The Capital of Gritted Teeth

One-third of the people who live here don't, according to a survey published Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California. That was the percentage of respondents saying they plan to leave the county within the next five years, a big jump from 2003, when only 17% were looking to move.

The things people say they hate most about Los Angeles are the usual suspects: clogged traffic, crime, costly housing. They just seem a little more fed up than in earlier surveys by the institute.

And although responses to quality-of-life questions varied widely by ethnicity and race, with blacks and Latinos far less enthusiastic about things like parks and the police than whites and Asians, all groups had pessimism in common. More than 75% of L.A. County residents expect traffic to get worse in the next 20 years, and nearly two-thirds think environmental quality will deteriorate.

The survey comes a week after another poll, sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as a way of lobbying for tort reform, asked senior attorneys at large corporations across the country to list the five local jurisdictions with the least fair and reasonable litigation environments. Los Angeles got the most votes by far.

Given the region's problems stemming from overcrowding, and given that the county's population over four years has increased by 600,000 (about the population of Baltimore), it is tempting to wish the malcontents Godspeed. It also makes us wonder what happened to the 17% who said two years ago that they planned to leave.

But when employers widely perceive L.A. to be unfriendly to business at the same time workers say they want to flee because they can't afford a home or can't stand the traffic, it's no recipe for economic growth.

Almost two out of three L.A. County residents identified the high cost of housing as a big problem. A house in Los Angeles has become less a place to live than a 401(k) plan with a garage, and middle-class families can't afford a starter home. A UCLA forecast sees an unsustainable price bubble because home prices have risen much faster than personal incomes. Yet no one should be wishing for it to burst. As The Times reported Tuesday, much of California's job and asset growth is being fueled by real estate.

Traffic may be the granddaddy of L.A. ailments, cited by three out of four residents in the new survey as a big problem in their part of the county. Unfortunately, in a time of seriously strained government budgets, there are no big solutions on the board.

It's true that voicing pessimism about this sprawling, fractured city is a perennial sport. But there's no question that the city and county require big ideas and strong leadership. L.A.'s next mayor will have a lot of persuading to do.