Monday, December 9, 2019

Residents increasingly unhappy with Bay Area life, new poll finds


A growing percentage of Bay Area residents are worried about the future of the region, citing housing and traffic woes among their main concerns.

In a five-county poll released Wednesday, 67% of respondents said they are “unhappy or worried about changes happening in the Bay Area,” up 10% from 2016. And 53% said they felt things in the region “have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track,” up from 45% three years ago.

The poll, funded by the San Francisco Foundation, highlights the downsides of living in one of the country’s most beautiful and sought-after locales and the threat the festering issues of housing affordability, homelessness and traffic congestion pose to the region’s future.

“There’s concern — and we’ve been seeing this in a lot of other polling as well — that residents are feeling kind of pessimistic, just generally. I think the cost of housing and traffic and all these other issues are causing people to feel unhappy,” said Ruth Bernstein, president and CEO of EMC Research, the national consulting firm that conducted the poll.

Wednesday’s survey data comes from 800 residents in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties — the five counties that make up the San Francisco Foundation’s primary coverage area. Santa Clara County was not included. The foundation, which provides funding for local causes from housing and homelessness to racial equity, first conducted a similar survey in 2016 as a way to gauge the main crises affecting its community.

This year’s poll was conducted online during an eight-day period in October.

Respondents ranked traffic, the cost of living, housing costs and homelessness as the four worst things about living in the Bay Area. Making housing more affordable was at the top of their list of concerns, with 79% ranking it as a priority.

“They are speaking to the need for action,” said Judith Bell, chief impact officer of the San Francisco Foundation. “For me, that data really suggests we need to deal with this crisis because it is a threat to our future.”

Wednesday’s results confirm an ongoing trend. In a poll released earlier this year by this news organization and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, nearly two-thirds of Bay Area residents said the quality of life here has gotten worse over the last five years. And 44% of respondents said they are likely to move out of the Bay Area in the next few years.

“The Bay Area’s housing and traffic crises are the existential threats to a strong economy and a vibrant quality of life,” said Carl Guardino, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

Residents who responded to the San Francisco Foundation survey placed the most faith in government and elected officials to fix the housing crisis, over nonprofits, investors and the business and tech community.

The majority of residents also expressed concern about diversity in the Bay Area — 65% of respondents said protecting the racial and cultural diversity of the region’s neighborhoods is a priority. And 77% of respondents agreed with this statement: “There should be affordable places to live for all people whether white, black or brown in my neighborhood.”

Fewer than half of respondents said they are excited about the Bay Area’s future — 46%, down from 54% three years ago. And more than half of people polled said they are worried about finding an affordable place to live.

“No region can sustain itself with this level of discord among its residents,” Matt Regan, senior vice president of public policy for the Bay Area Council, wrote in an email. “We have to make housing more affordable for everyone, and that can only be done by a massive increase in building.”



from Hacker News https://ift.tt/385rSuQ

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