California: South versus North versus North North

        As a resident growing up in "Southern California", that is by Carey McWilliams' definition in Southern California Country: An Island on the Land, by living south of the Tehachapi Mountains, I noticed that northern transplants always mentioned that they were from "NorCal", which quite obviously is Northern California.  But as geography will tell you the absolute center of California lies near the small city of North Fork in Madera County. For those unfamiliar where The County of Madera is located its really north of LA and almost next to Sacramento and east of San Francisco. So if the exact center of California is in a region that is far away from Los Angeles and a seemingly endless commute up the 5 freeway from San Diego how in the world can nearby San Francisco or residents of Sacramento claim to be be Northern Californians?

Wikipedia

         I was recently invited to take a visit to Berkeley's J School so that I could get a feel for the environment and understand what I would be committing to when I accepted their offer to attend the school for my master's degree. And in a few conversations with folks from outside the state it was difficult to dispel their understanding of Northern California after people from the Bay Area labeled themselves as living in NorCal. But as I pointed out if one was to drive north from the Bay Area there is hours upon hours of California driving before hitting the Oregon border. Humboldt County, Mt. Shasta and the Modoc Mountains are the true and absolute Northern California, a Northern Northern California if you will. In a recent road trip to Northern Northern California I basked in the beautiful scenery and walked in the footprints of California legends like Captain Jack in the Modoc's last fight.

Photo by Eriverto Vargas

     I also mentioned that folks in the great northern boundary near Oregon have long ago had their patience grow thin with the pretentiousness that they feel comes from Middle and Southern Californians when it comes to claiming the state.
     We must look at the area that is sometimes referred to as Jefferson and understand the necessity to include the water rich and mostly rural ranching areas of the north. California is said to be divided by geography and culture that is played out in the media as north versus south. The geography of the Golden State split is easier to define by not using a map per say but by asking where the masses of San Francisco Giants supporters ends and where the ocean of Dodger Blue begins.
      By questioning where the borders of the cultural differences start and stop in the nation's greatest state I am asking where do we draw the line? Where can we say definitively that this is Northern California. Santa Barbara is slightly south of San Luis Obispo and SLO is just a jump from Monterey and so on. Folks from the Bay can and should utilize the Bay Area as a representation of their hometown, but it does not qualify them to absorb the northern pristine qualities and timelessness of North North. The following image is a map provided by the State Parks and Recreation agency. Their map shows where the strongest concentration of redwoods begins and as you may notice, San Jose, Palo Alto and Walnut Creek are not located on this map. The first point that is shown here of the northern redwoods is Admiral William Stanley State Recreation 

CA Department of Parks and Recreation

Area located in Westport. The city of Westport, California is located in Mendocino County the bottom third piece of the infamous Emerald Triangle world renown for its harvested crops. 

     So by using the region where the highest concentration of California's Redwoods begins and ends within our borders we can establish that this is Northern California. From Sonoma County to El Dorado County, where California's elbow is, should be just about where Northern and Middle California meet. This should not be confused with the Central Valley, that reaches from Sacramento to to the Tehachapi Mountains. So to give proper credence and respect to the north we should practice proper geographic prefixes when referring to the beautiful part of California that we come from.

The Octopus People of California

During the Progressive Era in California, the time surrounding 1900ish -1920ish, reformers from around the country were standing up to state governments that had a hold on local power. No state in the union was as corrupt and in need of reform than California in the 1860's when Leland Stanford was the Governor of California and the Big Four were consuming land via government sanctioned eminent domain laws for their precious rail road industry. The tyrannical rule of Governor and then Senator Stanford lasted for decades until a lawyer from San Francisco, Hiram Johnson and a doctor from Los Angeles development a period style political action committee to end the far reaching tentacles of what author Frank Norris called The Octopus.                                                                
                                                                              G. Frederick Keller The Wasp  1882
In 1910 Hiram Johnson and Dr. William Randolph Haynes worked to inform the people of the candidates who were not in one of the eight clutches of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Luckily those candidates running as Progressives made an impact on the state government and indicated the following three tools for democracy. The initiative, the referendum and the recall. The referendum, which offers veto power to the people and the recall which allows the removal of judges and representatives were key tools for the California in 1910 as they are in 2014.

But the initiative process is an amazing thing. On the city and local level the initiative is a great tool for making happen what local council members and mayors may be to afraid or unable to do. But in California the state wide initiative system completely undermines the capabilities of the state legislature and creates pipe dream  laws with no existing sources of funding. We may be progressives at heart but we as a Californians do not have the tools to disect or time to read about the small print and invented pork that private citizens and state officials feed themselves when they misconceive the people. In its own ironic state after passing the great reforms to help end the reign of the railroads, the initiative is used to build the state's biggest railroad, the high speed rail which was passed by the people in 2010 on the 100 year anniversary. In our own way we have become the Octopus People using direct democracy to budget at the ballot box and avoid the utilizing the people we already pay to do the job.

It is too easy for an initiative to get passed with the states initiative industrial complex and the mistrust of govenrment that is embedded in every Californian's DNA. Scholars at USC's Initiative & Referendum Institute  have issued reports saying that in the big picture all the money we spend on elections or have missed on because of initiatives like Prop 13 have not had a completely detrimental effect on the state's economy in the periods that the studies observed. But I and others question if the initiative system as is stands today is worth all the negative amplitudes that it creates.

In order for the state to function more constitutionally, shouldn't initiatives and constitutional changes be scrutinized as federal amendments and need a ratification process from a majority or 2/3s of the states 58 counties? We pass initiatives by playing on fear like the Bush administration did with its colored alert sysyetm. We lie to ourselves then rob existing state funded programs set out by an elected legislature to do things like make sure chickens can open their wings while the toiling in their death cages.

I feel that with an upcoming election Californians should look to their ballot and find those who will work on the constituents behalf not an industry posing as a organization to help make our lives better by selling their case to the low percentage of voters in the state. No one has explained this better that former legislator John Burton.

gabriel j sanchez
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A 2018 Prediction, Year of the Lady Part 2 in California?

Kamala Harris

Condoleezza Rice

With the excitement of possibly having our first female president after having our first African -American president, I look to the future of California and other states after the major presidential election of 2016. As an astute observer of California politics I am interested into looking at who may be staging themselves for the 4 year campaign after what looks to be a Jerry Brown victory in 2014.

Without a doubt the top contender for the future vacant gubernatorial position will be our current California Attorney General Kamala Harris. She is currently in the role previously occupied by the current governor and no other statewide figure is as visual and respected as Kamala Harris. I concede that their are many qualified potential candidates on the Democrat side like the new Los Angeles Mayor or even the party's leader the unpredictable John Burton. Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom is very qualified and well known but sits in a political deadzone that may however, allow him to run for a future US Senate seat. But no other member of the Democratic organization is as trustworthy as the state's top cop, nor does any other Democrat have the national exposure that Attorney General Harris has.

But to other side, which Republican can match up to all the qualifications and experience needed to be seen as gubernatorial? Well I think we should look at the dynamic of Kamala Harris a little more to compare. She is a woman of a mixed race marriage, a new dynamic to the state's top office and but she posses the features that are more representative of the state compared to every governor before beside Romualdo Pacheco.

Well the Republicans just might have a candidate that is no secret and in fact she was considered for the position prior to September 11, 2001. Former National Security Advisor to the President and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is a bit of a phenotypic replica of Harris and is well established in California and with the national party. The Stanford University professor and former White House official could actually make a race out of 2018 by using the national party resources like Karl Rove and mobilize a campaign that could generate interest in the race.

Imagine how impactful to the young ladies of California and states around the nation to have a female President and then two extremely qualified women of color running for the country's most important gubernatorial post. 2016 could possibly be Hillary's year, but 2018 in California and around the nation will be the sequel to the 1992 smash hit, The Year of the Woman.

gabriel j sanchez
All In 58