A new survey released Wednesday found that the wildfires in Los Angeles have caused huge financial and emotional damage to millions of people in Southern California, far beyond the burning community.
More than 40% of the adults surveyed said they knew someone who personally influenced the wildfire that began on January 7. The poll of one million adults said the fire directly caused them to work or income. About one-third of respondents said they wear masks to protect themselves from smoke hazards.
The UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs survey highlights the vastness of fires that surpass Southern California, and that even large-scale disruptions, the region’s massive scale often swallows up.
Los Angeles County has the largest population, with about 9.7 million residents, extending more than 4,000 square miles, including 88 cities and a quarter of the state's population. Two major fires in January – in the Pacific Palisade on the Pacific Coast and in the east, Altadena on the bottom of the San Gabriel Mountains – are more than 34 miles apart.
But as the storm storm violently whipped a hell, claiming 30 lives and destroying thousands of buildings, the threat of disaster seemed to extend across the county. Even in places 20 miles or more from the fire, such as the Palos Verdes peninsula and suburbs in the northern part of the county, about a quarter of respondents said they knew people who had lost their homes or businesses.
“In the past, wildfires have been divided here,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, a former Los Angeles city councilman and county supervisor, who directed the Los Angeles initiative of the Luskin School, which investigated.
“But this time, the fire is everyone's problem,” he continued. “Everyone has a stake. Everyone threatens to some extent. It's a community-wide disaster, like an earthquake. Apart from here, even here, we've never had an earthquake that damages 15,000 homes.”
Polls show that the fire also raises political challenges, especially for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
Ms. Bath, who represented the Biden administration in Ghana when the fire broke out, was one of the most popular and famous Democrats in Southern California in 2022. Ms. Bath, a former community organizer, lawmaker and congressman, took root in the black community in Los Angeles and went beyond demographic boundaries.
But investigations show that her popularity plummeted after the wildfires. Last year, 42% of the respondents surveyed were in her favor, and only 32% expressed negative opinions. This year, only 37% of people are in her favor, and almost half do not look at her.
The survey shows that support among black residents remains a solid attitude, but in other demographics, especially white residents, it has slipped significantly, with 60% of whom say they are not right now about her. Other leaders in Los Angeles, including members of the county’s supervisory board, have experienced no popularity since last year.
Over the past decade, surveys have been conducted to measure satisfaction with quality of life in Los Angeles County. This year’s poll, conducted in late February and early March among 1,400 adult residents, is the latest poll, the latest to reflect the shock of Californians after wildfires.
In an earlier poll, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and conducted in February by the University of California-Berkeley’s Government Institute, nearly a quarter of the county’s residents said the fire prompted them to consider moving out of Southern California, although only 9% thought it seriously.
In Luskin's survey, 10 respondents believed that people who lost their homes in communities such as Pacific Palisades and Altadena should be allowed to rebuild at the same location. Since the cost of living is the primary concern of respondents, the slim majority supports some kind of tax increase to fund improvements in wildfire preparations in the county.
“It will make LA's psychology for a long time,” Mr. Yaroslavsky said. “I think people will be commemorating their lives through it. There will be 'before' and 'after the fire.'”.
