Define "California Dream" (past and present) (Petaluma, Folsom: sex offender, refinance)

[Western87]

Originally Posted by coyoteskye

I lifted this post from another thread 'cause it came to mind when i read your post.
I hope stillkit doesn't mind that i "borrowed" it.
It was such a good description of California, past and present and addresses your question(s).

"Never forget that the west coast was, and is, a barrier. It stopped the western migration of our history cold, dead in its tracks.

Those who perpetually moved west were the disaffected, the non-conformists, the recalcitrant, those seeking relief from responsibilities and expectations or running from the law. Those moving west were after a new life, a new beginning, a fresh start separated by a continent from the old life, from the old parameters and restraining conformity.

It still is. New generations head west for the same reasons their forefathers headed west, and they join the progeny of those previous immigrants. All of them have washed up against the Pacific Ocean and stopped. There's no place else to go.

That's why the west coast is different from the rest of America, and California in particular. The opportunities in Washington and Oregon are pretty much limited to those areas west of the Cascades, but California was, and still is, wide open, from the high deserts to the inland valleys to the coast; California is the Mecca, the Promised Land, the place where a person can begin again.

It has attracted, does attract, and WILL attract the detrious of the continent; the good alongside the bad, the decent people and the criminals, the lazy and the industrious. Anyone wanting to start over has come to California and they'll continue to come because they have no other place to go.

That's what makes California so unique!"


stillkit's post

Preach on skillkit and thank you coyoteskye for reposting this. Its no secret that our state is in the crapper right now, but what prosperous region in history has not gone through hard times, i've witness the state and country prosper through the 90s and struggle through the recession but we need to work with what we have. We can't go west like past pioneers did, and many are now moving back east to search for prosperity there, but I'll take my chances in the state that has brought to life dreams numerous times before. Call it unbreakable optimism or foolish dillusion, I ride through this with my fellow Californians!

[coyoteskye]

Originally Posted by Western87

Preach on skillkit and thank you coyoteskye for reposting this. Its no secret that our state is in the crapper right now, but what prosperous region in history has not gone through hard times, i've witness the state and country prosper through the 90s and struggle through the recession but we need to work with what we have. We can't go west like past pioneers did, and many are now moving back east to search for prosperity there, but I'll take my chances in the state that has brought to life dreams numerous times before. Call it unbreakable optimism or foolish dillusion, I ride through this with my fellow Californians!

Right on.

And the ocean is still here ... the mountains ... redwoods ... desert .... nature is still here.

[majoun]

Were the characters depicted by Don Ryan in "Angel's Flight" (written in the 1920s) and Nathanael West's "The Day Of The Locust" (written in the 1930s) possessed by a "bourgeois notion of paradise"?

Dashiell Hammett captured the entire spectrum of SF society in his crime novels ; there were certainly plenty of very disrespectable people that he depicted in the 1930s Bay Area. The same applies to Chandler re: L.A. In fact - Chandler starts out "The Little Sister" (1949) with a chapter - in which he's talking about L.A. going to the dogs and said good, middle class values being corrupted due to a massive invasion of newcomers (specifically from the East Coast)

Going back much further, those Old West outlaws, Sydney Ducks, and denizens of the old Barbary Coast weren't exactly the embodiment of bourgeois values. Not to mention all of the scam artists who flocked to the state during the gold rush, the various real estate booms, and the coming of the movie industry (not to mention many of the robber barons and studio moguls weren't exactly the most ethical people)

CA has always had its screw ups, criminals, and get-rich-quick artists. I think the key here is balance and also the past existence of a native culture which now is confined to a few pockets mostly in the rural north. The traditional California doesn't begin at the US/Mexico border - it begins at the Sonoma Co./Marin Co. border.

[jc76]

Originally Posted by Western87

Preach on skillkit and thank you coyoteskye for reposting this. Its no secret that our state is in the crapper right now, but what prosperous region in history has not gone through hard times, i've witness the state and country prosper through the 90s and struggle through the recession but we need to work with what we have. We can't go west like past pioneers did, and many are now moving back east to search for prosperity there, but I'll take my chances in the state that has brought to life dreams numerous times before. Call it unbreakable optimism or foolish dillusion, I ride through this with my fellow Californians!

Well said! Trust me, there's nothing east of you that's going to make your life better. Just weather inconveniences and no jobs. Every state is doing bad right now at least you don't have to suffer through long depressing winters on top of the recession.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Western87

Preach on skillkit and thank you coyoteskye for reposting this. Its no secret that our state is in the crapper right now, but what prosperous region in history has not gone through hard times, i've witness the state and country prosper through the 90s and struggle through the recession but we need to work with what we have. We can't go west like past pioneers did, and many are now moving back east to search for prosperity there, but I'll take my chances in the state that has brought to life dreams numerous times before. Call it unbreakable optimism or foolish dillusion, I ride through this with my fellow Californians!

Would that we could but being in our 60s we had to cast our lots elsewhere. We just don't have the time to wait it out!

[nmnita]

I was born and raised in California and can barely remember when all those from the dust bowl states came to Cal for a better life. (I was a kid, but still remember the migration after the second WW) To people like my in-laws, Cal meant clean, great weather, orange trees, life away from the inner city, decent jobs and newness. Everything was new and shiney in the 40s and 50s. Especially if you lived outside of the city. It was possible to build a life, save money and enjoy the countryside.

Today: it is "when will I be discovered?" I want to get into TV and films, I want a plastic life, or I want to live by the beach and become a freespirit using my skateboard as a means of transportaion. Or it means being free to do any darn thing I please or it means moving to a place illegally so I can live better off the government than I can working in my country.

I know I am being very cynical but that is how I see it. Nothing stays the same, no one would want it to and there are still positive things about the state, but I think the decline is way underway (I know it is) hopefully it will turn around, I don't know..

Nita

[Western87]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Would that we could but being in our 60s we had to cast our lots elsewhere. We just don't have the time to wait it out!

I can understand you leaving, you must of had a good life hear, but I still have many years ahead of me and I'm looking to make the best of it here

[ehcsrop]

The best welfare system in the world. Where else can one go and get paid more to have more kids? That and Section 8 make life on the dole better than many working stiffs have it.

I wish I was paying close attention to the life I was living as a teen in SoCal. I had to see the movie "American Graffiti" to fully appreciate that I lived in a "dream" world and never thought about it.

Life's been pretty rough since '91 with a couple of fat years around '05. The rest does not match anything I knew before '91 except one period when interest was way up in the double digits. Those years sucked too.

My college English professor claimed the crisis we now know as society began the day Kennedy was assassinated. When one looks back, there's a lotta truth in that.

Oh, and Stillkit could have been talking about Las Vegas just as well, if not more so.

[blue182]

California Dreaming was listening to the Beach Boys on a cold and snowy day in Colorado. Now that I've been in California over 20 years California Dreaming is listening to John Denver singing 'Rocky Mountain High' when there is a smog alert.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by ehcsrop

I wish I was paying close attention to the life I was living as a teen in SoCal. I had to see the movie "American Graffiti" to fully appreciate that I lived in a "dream" world and never thought about it.

Which took place in Petaluma, which is in Northern California....

But that brings up that prior to the early '90s SoCal and NorCal were economically equal. The early 90s recession seemed to be the determining factor in the subsequent economic dominance of NorCal and economic decline of SoCal.

Life's been pretty rough since '91 with a couple of fat years around '05.

The late '90s were a pretty pleasant time in L.A. - the world economic boom had finally hit SoCal and the real estate bubble hadn't occurred yet. OTOH, 2005 was a crappy year, just not as crappy as the years since. Every year of the 21st century has been progressively worse (although even now CA, including SoCal, has good aspects).

The rest does not match anything I knew before '91 except one period when interest was way up in the double digits. Those years sucked too.

The Reagan Recession was almost as bad as the current one, but in that recession California played the role of Texas in the current recession. We were less affected than other states.

And we did have our share of problems - see a post I did in the Nostalgia thread quoting a nostalgia blog about how L.A. got progressively worse as the '70s progressed, and people were complaining about most of the exact same problems in the late '70s as today (except for instead of blaming Latinos they were blaming African-Americans). Admittedly said problems were less severe than they got later.

My college English professor claimed the crisis we now know as society began the day Kennedy was assassinated. When one looks back, there's a lotta truth in that.

There is truth in it, if you want to be more California-specific the Manson murders probably singled the beginning of the end of the golden years.That's what put the fear into people big time. Later on, Prop 13, crack and AIDS in the '80s were major factors in the decline of California's greatness