Survey says: Crowds stifling

Deirdre Newman

About 45 million people will compete for jobs, jostle for freeway

space and scour the state for affordable housing in 2025, according

to a statewide survey released today.

The survey, conducted by the Public Policy Institute of

California, said more than half of the poll’s participants feel the

population increase will have an adverse affect on them and their

families. Some Newport-Mesa residents are equally pessimistic about

the region’s ability to accommodate the expected infusion of people.

“We are woefully behind the eight ball, at least in this point in

time, in being able to service that amount of people in the state in

terms of our public institutions, from the bottom up -- whether that

be education, infrastructure, services -- the whole gamut of what

we’re responsible for as public agencies,” Costa Mesa City Manager

Allan Roeder said.

The institute surveyed 2,506 Californians to raise awareness and

foster discussion of the growth-related challenges confronting the

state over the next two decades. When the survey answers were divided

by region, Orange County and San Diego County were grouped together.

In this region, 23% of survey respondents said the most important

issue facing people in California today is the multi-faceted issue of

economy, jobs and unemployment. Newport Beach Planning Commissioner

Barry Eaton cited the state budget deficit as his No. 1 issue.

“It’s not getting solved as quickly as [Gov. Arnold]

Schwarzenegger promised,” Eaton said. “It’s just creating more

carry-over to future years. Clearly, there needs to be an effort of

structural reform. Everyone agrees with that in principle, but the

devil is in the details in terms of getting things done. That’s

related to jobs and the economy because Schwarzenegger is clearly

relying on the economy coming back in a big way in order to pay down

some of those deficits.”

In a transportation-related question, 38% of Orange/San Diego

respondents favored freeways and highways, while 28% favored a light

rail as a surface transportation project that should have the top

priority for public funding as the region gets ready for the growth

that is expected by 2025.

That ranking reflects the priorities of the Orange County

Transportation Authority, spokesman Ted Nguyen said. The agency has

used 75% of funds from Measure M, the county’s half-cent sales tax

for transportation improvements, for freeways and streets. Transit

projects, including the CenterLine light rail system project, receive

the other 25%, Nguyen added.

“I think that’s a pretty good example that people want both

streets and roads and rail,” authority board of directors Chairman

Greg Winterbottom said. “I think it’s an important issue for us,

especially since we had guaranteed the voters that they would have a

rail component in the [Measure M] expenditures.”

And while 48% of Orange/San Diego respondents said they felt the

public education system in their region will get worse, Costa Mesa

Planning Commissioner and parent Katrina Foley thinks otherwise.

“I think it will improve because there are a lot of people working

to improve it and because property vales have increased so

dramatically that the income of the families in the city will be

higher, which will result in, I believe, improved education,” she

said.

Seventy-four percent of Orange/San Diego respondents feel local

governments should work together and have a common regional plan.

While that’s already started, there is definitely more that needs

to be done, Roeder said.

“Probably, the No. 1 issue, and I suspect most people would agree,

is transportation,” Roeder said. “There are efforts in that

direction, but it’s still anything but a comprehensive effort. We’re

nowhere close to doing real serious, long-range, regional

transportation planning.”

And 79% of Orange/San Diego residents surveyed feel the

availability of affordable housing will get worse. Eaton agrees the

lack of affordable housing is a long-term problem.

“It’s really tough,” Eaton said. “I don’t think you can change the

way the market works, and people who own homes don’t want the market

to change because their property values are going up. A lot of

programs are put together to make housing more affordable, but the

higher prices go, the tougher it is and the more stretched [those

programs] become.”