing and others. . . . They see themselves as having a separate life from the rest of Orange County . “

If regional bodies--such as the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the Southern California Assn. of Governments--are to gain credence and clout to solve Southland problems, the key will be electing representatives from distinct geographic areas, Baldassare suggested.

Currently, many appointed agency members have been elected to various city councils and county boards of supervisors. But nearly two-thirds of those surveyed (60%) favor direct election by districts. Another 25% would support at-large elections, but only 6% favored appointed representatives.

The survey also continued to track residents’ views on the worst problems facing Orange County.

Traffic remains far and away the biggest problem, according to 40% of survey respondents. But that is down from a peak of 49% who cited traffic as the biggest problem in 1987.

Uncontrolled development, which has ranked No. 2 since 1986, is tied with housing as the county’s second most serious problem. Now, 16% cite growth as the worst problem, but another 16% cite lack of affordable housing, up from third place in 1988 and fourth in 1987.

Among respondents under 35 years of age, 21% cited housing as the worst problem, compared to 12% for those 35 and older. Geographically, concern about housing was highest--18%--in the central and northern areas of the county, compared to 13% in South County. But household income--which averaged $49,000 this year, up $4,000 from 1989--seemed to make no difference.

Researcher Katz said it shows that despite a decline in Orange County housing prices, the cost is still prohibitively high for many, especially younger families. Survey respondents had a median mortgage payment of $770 a month, up 4% from 1989. The median rent was $740, up 6%.

Fewer than half of those surveyed who are under 35 own their own homes, and 55% of these pay mortgages higher than $1,000 a month. Of those 35 and over, 80% own their own homes. Within this group, 45% of the 35-year-old to 55-year-old group pay mortgages of $1,000 a month or more. Only 13% of those over 55 pay such large mortgages.

“While the county may be in a housing slump today, housing costs are still a critical problem and owning their own home is still out of reach for many,” Baldassare said.

This bodes ill for Orange County’s economic future.

“Such high housing costs could drive young people out of the county,” Katz said. “That would keep entry-level workers out of the work force and raise the cost of labor, which would raise the cost of production and get us into a vicious cycle.”

Drug abuse remains the most serious social problem, cited by 44% of survey respondents. That is down 10 points from 1989. Concern about health care and about the homeless tied for second place at 16% each.

Preliminary survey results released in early October showed that Orange County’s consumer confidence had plummeted amid rising gasoline prices and fears of both a national recession and war. Those results were cited again Monday to give context to a drop in charitable donations this year.

In a county already known for its parsimony, the median donation dropped from $285 in 1989 to $223 this year, despite the 9% increase in median household income.

“Declining consumer confidence and widespread fears about the economy could make 1991 a tough year for charities,” Baldassare predicted. “Especially since charitable needs may well rise during this economic slowdown.”

IDENTIFYING ORANGE COUNTY’S PROBLEMS

UC Irvine’s Center for Survey Research, as part of the university’s Public Policy Research Organization, questioned 1,017 adults between Sept. 5 and 21. The results, analyzed by UCI social ecology professor Mark Baldassare, have a 3% margin of error. Future Quality of Life?

1987 1988 1989 1990 Better 26% 35% 28% 29% Worse 54% 38% 47% 44% No Change 20% 27% 25% 27%

The Worst Problem?

1987 1988 1989 1990 Traffic 49 48 40 40 Housing 6 10 14 16 Growth 23 20 17 16

Transportation Solutions That Would Help?

1981* 1990 Rapid Rail System 67% 81% Widen Freeways 68% 80% Improve Local Streets56% 68% More Freeways 40% 62% More Buses 49% 56%

* 1981 Orange County Transit District Monitoring Study Source: 1990 Orange County Annual Survey