Posted on 03/17/2005 3:59:11 PM PST by BurbankKarl
The talk in Los Angeles is the talk of getting out In fact, a third of the residents surveyed said they want to move away, up more than 20 percent from 2003. The mood here in the South Bay, however, is slightly rosier.
Fed up with traffic, crime and skyrocketing housing prices, a growing number of Los Angeles County residents say they plan to move away within five years, according to a survey released Wednesday.
Although the mood in the South Bay area was slightly rosier, the report by the Public Policy Institute of California calls the county's 10 million residents "stunningly unhappy with some key indicators of quality of life and paints a picture of growing concern for any chance of long-term recovery."
"I spend all my money on rent," said San Pedro resident Janelle Anderson. "And now with gas prices going up, I'd love to find a cheaper place to live. But it's not that easy to leave your job and family."
The number of residents who plan to leave the county almost doubled in two years. A similar survey in 2003 found that 17 percent of residents did not see themselves staying in the county. The number is now 33 percent.
In fact, more people in the city of Los Angeles say they plan to leave than the 26 percent who voted in the recent mayoral election, said Mark Baldassare, the survey's director.
"It seems they plan to vote with their feet," he said.
For Torrance resident Gary Webb, it's the unrelenting traffic that makes him ponder leaving.
"It seems like I'm always in my car," he said. "And it keeps getting worse. I can't go anywhere without getting stuck in traffic."
The third annual survey found traffic, lack of affordable housing and low-performing public schools as reasons for the bleak outlook -- 74 percent of the 2,000 participants said congestion on freeways and main roads was a major problem. Another 64 percent said a lack of affordable housing was a big problem in the county. Both those figures have significantly increased from two years ago, when 67 percent cited traffic woes and 54 percent mentioned housing.
"So many dimensions of people are more negative today," Baldassare said. "The way they rate housing problems, the way they view race relations, and increasing negativity were certainly important things we noted."
In all, 58 percent believe race relations were not so good, compared to 53 percent in 2003. Different races also had varied outlooks. Only 21 percent of blacks -- compared to 50 percent of all residents -- say police in their community treat all racial and ethnic groups fairly most of the time.
But there were some silver linings in the survey. For instance, most residents expect race relations to improve.
"There are areas that have optimism," Baldassare said. "Most people believe race and ethnic relations will improve. And we're seeing improvements in the economy and the general belief that the quality of life is still good."
Dowell Myers, a professor of urban planning and demographics at USC, suggested that the survey include a question about whether people planned to move. He said he was a little surprised at the results, but he also cautioned about reading too much into them.
"It's a little higher than I would expect," he said. "It's not clear people are going to act different. People complain about traffic, but don't leave."
But if people do follow up on their plans to move, it could spell trouble in the future.
"The danger is people will still keep coming, but the ones you want to keep might go away because they've got other choices," he said. "You might be keeping the wrong kinds of people. Middle-class taxpayers might get up and go. That's the key. Who are the ones leaving?"
The survey divided the county into four parts. The area that includes the South Bay -- which stretches from Long Beach to Malibu -- was more optimistic about many trends. While generally unhappy with traffic, two-thirds of the area's residents said things were going well. They also gave the highest rating to the economy (40 percent) and expressed strong approval of local parks (68 percent).
"Some of the optimism in the region reflects the fact that people have good air quality, good job opportunities," Baldassare said. "Many people are in good economic shape compared to other parts of the county."
they think it says Dana
http://www.graffiti.org/la/la_8.html
You know your a bad writer when the depository of urban art can't read it.
Yeah Washington used to be a nice state until the Californicators all moved up there. They have turned it into the same kind of cesspool that CA is. Now they are doing it to AZ. So if ya'll want to leave LA fine, go north to Seattle, or east to NY, but stay the hell out of Arizona. Unless you are a conservative, a real conservative not a RINO. Oh yeah, on the way through pick up John McLame and take him with you.
This is the point I was trying to make earlier, Most of the kalifonicartors are not welcomme in states east of there, because they are for the most part decent states, with a RED hue. We realize that some of you are decent and want to escape, we would welcome you, however the dirtball liberals such as the spitball hollywood so-called-stars should stay put, we do have many animal hunting seasons where decent people live, and anything wearing blue would not have a good time here. The dirtballs moving to the decent states have turned it into the same kind of cesspool that CA is. Now they are doing it to AZ and NM. Dirtballs stay in kalifornia, we don't want ya, keep your stupid stuff to your stupid selves. Any owles out there?
Oh, how far Garnett Street has fallen! It used to be a fun pub crawl, now it's more a tatoo-parlor cesspool.
yep, yep. with homeless beggers all over the place. I sometimes give them McDonalds gift certificates and they are non too thrilled, but they take them anyway.
Oh no. We've already filled our quota for the year.
Now it's Prozac and R.U.B.s ;-)
What do you mean "unbearably hot" last summer we almost froze out here, barely got over 110
BTW how did you come up with your name
Welcome home neighbor
ping
pingy
Life's too short to waste trying to prop up and rescue idiots/democRats from the results of their stupid folly.
I abandoned CA 10 years ago this month and have never looked back.
Ta Da!!!! Schwarzenegger chose the phony bill of goods yesterday. No surprise.
As soon as I retire.
I have one more week until the moving truck pulls up in front of my rented 850 sg ft crackerbox and hauls my stuff to the 3000 sg ft Texas home I bought on Sunday.
And I bet you paid a tenth of the cost! When we move to Washington I got double the house for half the money. We were never so glad to leave California, not that Washington is any better any more. The politics here are similar to Calif... very liberal!
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