A conversation with Zev Yaroslavsky, director of Los Angeles Initiative, to discuss the 5th annual Los Angeles Quality of Life Index.
Providing a framework for summit discussions will be the unveiling of the fifth Quality of Life Index, a project at UCLA Luskin that is supported by The California Endowment under the direction of longtime Los Angeles political stalwart Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative.
The Quality of Life Index polls a cross-section of Los Angeles County residents each year to understand the public’s perception of the quality of their own lives. Respondents are asked to rate the quality of approximately 40 different aspects of life organized into nine different categories: public safety, education, intergroup relations, cost of living, transportation and traffic, jobs and the economy, health care, the environment, and neighborhoods. Respondents are also asked to rate the salience or importance of each item. Results are calculated into an index figure; the annual figure, as well as the individual rankings, can be compared over time. The index is not simply a mean satisfaction score, but rather a weighted measure that gives greater importance as the respondents rank them.
In addition to the quality of life questions, each survey addresses a small number of additional, timely issues. These have included hunger, homelessness, fears of being deported, gentrification, and other contemporaneous matters.
Zev Yaroslavsky is Director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin, focusing on the intersection of policy, politics and history of the Los Angeles Region. Yaroslavsky previously served long tenures as an elected official for the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
#Luskin25