O.C. Residents Feel Upbeat, UCI Finds; Top Issue Is Crime

Orange County’s quality of life is high, confidence in the economy is up, even faith in county government is on the rebound for the first time since the county’s bankruptcy four years ago, according to UC Irvine’s annual snapshot of the county’s mood.

Survey results, to be released today, indicate a time of unprecedented good feeling in the county.

Nearly 60% of those polled give local public schools high marks, up 15 percentage points from two years ago. The majority also gives thumbs up to many other public services, from police protection to parks and beaches.

So even survey directors are puzzled that crime shows up as the most important problem in a county where the crime rate has been dropping steadily for the last few years.

Crime worries topped the list for 30% of those interviewed. Last year, 24% said crime was the most important problem.

“People just don’t believe crime is going down,” said UCI professor Mark Baldassare, who conducted the 17th Orange County Annual Survey. “We are not convinced we’re living in an era of greater security.”

By nearly every other measure, he said, these are halcyon days in the county.

“This truly is a unique period,” Baldassare said. “I’ve never seen a time in which there are such consistently positive attitudes across the board.”

The survey was conducted over the first two weeks of September through random telephone interviews with 2,002 Orange County adults, twice the number ever polled before. It found that:

* County government does a good or excellent job in solving problems, according to 38% of respondents. That’s up 12 percentage points over last year and marks the first sign that the bankruptcy has started to fade in the minds of residents.

* More than 60% of respondents say they have confidence in the county supervisors.

* Nine out of 10 respondents say things are going well in Orange County.

* More than three-quarters of poll respondents say the county’s economy is good or excellent.

* Half of those polled report that they are better off financially than they were a year ago. Only 15% say they are worse off than a year ago.

* Three-quarters of homeowners and 61% of renters believe buying a home in Orange County is a good investment.

Some parts of the survey were released in September. They showed that consumer confidence was high and that the majority of county residents favor a non-aviation alternative over the proposed international airport to replace the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Orange County residents, the survey found, like living in a county that hangs stubbornly onto its suburban character amid urban sprawl. Even so, there are indications of future troubles.

The poll found that Latinos and Asians, while bullish on Orange County in general, are decidedly less satisfied with their own jobs, finances and housing than whites are. Latinos, in particular, have heightened concerns about crime, with only 32% feeling very safe walking in their neighborhoods.

Countywide, fewer than half of those surveyed say they feel very safe walking in their own neighborhoods alone at night, a percentage comparable to that of some major metropolitan cities where crime rates are much higher.

More than half express concerns about safety, from feeling unsafe to feeling somewhat safe, in their own neighborhoods.

Baldassare said the safety question separates perceptions of crime from real concerns about being a victim. “For people there is some real fear,” he concluded. “A lot of people actually feel that there is danger in the communities in which they live.”

Worries about crime in general seemed out of proportion to the otherwise overwhelmingly positive outlook about life in Orange County. That sentiment fits into a national trend, said Jeffrey C. Fryrear, acting director of the National Crime Prevention Institute at the University of Louisville.

“The problem with the fear of crime is that the effect is often greater than the problem of actual crime,” he said. “But people change the way they live their lives based on that fear.”

Fryrear and others who study the issue say the level of anxiety in Orange County is not surprising.

“There aren’t as many of the older established neighborhoods out West, and feeling connected to your neighbors and community is part of what makes you feel safe, regardless of how much crime really happens where you live,” Fryrear said.

John Bedell, a professor of sociology at Cal State Fullerton, said a “symbolic fence between and among neighbors” hinders Orange County’s sense of community.

“We have people who don’t know their neighbors, who don’t see each other during the day,” Bedell said.

Joann Mosey, a Fullerton mother of two young children, said she feels safe in her neighborhood because she knows the families who live nearby. Still, she said there are parts of her town she wouldn’t go alone.

“I think criminals get away with too much, and that leads to more crime,” she said.

She is part of only 39% of residents in older North County who feel very safe in their neighborhoods. In South County, 63% of the respondents say they feel very safe.

Countywide, a little more than a third of the those polled feel somewhat safe and a sixth feel unsafe, both signs that a large number of residents worry about being a crime victim in their own neighborhood, Baldassare said.

Still, the fear is much greater in Los Angeles County, where a recent statewide survey found that only 24% of the population feels very safe in their neighborhoods.

It has only been in recent years that crime has been the main concern among Orange County residents. Previously, transportation and traffic issues were their primary worry--and traffic may become the biggest hassle again.

Attitudes about the state of the county’s transportation system had been improving but stalled for the second year in a row, suggesting that motorists are starting to get fed up with the freeways again, Baldassare said.

Other county issues also are simmering. The growth of minority communities presents the potential for tension because each ethnic group participates in county life in a different way, Baldassare said.

The changing demographics even prompted UCI to double the sampling size to take a closer look at how minorities viewed their life in the county. The school began including Spanish-speaking interviewers several years ago and, this year, added those fluent in Vietnamese.

“If you look beneath the surface, comparing experiences of white population with Latino and Asian population, there are some considerable disparities in economics and civic life,” Baldassare said.

Latinos are far less likely to be asked for donations to charity than whites or Asians. Overall, charitable contributions remained lower than last year and lower than expected for an affluent county. As upbeat as the financial news has been, donations were down from $226 per household last year to just more than $200 this year.

“Orange County doesn’t have a good track record in charitable giving in the first place,” said Cheryl Katz, co-director of the poll.

“As the Latino population continues to grow, if they are less likely to be asked to give, giving will probably go down,” she said.

John Palacio, a Latino activist and business consultant, suggests that Latino residents and businesses would give more money if more were solicited.

“People who ask for money aren’t necessarily bilingual or bicultural, but they may need to be,” he said. The Orange County Hispanic Education Endowment Fund, he pointed out, recently achieved its goal of raising $1 million.

Baldassare said this year’s expanded survey, which cost $40,000 for fieldwork, gives a sense of how the growth in diversity affects the character of the county.

“These are all issues that will affect everyone’s lives,” he said. “Seventeen years ago, I wouldn’t have even imagined we would be asking these questions [about diversity] in Orange County.”

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Methodology

The 17th Orange County Annual Survey was conducted by Mark Baldassare and Cheryl Katz for UC Irvine. The survey was conducted Sept. 1-13 through random telephone interviews with 2,002 Orange County adults in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. The margin of error is plus or minus 2%.

Feeling Safe at Night

Nearly half of county residents say they feel very safe walking in their neighborhoods at night, with those in South County more confident than those living in North County.

* How safe do you feel walking along in your neighborhood at night?

Very safe: 46%

Somewhat safe: 37

Somewhat unsafe: 12

Very unsafe: 5

*

% Saying “Very Safe”

North County: 39%

South County: 63

*

Whites: 52

Latinos: 32

Asians: 45

Measure M Working

An overwhelming majority of residents say they are satisfied with the way Measure M tax funds are being spent on transportation projects--a distinct improvement since 1992--while one commuter in five encounters a major traffic problem on a typical day’s drive.

* Measure M, the half-cent sales tax approved by Orange County voters eight years ago, is funding freeway projects, public transit and local street improvements. In general, how satisfied are you with the way that Measure M funds are being used on transportation projects in Orange County?

*--*

1998 1992 Very satisfied 22% 10% Somewhat satisfied 53 38 Not satisfied 17 26 Don’t know 8 26

*--*

* On a typical day, how much of a problem is traffic congestion when you travel to and from work? (asked of commuters)

No problem: 37%

Somewhat of a problem: 41

Great problem: 22

*

% Saying “Great Problem”

1993: 16%

1994: 17

1995: 17

1996: 19

1997: 19

1998: 22

Charitable Giving

The median charitable donation declined to its lowest point in three years; about half of county residents say they gave somewhere between $1 and $500.

1998 Giving

Nothing: 18%

$1-$100: 22

$101-$500: 31

$501-$999: 9

$1,000 or more: 20

Median Donation

1993: $226

1998: $203

Source: 1998 Orange County Annual Survey, UCI