The strong endorsement of the Los Angeles Police Department cuts across racial and ethnic lines, according to a new Los Angeles Times poll -- with the percentages of black and Hispanic respondents who say they approve of how the police do their jobs almost as high as the level among white respondents. That result is particularly notable given the long history of tensions between the police and the city's black and Hispanic communities. The positive feelings toward the LAPD stand out as a bright spot at a time when Angelenos are feeling battered by the recession, highly critical of public schools, and generally pessimistic about life in Los Angeles. Of those surveyed, 4 in 10 said they had seriously considered leaving the city in the last two years, most commonly because of the high cost of housing. More than one-third said they or a member of their immediate family had lost a job, while 12 percent said that they had had their home foreclosed. Only about 1 in 4 rated the quality of education at their local public schools as 'excellent' or 'good.' The poll of 1,500 registered voters in Los Angeles was conducted for the Times by two firms based in Washington, D.C., Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a Democratic firm, in conjunction with Public Opinion Strategies, which polls for Republicans. The poll was conducted June 10-16 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points. Almost 8 of 10 respondents said they either 'strongly approve' or 'somewhat approve' of police performance. The response was 18 percentage points higher than in the Times' last survey of the city, in 2005. The percentages of blacks and Hispanics who voiced approval of the LAPD both rose by double digits since the 2005 survey, almost closing a long-running discrepancy between white and minority attitudes. The shrinking of the approval gap is a far cry from the 1990s, when anger over the Rodney King beating and later the Rampart corruption scandal did serious damage to the LAPD's reputation, especially among minorities. In 1991, shortly after the King beating, for example, only 40 percent of respondents said they approved of police performance. Attitudes on the city's public schools and quality-of-life issues were far less encouraging. Among the 40 percent who said they had seriously considered leaving the city, the high cost of housing was by far the most commonly cited reason. In interviews, several people said they had dramatically changed their lifestyles, putting off large purchases, delaying dental work and eating at restaurants far less frequently. Hispanics reported the highest level of impact from the recession but were also the most optimistic about the economy's future. Half of Hispanics said that they expected the economy to be better in six months, while only about one-third of blacks or whites said they felt such confidence. 