However, a majority gave the city's race relations poor marks. And more than half of Latinos surveyed rated public school education as adequate or excellent. By contrast, a majority of whites and seven in 10 blacks said schools were inadequate or very poor.
Optimism is still alive in the barrios.
The Times poll, based on the responses of 1,570 residents interviewed between Feb. 24 and March 1, also reflected deep Latino apprehension about crime, police abuse and race relations. Forty-three percent of Latinos said the quality of life in their communities had improved in the past five years. The turmoil was set in motion in 1994 with Proposition 187, placed on the ballot by citizens who contended that an influx of illegal immigrants was sapping California's economy. Similar emotions festered through subsequent ballot initiatives that targeted affirmative action and bilingual education. Those political campaigns helped trigger a profound, and unanticipated, turnaround.