The L.A. Times polled Angelenos on their feelings about local government and life--which are decidedly mixed. While the police hit unprecedented approval levels among all ethnicities, things looks grim for the mayor's political future beyond L.A.
While Villaraigosa still has a slight majority approval rating--55 percent--only 38 percent of his Democratic constituents polled in L.A. say they'd vote for him for governor.
The LAPD, meanwhile, has historically high approval rating of 77 percent.
Overall, the polled locals have a lot to feel uneasy about, as the Times reports:
Angelenos are feeling battered by the recession, highly critical of public schools and generally pessimistic about life in Los Angeles. Four in 10 of the voters surveyed said they had seriously considered leaving the city in the last two years, most commonly because of the high cost of housing.
More than a third said they or a member of their immediate family had lost a job; 12% said their homes had been foreclosed. And only about 1 in 4 rated the quality of education at local public schools as excellent or good.
The Times polled 1,500 registered voters in L.A. via telephone from June 10 to June 16, and claim a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points.
The image associated with this post was taken by Flickr user Omar Omar. It was used under user Creative Commons license.
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I am very surprised by this alleged surge of support for the LAPD. In the face of economic disorder, I wonder why Angelinos have come to approve of their police force. Has the federal oversight of the last eight years finally changed the LAPD for the better? Can this change be sustained over the long-term, after the federal government is no longer lurching over the shoulder of the police force? It is all very interesting, and even more confusing.