People in L.A.: Not so happy

The Public Policy Institute of California is out today with a new survey of attitudes in Los Angeles County about life here. It's an annual event, and the bottom line from the first page of text in the poll results says:

When it comes to the most important issues facing Los Angeles County, residents’ perceptions have changed very little since 2003. Twenty-one percent of county residents still rank crime and gangs as the number one issue, down slightly from 26 percent in 2003. Education is still second at 17 percent, compared to 15 percent in 2003. And traffic and transportation rank third at 10 percent, up from 6 percent in 2003. Only 6 percent identify jobs and the economy as the top issue facing Los Angeles County today.

Lack of change, however, doesn't make for a good press release or give the media anything to report. The Times, which got the poll a day early, leads with the attitude differences between races, and hits on the finding that one in three residents say they hope to live outside the county sometime soon. I used to ask a similar question, and get a similar response, in a series of polls about quality of life for the Times many years ago. If they are available online, I'll dig one out and see how they compare.