1NV35T0R (Greg) wrote:
Why would you say North California is a different planet compared to South California?
I thought you meant South Carolina at first! That would have been easy to answer.
The state capital of California is actually in the SF bay area, so they are really out of touch with SoCal. The climate, topography and culture is vastly different. To be crude, SoCal is like a Little Mexico and there are some cities where you literally won't see another white person. Generally, the further south you go, the worse that can get, but you have to keep in mind wealth is always the great partitioner, so you can have tony expensive gated suburban enclaves north of San Diego (where you will see not only the traditional whites, but the emerging Hispanic middle/upper class).
I don't know where I would draw a dividing line between North and South. I don't think it would work horizontally due to the Central Valley which is aggregarian and low income (for instance,
Sons of Anarchy takes place where Lodi and Stockton would be in reality, although they don't literally film it there, they film it in north SoCal near a dominant white enclave). Maybe it is just better to assume cultural similarity and stick with the Ventura to Vancouver axis which grows north to envelope NorCal. There is a mountain range that divides the left from the right, the Cascades and Sierra Nevada I think. That can be also read as liberal vs conservative too but obviously, middle class conservatives were among the white emigrations to other states except for the richer ones that stayed behind in Orange County. Are there even any up in NorCal? Heh!
SoCal is very materialistic; appearances/impressions matter and it crosses all socio-economic lines. IMO, it's a legacy confluence of credit cards and mega-shopping malls originating in the virtually 100% white suburban San Fernando Valley in the 50's-60's in combination with the entertainment industry proximity, exacerbated by those 90210-style rich white people that stayed behind during the emigrations (in reality, the 90210 zip code is largely non-white and ethnic/foreign now) and perpetuated by foreigners moving here and imitating it (they are rabid for that stuff). I don't know what NorCal is like in these regards but considering the junior high school clothing and hoodies inspired by Zuckerberg and his legion of wannabes, probably not a big factor. It is SF after all. A city famous for its liberal tolerance, hippies and slobs!
There's a smart guy that ran for office and wanted to carve CA into seven different regions or states. He was probably onto something. Not every region is always about skin color and socio-economic class; the local environment and conditions plays a role in shaping people's mentalities.
Oh yeah, I'd be remiss to not mention that SpaceX is headquarted in the LA area. So that could be a future growth industry. They have over 2000 employees. Can't imagine why they would do it here but there must be a lot of aerospace talent leftover from all the military base closures (which BTW is another highly significant factor in destroying the middle class).
I'm convinced culture and family come before jobs and economics. Blood is thicker than water.
