Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs
Nearly one-quarter of Los Angeles County residents are considering moving away after January’s apocalyptic wildfires — and more than a third have little confidence in embattled Mayor Karen Bass’ leadership, a new poll shows.The poll, conducted by the University of California Berkeley and sponsored by the LA Times, found that 23% of respondents are “considering” a move, and 9% are “seriously considering” one specifically because of the Palisades and Eaton fires, which wiped out thousands of homes and forced 200,000 people to evacuate.Forty-one percent of respondents believe Mayor Karen Bass did a “poor” or “very poor” job during the fires, and 36% have “not much confidence” in her ability to help the city recover.
The poll surveyed 5,184 people in both English and Spanish. Although fire victims could wait up to 18 months before they can begin rebuilding, the poll suggests the number of people weighing an exit is much higher than people who actually lost their homes. While the fires destroyed or heavily damaged nearly 13,000 houses, that is only 0.004% of total housing units in the county of roughly 10 million people, according to the most recent census data.Conservative Angelenos were most likely to leave. Forty percent of “strongly conservative” and 28% of “somewhat conservative” respondents are considering relocation.
Regardless of politics, the fires took a major mental toll on the people of Los Angeles.Around one-third of respondents said they had experienced high anxiety during the fires, and less than 10% of people who are considering a move have a “great deal” of faith in LA’s ability to recover.Those satisfaction numbers came after a dismal performance by state and local officials as the wildfires chewed $250 billion worth of property and infrastructure.Many Angelenos also have little faith in Gov. Gavin Newsom, but he faired better in the poll than his fellow Democrat Bass.
Although nearly a third of respondents said Newsom did a “poor” or “very poor” job during the fires, 35% said he did a “good” or “excellent” job. Only 13% and 6%, respectively, said the same of the mayor.As people are eager to leave, the ones who stay are paying more for the privilege. Recent data from ApartmentList.com showed that Los Angeles rents are increasing at double the normal rate. In the month after the fires, the state attorney general’s office sent more than 700 warning letters to landlords and hotels suspected of price gouging.
