Orange County Residents Regaining Confidence, Study Finds

Shaking off the pessimism brought on by previous economic woes, Orange County residents are more ebullient about their future and quality of life than they have been since the late 1980s, according to a major public opinion survey released Monday.

The Orange County Annual Survey found that 82% of those interviewed feel positive about the quality of life in Orange County--up from 68% last year--and 36% expect the county to be an even better place to live in the future, said UC Irvine professor Mark Baldassare, who with research associate Cheryl Katz conducted the survey for UC Irvine’s School of Social Ecology.

Although the almost giddy mood of the 1980s had its roots in a seemingly endless economic boom, this year’s optimism seems to spring from the slow but steady dissipation of the gloom that enshrouded Southern California with the recession of the early 1990s.

“In terms of people’s actual income, they haven’t seen much improvement,” Baldassare said, “but the general feeling now is that the dark clouds are gone with the county getting out of the bankruptcy. And the severe recession that has faced California is becoming a distant memory.”

In a sign that the nation’s worst municipal bankruptcy is receding in the memories of county residents, crime once again took its traditional place as the county’s No. 1 public concern. Last year, residents overwhelmingly deemed the financial crisis to be the county’s most pressing problem.

The random sample survey was conducted by telephone between Aug. 30 and Sept. 8. Of the 1,000 residents surveyed, 27% mentioned crime as a main concern. Immigration took a weak second place, with 15%--mostly older, white residents--calling it their biggest worry. Schools, jobs, growth and traffic followed closely.

However, only 7% of those surveyed said the county’s financial crisis topped their list.

“I think we’re back to the issues that confronted Orange County before the bankruptcy--the top issue being crime,” Baldassare said.

When asked about social problems, the answers that respondents gave also “point to the fact that we are a more urban place than we used to be, and people are struggling with that change,” Baldassare said.

Thirty-eight percent of respondents said drug abuse is the county’s most serious social problem--up 10% from last year and the highest showing since 1990. That was followed by concerns about health care, the homeless, race relations, child care and AIDS, in that order.

“They’re struggling with the issue of racial and ethnic diversity and the more urban flavor of the county, and that’s particularly felt in central Orange County,” Baldassare said.

Long-standing disparities in attitudes along geographic lines were again detected in this year’s survey, the 15th since its inception in 1981, with south Orange County residents reporting more affluence, more confidence in government and less concern about crime than central Orange County residents, who fared worse on median income and posted the highest concerns about crime.

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Personal finance questions also revealed attitude differences along class lines, with lower-income people more concerned about spending and less optimistic about the economy than their wealthy counterparts.

Median annual household income stands at $48,000, only slightly higher than last year. In south Orange County, six in 10 households earned more than $50,000. And in central Orange County--with the highest immigrant population--half earned less than $36,000.

However, in what Baldassare called an important finding, there were no differences across regions, races or income levels when it came to a positive view of the quality of life in Orange County, or optimism about the future.

“The county is providing a positive quality of life across ethnic groups, although it’s not the same for everyone,” Baldassare said.

“If there were any differences in age and ethnicity, it’s a factor of income, and income across those groups is unequal. If Latinos are making more than $50,000 a year, they’re not more worried” about making ends meet.

Overall, Baldassare said, the survey shows a positive yet cautious emergence from a time of worry.

“They feel we’ve come through some hard times, but they’re not ready to be overly zealous about their situation,” he said.

“It’s an optimistic but pragmatic mood compared to the 1980s, when people just thought there was going to be endless prosperity. Now they’re happy that things are normal and their lives are fairly stable compared to a couple of years ago.”