CALIFORNIA BUSINESS MINUTE
Love It or Leave It? California
10-08-09
Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.
Apparently, Californians think the state economy stinks right now but see
modest improvements on the horizon, according to a new survey that digs
deeply into the attitudes of Californians.
The scientific survey sponsored by Citibank California is the first in a
series of quarterly readings of how residents feel about the current and
future state economy, budget and job market, as well as their personal
and family finances.
Roughly 90 percent of respondents view the current economy and job market
as poor or only fair, but 60 percent anticipate modest improvement in the
year ahead.
Survey questions about savings, spending, vacations and personal finances
found large majorities talking about new tight-fisted habits that they say
are not just passing fancies.
"We're calling it the new normal," said Rebecca Macieira-Kaufmann, president
of Citibank California. "The recession has permanently, and I say permanently,
changed the way Californians spend and save."
Asked whether California was a better place to live in the 1990s and would
now continue to decline, 50 percent of those surveyed answered yes. But 45
percent respondents said, "No, California's best days are still ahead." The
balance had no opinion. A series of questions about the state's institutions,
infrastructure and social fabric revealed the same ambivalence.
Most respondents said public services, state government, schools at every
level and the business climate had all deteriorated in recent years. But a
majority thought things were holding steady, if not getting better, when it
came to parks and beaches, roads and highways, air and water quality, as well
as the tone of racial and ethnic relations in a state whose population is
increasingly heterogeneous.
However in a recent Field Poll survey, 41% of Californians say the state
is “one of the best places to live,” down nine percentage points from two
years ago. And there are wide variations in opinions across the state’s major
regions about living in California. Meanwhile, residents of the nine-county
San Francisco Bay Area, for example, are much more likely than residents
elsewhere to rate the state in very positive terms, with 61% maintaining
that California is “one of the best places to live.” By comparison, half
as many in the Central Valley (30%) or in areas of Southern California
outside of Los Angeles, Orange or San Diego counties (30%) offer such a
positive assessment.
Oh well, apparently it still looks great from the outside, as a recent
Harris Poll illustrates that California is the state where most people
would rather live.
I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.
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