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Again, the biggest split in California isn't North/South, but rather between the Coast and Inland areas. In fact, in the last year, a few assemblymen have proposed splitting California along East/West lines rather than North/South
Southern California (along the 35'46 N line with Inyo and Mono Counties for Eastern Sierras)
Population: 23,418,460
Area: ~70,000 square miles (current counties of Inyo, Mono, San Luis Obispo, Kern, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Riverside, Imperial, Orange, and San Diego)
Economic Size: ~$1.1 trillion (per capita: $49,612)
Northern California
Population: 14,874,227
Area: 93,000 square miles (remainder of California)
Economic Size: ~$700 billion (per capita: $47,061)
Economically, this split would be fair because Northern and Southern California would still remain top 5 economies and top 5 states by population in the US. (SoCal would be 2nd, NorCal would be 5th)
OR an East-West Split
Coastal California (minus Orange and San Diego Counties)
Population: ~18,600,000
Area: ~30,000 square miles
Economic Size: $1.2 trillion (per capita: $64,516)
Inland California
Population: ~19,400,000
Area: ~133,000 square miles
Economic Size: $600 billion (per capita: $35,905)
Inland California would be an EXTREMELY poor state, but reliably conservative! While the latter would be growing more in population, it wouldn't be getting as rich as Coastal California.
Inland CA would be ranked 3rd in population, but be ranked 6th in gross state product, while Coastal California would be 4th in population but 1st in gross state product (fighting it out with Texas).
Personally, I would choose Coastal Southern California since its been my home for most of my life (since I AM from LA). Here's how I would rank it:
1) Coastal Southern California
2) Coastal Northern California
3) Inland Northern California
4) Inland Southern California
This is an excellent post.
I agree that its not really Northern and Southern anymore as much as it is Coastal and Inland...definitely.
It really depends on where you're talking about. People are used to speaking in extremes, but not in the middle cases. I don't think most people would disagree with me that the Santa Clara Valley (where San Jose is) and the San Fernando Valley (or 1/3 the land area of the city of LA) look all too much different. Interestingly enough, both valleys have a place named "Burbank"
Which one is which? You tell me (right click to find out, hah!)
Speaking on the extremes, NorCal doesn't have the desert (although some will claim that the Central Valley is close, despite the fact that most of the Central Valley north of Fresno county gets more than 10 inches of rain/year) while SoCal doesn't have the dense, Redwood forests.
Generally speaking, the further north you are along the coast, the more rain there is. More rain = more plant life. Inland, it gets more confusing because the further east you are, the less rain there is. Here's a fun rainfall map to consider:
Again, this is speaking in generalities as the Inland portions of California differ more greatly than the Coastal portions of California.
Most people would think this in NorCal:
While this is in SoCal:
However, the former image was of Big Bear (in the San Bernardino Mountains, which is in SoCal) while the latter is of the Modoc Plateau which is in far Northeastern California.
In short, there is nothing "inherently" Californian but In-n-Out.
If one compares the Bay area with the LA+OC area, I think Northern California wins for jobs and urban living options, while Southern California wins for shopping, beach, museums and entertainment. LA has the best skyline in California (Sorry SF you are dense but not that impressive as a tall skyline) and SF has the best integrated scenery. Southern California wins for sports.
California all in all is spectacular, has almost everything and it is *the* American dream for many outsiders of US, especially people from Asia. I hope the government would step up and fix the deficit soon and make this great state shine even more. I just can't figure out how California can be bankrupt considering it has everything from algriculture to tourism, from silicon valley to hollywood and it also has some of the highest taxes in US. I really hope the government would do its job. Right now it has the tax of Europe and the welfare of Asia. It is my favorite place and I hope it will be better.
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