EDITORIAL VANISHING MIDDLE CLASS PUBLIC HEALTH CUTS SYMPTOM OF DIRE STRAITS REGION IS IN.

THE public health catastrophe facing Los Angeles County officials points out just how seriously overwhelmed the region is by poor people.

Dire measures have been taken by county supervisors because of underfunding by the state and federal governments of programs to help the poor. Worse is yet to come, but there is little choice with two-thirds of California's estimated 4 million uninsured people living in Los Angeles County.

The poor will suffer the most from the $228 million in cuts approved last week but no one is immune.

At a time when crime is soaring out of control again and threats of terrorist attacks are high, cuts in budgets of the Sheriff's Department and the District Attorney's Office will undermine the safety of everyone.

A lot of the problem, particularly in the city of Los Angeles, is a failure of public policy.

City Hall's 25-year war against the middle class and the business community has chased away every major bank and corporation that once called Los Angeles home and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee to the suburbs, where schools are good and streets are safe.

What was once ``white flight'' has become middle-class flight.

By failing to vigorously enforce housing laws and even criminal laws, Los Angeles has turned itself into a haven for the poor. By failing to confront the problems of neighborhoods because the city's wealth was being poured into downtown development, Los Angeles has created a city of slums and high-end districts with a dwindling middle class.

The result is low-paying jobs with wages kept down by the competition among too many people with low skills, deteriorating housing stock with too many unsafe and illegal firetraps, too many students with such enormous needs that the entire public school system is overwhelmed and failing.

We will continue down this path unless there are dramatic changes.

Secession or creation of a borough system of government would be an important step because neighborhoods would be empowered to fix themselves and have the money to do it.

State and federal officials also have a primary responsibility.

Los Angeles has the largest immigrant population in the nation and its special needs are at least partly the responsibility of the state and federal government.

Los Angeles is a better, more exciting place in many ways because of its cultural diversity. But the unmet needs of the immigrant population threatens the quality of life of everyone.

The danger is that the vanishing middle class will leave only the rich and poor, and the problems of the community will only get worse.