Three-fifths of white respondents said they viewed the police as their friends, while 37 percent of blacks expressed the same opinion.

West Indian respondents whose lay culture teaches them to reject long-term drug therapy opted instead for folk remedies in higher numbers than the 'white' respondents.

As in past polls, more white respondents had positive opinions of Mr. Giuliani and his job performance than did black respondents.

Last May only 15 percent of white respondents said they had a favorable impression of Mr. Jackson.

Among white respondents, 47 percent approved of Mr. Levy's performance and 8 percent disapproved.

And some of Mr. Jackson's rivals are so little known that he outranks them in public opinion polls, even among white respondents.

Only one in four whites thought that, while half of the white respondents said it was "not at all important".

Additionally, the proportion of white respondents who would move in the face of 'great numbers' of black dropped from 80 to 18 percent.

That included 38 percent of white respondents and 27 percent of blacks.

Black New Yorkers were somewhat more optimistic than white or Hispanic respondents on virtually every measure, the poll found.