The left coast in the news

[Legion]

California’s population fell by nearly one-half of a percentage point last year, its first decline in at least 120 years, according to data released Friday.

The nation’s most populous state lost 182,083 people during 2020, the California Department of Finance said.

The drop comes as California’s population growth had already plateaued before the pandemic, due to a years-long decline in the birthrate and rising migration to other states.

More people have left California for other states than the opposite for all but two of the last 30 years and beginning in 2018, net domestic out-migration outpaced net international migration.

California, which was the epicenter of the nation’s surge in Covid-19 cases for much of the winter, experienced a 19% increase in the average death rate last year, according to the finance department.

A report released in March by the California Policy Lab, a research group affiliated with the University of California, found that the state lost 139,000 net residents in the fourth quarter of 2020 due to migration to other states, an unusually high number. A growing number of people also left the San Francisco Gay Area for other parts of the state.


https://www.wsj.com/articles/california-population-declines-for-first-time-in-more-than-a-century

[NiftyNiblick]

One year of population decline in 120 years is considered a trend these days?

[Legion]

One year of population decline in 120 years is considered a trend these days?

"The drop comes as California’s population growth had already plateaued before the pandemic, due to a years-long decline in the birthrate and rising migration to other states.

More people have left California for other states than the opposite for all but two of the last 30 years and beginning in 2018, net domestic out-migration outpaced net international migration."

[NiftyNiblick]

As an independent nation, California would be one of the biggest economies on the planet.

[Legion]

California has "the highest poverty rate in the nation" when considering the U.S. Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure.



https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2017/jan/20/chad-mayes/true-california-has-nations-highest-poverty-rate-w/

[Legion]

Bad news for California. The water content in the Sierra snowpack is far below average -- and that could mean water shortages and increased fire danger.




https://weather.com/storms/winter/video/california-facing-water-shortage-woeful-snowpack-starts-dry-season

[Legion]

Green Dot joins corporate exodus from California as fintech firm moves to Austin




https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/07/leaving-california-for-texas-green-dot-moves-headquarters-to-austin.html

[Legion]

California critics say the state is losing its grip on tech thanks to high housing costs, poor governance, and a hostile climate of wildfires and drought.

Whether it was high taxes, political disenchantment, rising crime rates or the devastating wildfires that arrived earlier than normal and produced toxic air across wide swaths of the West Coast, California residents found many reasons to seek refuge elsewhere.

tate income taxes are the highest in the country. Regulations are stifling. Red tape is everywhere. Living costs are crazy.



https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/06/california-tech-boom-got-it-through-covid-crisis-flight-risk-is-real.html

[Legion]

California Wildfire Season Already Off to a Fast Start

https://weather.com/news/news/2021-05-06-california-wildfire-season-off-to-a-fast-start

[Legion]

Public Health Crisis Looms as California Identifies 600 Communities at Risk of Water-System Failures

https://therevelator.org/california-water-assessment/

[Legion]

California rice growers worry about ripple effect

California’s drought is impacting more than how you water your lawn, but also the way your food is grown on hundreds of thousands of acres in the Sacramento Valley.

Growing rice is a multi-billion dollar industry that supports 25,00 jobs.

This year, a third of normal rainfall combined with hot weather and drying winds mean “most of California is going to have little or no water from surface supplies,” said David Guy with the Northern California Water Association.



https://ktvz.com/news/national-world/2021/05/07/california-rice-growers-worry-about-ripple-effect/

[Legion]

Politics is rife with examples of the syndrome, such as what happened when Southern California began to see portions of its film industry gravitate to other states and nations with lower production costs. Rather than adjusting operations to remain competitive, the industry successfully pressured state officials for subsidies from taxpayers.Currently, there are two other noteworthy examples of offloading civic embarrassments.

The first hot mess is the Queen Mary, a 1930s-vintage ocean liner that the City of Long Beach, flush with money from its oil-producing tidelands, foolishly purchased 54 years ago. Local officials thought the ship would become a floating hotel, museum and the catalyst for repositioning Long Beach as a tourist destination, but it never happened.

Over the years, multiple corporate lessees, including the Disney organization, failed to make the Queen Mary profitable. When Disney pulled out in 1992 after abandoning the notion of a “Port Disney” amusement park, Long Beach’s mayor at the time, Ernie Kell, called the ship a “tombstone in a cemetery no one wants to visit.”

Meanwhile, the Queen Mary didn’t get the expensive maintenance such a huge machine requires. In 2017, a consultant estimated that the ship needed nearly $300 million in rehabilitation. The city responded with $23 million but how the money was spent is the subject of much fingerpointing. The last operator, an outfit called Eagle Hospitality Trust, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January.

So what now?

The Long Beach City Council has tentatively decided that rather than cutting its losses and selling Queen Mary for scrap, it will shift ownership to the city-owned Port of Long Beach, the nation’s second busiest container port.

The move is drawing sharp opposition from the shipping lines that use the Long Beach port, fearing, with good cause, that funds needed to keep the port competitive will, instead, be dumped into the bottomless pit of keeping the Queen Mary afloat.

The Queen Mary sits at the southern end of the Long Beach Freeway which on paper connects Long Beach to Pasadena, 32 miles to the north — but only on paper, because the last few miles on the northern end were never built, and that’s the other civic fiasco.

In the 1950s, state highway officials began purchasing right-of-way, mostly houses in the small city of South Pasadena, to complete the freeway. However, local opposition stalled construction and eventually, after decades of political wrangling, the project was abandoned.

That left the Department of Transportation as the landlord for mostly low-income residents of the houses it had purchased, many of them, like the Queen Mary, lacking maintenance. Politicking over the fate of those houses has raged ever since.



https://www.ocregister.com/2021/05/05/offloading-two-of-californias-civic-embarrassments/

[Legion]

State officials are warning that this year could be the worst wildfire season California has ever seen after a dry winter and spring.

Homeowners were also urged to make evacuation plans before a fire, and prepare in the event that utility companies turn off electricity.

When the temperatures and winds kick up, and humidity drops, people should also consider parking outside of their garages to make it easier to evacuate.












https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2021/05/07/california-wildfire-activity-up-700-percent-authorities-urge-homeowners-prepare-homes-evacuation-plans/

[T. A. Gardner]

One year of population decline in 120 years is considered a trend these days?

California's population has shifted dramatically in the last few decades. The middle class is moving out and you are getting a rich upper class and the poor there.

http://calgone.com/#:~:text=53%25%20...%20made%20here.

‘Not the Golden State anymore’: Middle- and low-income people leaving California

https://calmatters.org/california-di...ng-california/

Who’s really leaving California, and why does that matter?

https://archive.curbed.com/2019/10/2...ass-affordable

[Legion]

California's population has shifted dramatically in the last few decades. The middle class is moving out and you are getting a rich upper class and the poor there.

Hasn't California led the nation in poverty, homelessness, dependence on government assistance, and income inequality for years?