My heart bleeds for California (Huron: crime, home, bankruptcy)

[Unsworth]

When I was a kid growing up in the great central valley California was a great place to live. We played on the streets. We rode our bicycles all over the place without fear of being kidnapped. We caught crawdads down at the creek and fished. We played in parks that are now scary and filled with homeless people. The air was clean and you could see from mountain range to mountain range. The water was excellent and came directly from wells in our city. We had tree ripened fruit that we grew on trees right at home. When I got older I could drive easily without tons of traffic.

I don't live in California anymore but when I go back I have such an easy feeling about it. It is just oppressive to me. Maybe I just remember what it used to be too much.

[nightlysparrow]

My heart bleeds for Michigan, which I loved visiting as a kid, too. Now, as of this week, toxic chemical PFAS is being found in drinking water in many areas of the state; then there was the water poisoning (by lead) in Flint; vast expanses of so many towns (pPort Huron, e.g.) decimated by crime and decay from abandonment by the auto industry; "ghost towns" in the UP after logging left; the state's largest city, Detroit, still in flux after bankruptcy; and more:

https://www.freep.com/story/money/bu...sit/655847002/

The reality is that places change, not only for the better.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by Unsworth

When I was a kid growing up in the great central valley California was a great place to live. We played on the streets. We rode our bicycles all over the place without fear of being kidnapped. We caught crawdads down at the creek and fished. We played in parks that are now scary and filled with homeless people. The air was clean and you could see from mountain range to mountain range. The water was excellent and came directly from wells in our city. We had tree ripened fruit that we grew on trees right at home. When I got older I could drive easily without tons of traffic.

I don't live in California anymore but when I go back I have such an easy feeling about it. It is just oppressive to me. Maybe I just remember what it used to be too much.

Aw shucks ... thanks ... we need your pity ...

[Unsworth]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

Aw shucks ... thanks ... we need your pity ...

It is not pity. It is just a kind of sadness of what has happened to California.

[Mr5150]

Yet another CA bashing thread. If I had a dollar for every CA bashing thread I could retire! Oh wait, I am retired!!!

[Unsworth]

Originally Posted by nightlysparrow

My heart bleeds for Michigan, which I loved visiting as a kid, too. Now, as of this week, toxic chemical PFAS is being found in drinking water in many areas of the state; then there was the water poisoning (by lead) in Flint; vast expanses of so many towns (pPort Huron, e.g.) decimated by crime and decay from abandonment by the auto industry; "ghost towns" in the UP after logging left; the state's largest city, Detroit, still in flux after bankruptcy; and more:

https://www.freep.com/story/money/bu...sit/655847002/

The reality is that places change, not only for the better.

You are right. Michigan has its problems. No place is perfect. Michigan does need to get its act together when it comes to regulating these manufacturers.

[Unsworth]

Originally Posted by Mr5150

Yet another CA bashing thread. If I had a dollar for every CA bashing thread I could retire! Oh wait, I am retired!!!

I am not really bashing California. It is like what I said in the post above. California has a lot of great things about it. Yosemite National Park and the Ansel Adams Wilderness which is a great place to go backpacking. Access to the ocean and relatively mild weather. It has become so expensive to live in California I could not go back even if I wanted to.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by Unsworth

When I was a kid growing up in the great central valley California was a great place to live. We played on the streets. We rode our bicycles all over the place without fear of being kidnapped. We caught crawdads down at the creek and fished. We played in parks....

In what state in the country DIDN'T kids do this, decades ago? What does this have to do with California? You're speaking of a societal change, not a change that pertains to a geographic location.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Unsworth

When I was a kid growing up in the great central valley California was a great place to live. We played on the streets. We rode our bicycles all over the place without fear of being kidnapped. We caught crawdads down at the creek and fished. We played in parks that are now scary and filled with homeless people. The air was clean and you could see from mountain range to mountain range. The water was excellent and came directly from wells in our city. We had tree ripened fruit that we grew on trees right at home. When I got older I could drive easily without tons of traffic.

I don't live in California anymore but when I go back I have such an easy feeling about it. It is just oppressive to me. Maybe I just remember what it used to be too much.

OP, people still have home-grown tree-ripened fruit. That hasn't changed. As to the rest of it, those issues aren't unique to California. Well water throughout the West is being contested, and is a threatened commodity. Colorado has made individual home water catchment illegal, because it deprives well-owners and agriculture of crucial groundwater and surface water supply. The skies are no longer as clear as they used to be in many parts of the country, and the world. Homelessness has a major impact in other regions as well, especially those where housing costs have skyrocketed. These are sad signs of the times in which we live. These are humanity's current challenges.

Most of them are global. Traffic in economic boom areas, in the US and elsewhere, has exceeded the roads' capacity to handle it. This is what happens, when auto and oil industries team up to suppress the expansion of public transportation. Countries that emphasize public transit don't have that problem, for the most part. Water is becoming scarce throughout the world, and this is only the beginning of the water-scarcity problem. Water quality is also at risk. Not only climate change, but sea level rise will exacerbate the water issues, as salt water invades freshwater sources.

My heart bleeds for humanity. California is only one corner of it. At this point in the unfolding of the human story, courageous and visionary leadership is needed. I don't see that manifesting. We're in for a rough road ahead.

[Unsworth]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

OP, people still have home-grown tree-ripened fruit. That hasn't changed. As to the rest of it, those issues aren't unique to California. Well water throughout the West is being contested, and is a threatened commodity. Colorado has made individual home water catchment illegal, because it deprives well-owners and agriculture of crucial groundwater and surface water supply. The skies are no longer as clear as they used to be in many parts of the country, and the world. Homelessness has a major impact in other regions as well, especially those where housing costs have skyrocketed. These are sad signs of the times in which we live. These are humanity's current challenges.

Most of them are global. Traffic in economic boom areas, in the US and elsewhere, has exceeded the roads' capacity to handle it. This is what happens, when auto and oil industries team up to suppress the expansion of public transportation. Countries that emphasize public transit don't have that problem, for the most part. Water is becoming scarce throughout the world, and this is only the beginning of the water-scarcity problem. Water quality is also at risk. Not only climate change, but sea level rise will exacerbate the water issues, as salt water invades freshwater sources.

My heart bleeds for humanity. California is only one corner of it. At this point in the unfolding of the human story, courageous and visionary leadership is needed. I don't see that manifesting. We're in for a rough road ahead.

What you say is true. I guess I was being a little nostalgic.