tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/california-dream-39642/articlesCalifornia Dream – The Conversation2018-07-11T11:13:22Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/869832018-07-11T11:13:22Z2018-07-11T11:13:22ZSilicon Valley, from ‘heart’s delight’ to toxic wasteland<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221590/original/file-20180604-175451-enx1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Once lauded for their vision and promise, Silicon Valley giants have made life so hard for locals that residents regularly protest the companies, including their amenities like charter buses to save workers from the region's terrible traffic.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/San-Francisco-Tech-Bus-Protest/e1a36cfdc907429890f81e24bdb1f53a/1/0">AP Photo/Richard Jacobsen</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There was a time when California’s Santa Clara Valley, bucolic home to orchards and vineyards, was known as “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_Valley#The_Valley_of_Heart's_Delight">the valley of heart’s delight</a>.” The same area was later dubbed “Silicon Valley,” shorthand for the high-tech combination of creativity, capital and California cool. However, a <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/has-the-silicon-valley-hype-cycle-finally-run-its-course">backlash</a> is now well <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/22/tech-year-in-review-2017">underway</a> – even from the loyal <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/the-honeymoon-is-over-in-silicon-valley-facebook-google-twitter/">gadget-reviewing press</a>. Silicon Valley increasingly conjures something very different: exploitation, excess, and <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=1432">elitist detachment</a>. </p>
<p>Today there are <a href="https://ofmpub.epa.gov/apex/cimc/f?p=CIMC:LIST:18425648058001:::35:P35_STREET,P35_BF_ASSESS_IND,P35_BF_ASSESS_PILOT_IND,P35_BF_CLEANUP_IND,P35_BF_RLF_IND,P35_BF_RLF_PILOT_IND,P35_BF_128A_IND,P35_BF_TBA_IND,P35_FF_BRAC_IND,P35_FF_RCRA_IND,P35_FF_SF_IND,P35_RCRA_CURRENT_IND,P35_RCRA_REMEDY_SEL_IND,P35_RCRA_CONSTR_COMPLT_IND,P35_RCRA_REMEDY_COMPLT_IND,P35_RCRA_REMEDY_NYS_IND,P35_SF_NPL_CODE,P35_SF_NPL_CODE_F,P35_SF_NPL_CODE_D,P35_STIMULUS_SF_IND,P35_STIMULUS_BF_IND,P35_BF_MULTIPURPOSE_IND,P35_BF_AWP_IND,P35_FD1,P35_FD2,P35_FD3,P35_FD4,P35_State_code,P35_county_name,P35_BASIC_QUERY:,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,P,F,,,,,,,,,,California,Santa%20Clara,(SF_NPL_CODE=%27P%27)OR(SF_NPL_CODE_F=%27F%27)">23 active Superfund toxic waste cleanup sites</a> in Santa Clara County, California. <a href="https://blog.valerieaurora.org/2018/01/17/getting-free-of-toxic-tech-culture/">Its culture is equally unhealthy</a>: Think of the <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/10/the-secret-about-gamergate-is-that-it-cant-stop-progress/">Gamergate misogynist harassment campaigns</a>, the entitled “<a href="https://qz.com/622452/tech-bros-and-their-sense-of-entitlement-will-be-silicon-valleys-undoing/">tech bros</a>” and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-google-gender-manifesto-really-says-about-silicon-valley-82236">rampant sexism and racism</a> in Silicon Valley firms. These same companies demean the online public with <a href="https://theconversation.com/big-data-security-problems-threaten-consumers-privacy-54798">privacy breaches</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-cambridge-analyticas-facebook-targeting-model-really-worked-according-to-the-person-who-built-it-94078">unauthorized</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/understanding-facebooks-data-crisis-5-essential-reads-94066">sharing</a> of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/04/technology/facebook-device-partnerships-criticized.html">users’ data</a>. Thanks to the companies’ influences, it’s <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tech-workers-cant-afford-silicon-valley-housing-prices-2018-2">extremely expensive to live in the area</a>. And transportation is so clogged that there are <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42738709">special buses bringing tech-sector workers</a> to and from their jobs. Some critics even perceive <a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-is-killing-democracy-with-its-personality-profiling-data-93611">threats</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-will-google-defend-democracy-96838">democracy</a> itself. </p>
<p>In a word, Silicon Valley has become toxic.</p>
<p>Silicon Valley’s rise is well documented, but the backlash against its distinctive culture and unscrupulous corporations hints at an imminent twist in its fate. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pLxPBeQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">historians of technology</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BQE9RXgAAAAJ&hl=en">and industry</a>, we find it helpful to step back from the breathless champions and critics of Silicon Valley and think about the long term. The rise and fall of another American economic powerhouse – Detroit – can help explain how regional reputations change over time.</p>
<h2>The rise and fall of Detroit</h2>
<p>The city of Detroit became a famous node of industrial capitalism thanks to the pioneers of the automotive age. Men such as Henry Ford, Horace and John Dodge, and William Durant cultivated Detroit’s image as a center of technical novelty in the early 20th century. </p>
<p>The very name “Detroit” soon became a metonym for the industrial might of the American automotive industry and the <a href="https://www.history.com/how-detroit-won-world-war-ii">source of American military power</a>. General Motors President Charles E. Wilson’s remark, “<a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2016/04/when-a-quote-is-not-exactly-a-quote-general-motors/">For years I thought what was good for our country</a> was good for General Motors, and vice versa,” was an arrogant but accurate account of Detroit’s place at the heart of American prosperity and global leadership.</p>
<p>The public’s view changed after the 1950s. The auto industry’s leading firms slid into bloated bureaucratic rigidity and <a href="http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Race/R_Overview/R_Overview4.htm">lost ground to foreign competitors</a>. By the 1980s, Detroit was the image of blown-out, depopulated <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098213/">post-industrialism</a>. </p>
<p>In retrospect – and perhaps as a cautionary tale for Silicon Valley – the moral decline of Detroit’s elite was evident long before its <a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/6/12/the-psychology-of-decline">economic decline</a>. Henry Ford became famous in the pre-war era for the cars and trucks that carried his name, but he was also an <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/henryford-antisemitism/">anti-Semite, proto-fascist and notorious enemy of organized labor</a>. Detroit also was the source of defective and deadly products that Ralph Nader criticized in 1965 as “<a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/unsafe-at-any-speed-hits-bookstores">unsafe at any speed</a>.” Residents of the region now <a href="https://theconversation.com/detroits-recovery-the-glass-is-half-full-at-most-69752">bear the costs of its amoral industrial past</a>, beset with high unemployment and <a href="https://theconversation.com/piping-as-poison-the-flint-water-crisis-and-americas-toxic-infrastructure-53473">poisonous drinking water</a>.</p>
<h2>A new chapter for Silicon Valley</h2>
<p>If the story of Detroit can be simplified as industrial prowess and national prestige, followed by moral and economic decay, what does that say about Silicon Valley? The term “<a href="http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/who-named-silicon-valley/">Silicon Valley</a>” first appeared in print in the early 1970s and gained widespread use throughout the decade. It combined both place and activity. The Santa Clara Valley, a relatively small area south of the San Francisco Bay, home to San Jose and a few other small cities, was the base for a computing revolution based on <a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-silicon-the-search-for-new-semiconductors-55795">silicon chips</a>. Companies and workers flocked to the Bay Area, seeking a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-silicon-valley-industry-polluted-the-sylvan-california-dream-85810">pleasant climate, beautiful surroundings and affordable land</a>.</p>
<p>By the 1980s, venture capitalists and <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/making-silicon-valley">companies</a> in the Valley had mastered the silicon arts and were getting filthy, stinking rich. This was when “Silicon Valley” became shorthand for an <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=654">industrial cluster</a> where universities, entrepreneurs and capital markets fueled technology-based economic development. <a href="https://archive.org/details/valleyofheartsde00malo">Journalists fawned</a> over successful companies like Intel, Cisco and Google, and analysts filled shelves with books and reports about how other regions could become the “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/7859.html">next Silicon Valley</a>.” </p>
<p>Many concluded that its culture set it apart. Boosters and publications like Wired magazine celebrated the combination of the <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo3773600.html">Bay Area hippie legacy</a> with the <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/cyberselfish-a-critical-romp-through-the-terribly-libertarian-culture-of-high-tech/oclc/898998860">libertarian individualism</a> embodied by the late Grateful Dead lyricist <a href="https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence">John Perry Barlow</a>. The libertarian myth masked some crucial elements of Silicon Valley’s success – especially <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-cold-war-and-american-science/9780231522205">public funds</a> dispersed through the U.S. Defense Department and Stanford University.</p>
<p>In retrospect, perhaps that ever-expanding gap between Californian dreams and American realities led to the undoing of Silicon Valley. Its detachment from the lives and concerns of ordinary Americans can be seen today in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/business/elon-musk-tesla-twitter-media.html">unhinged Twitter rants</a> of automaker Elon Musk, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/fashion/peter-thiel-donald-trump-silicon-valley-technology-gawker.html">extreme politics of PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel</a>, and the <a href="https://www.wired.com/2008/03/ff-kurzweil/">fatuous dreams of immortality</a> of Google’s vitamin-popping director of engineering, Ray Kurzweil. Silicon Valley’s moral decline has never been clearer, and it now struggles to survive the toxic mess it has created.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86983/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Big technology firms are becoming known for mistreating workers, customers and society as a whole. Is an economic powerhouse about to collapse like Detroit did years go?Andrew L. Russell, Dean, College of Arts & Sciences; Professor of History, SUNY Polytechnic InstituteLee Vinsel, Assistant Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Virginia TechLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/932462018-03-14T10:53:44Z2018-03-14T10:53:44ZOnce at the vanguard of national policy, California plays defense under Trump<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210160/original/file-20180313-30958-nr80yb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A San Diego rally against a scheduled visit by President Donald Trump.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Gregory Bull</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On March 13, President Donald Trump inspected towering border wall prototypes at the U.S.-Mexico border during the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-lb-789-42070-la-me-ln-president-trump-california-20180312-htmlstory.html">two-day trip</a> to California – his first to the Golden State since the November 2016 election.</p>
<p>Surely he did not expect a warm welcome. Not only did Trump lose the state by more than <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Presidential_election_in_California,_2016">4 million votes</a>, but his trip <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/06/trump-california-sanctuary-laws-443835">comes hard on the heels</a> of a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department against the state of California in federal court to strike down legislative initiatives to protect immigrants and block their enforcement.</p>
<p>It was Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, who offered a very public rebuttal to Washington’s move. Unfurling the Constitution’s 10th Amendment, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-s-justice-department-sues-california-over-immigration-enforcement-n854331">he asserted that</a> the states, not federal officials, are the final authority on public safety.</p>
<p>“We believe we are in full compliance with the federal constitution and federal law,” Becerra said.</p>
<p>This is the latest evidence that Becerra is the Golden State’s face of resistance to the Trump administration’s policies – especially its attempts <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-california-20180122-story.html">to roll back</a> progressive immigration and environmental policies that are central to California’s identity.</p>
<p>Becerra is mounting a rearguard action because he has little choice. Even so, his defensive posture runs counter to the no-holds-barred approach that defined California’s post-World War II drive for economic growth and social justice.</p>
<h2>Challenging Trump</h2>
<p>Becerra is the hardworking <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/about">son of immigrants</a> and the first in his family to go to college. He finished law school in 1984, was elected to the state assembly, and then served in the state’s Department of Justice before winning an impressive 12 terms to the U.S. House of Representatives.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">California’s first Latino attorney general, Xavier Becerra, has taken a defiant – and, by necessity, a defensive – tone vis a vis Washington.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His personal story is etched into his staunch advocacy for the poor and marginalized – a stark contrast to the president’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/03/03/trumps-false-claim-he-built-his-empire-with-a-small-loan-from-his-father/">silver-spoon background</a>. It is no wonder Gov. Jerry Brown tapped Becerra to replace newly elected Sen. Kamala Harris as attorney general in January 2017. Becerra became the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-xavier-becerra-takes-oath-of-office-is-1485281551-htmlstory.html">first Latino</a> to hold this office in California.</p>
<p>Becerra’s tough-minded approach to his latest job has made him a frequent and forceful critic of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. He has also championed a kind of states-rights environmentalism by attacking the administration’s attempts to <a href="https://calmatters.org/articles/trump_california/california-sues-feds-failure-enforce-clean-air-act/">gut clean air</a> <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-files-lawsuit-protect-clean-water-rule">and water regulations</a>, destroy California’s <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-responds-trump-administration-beginning-process">green energy economy</a>, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-california-monuments-20170608-story.html">and undercut protections</a> for national forests, parks, grasslands and refuges. </p>
<p>Becerra’s relentlessness earned him <a href="https://grist.org/article/xavier-becerra-california-donald-trump-nemesis/">praise from the environmental magazine Grist</a> as “The Planet’s Lawyer.” </p>
<h2>California’s cultural clout</h2>
<p>Becerra’s defensive strategy is born from what <a href="https://www.amazon.com/California-History-Modern-Library-Chronicles/dp/081297753X">historian Kevin Starr</a> argued in his magisterial study of California is the state’s particular genius: It is the “best place in the nation to seek and attain a better life.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Sequoia National Monument is one of the national monuments the Trump administration has put under review, which the state is fighting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/33671002@N00/4242556683/in/photolist-8zp1C-8zp6T-kCzNG-kCzUp-8zu7E-kCBsW-4PoE6-a8Bwkp-kCAH6-8zoW3-8zoPh-8zoUM-8zpb4-8zoRK-8zp8Z-8zoXk-xDNTRb-xWq8FB-eNccXN-rGmUoE-8zp4v-8zu3j-8zoLn-8zu1L-qUFJSx-7sUcuD-7sUdi2-8zoQj-8zpdZ-8zoMw-8zp36-7sUe4r-7sYdYS-tXhkRS-rGsRqM-stfEzU-MMwHU3-Mvwzv3-MUyDLS-MvwFcU-MQb96n-uLJGLP-uJ9CTU-qCq1Dr-kCBg5-kCzG2-wZpiBu-xX5o4K-xDUVPt-722ChY">David Prasad/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fueled by a generous stream of tax dollars, in the 1960s and 1970s the state’s educational systems <a href="https://www.economist.com/node/21560290">became the envy</a> of the world. Its high-speed highways, highly engineered water systems, agricultural productivity, artistic energy and technological creativity inspired visitors from near and far. </p>
<p>Today, its many benefits are broadly accessible: Beaches are public, parks and open spaces plentiful. Higher education is relatively cheap. Here, democracy has flourished, or at least it could do so. Where it has not, people fought to ensure that it would.</p>
<p>Since the mid-20th century, for example, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-farm-mechanization/">thousands of migrant</a> farm workers in the Central, Salinas and Imperial valleys have picked cotton, harvested fruits, nuts and produce. They have endured oppressive conditions for decades, but when they formed the United Farm Workers of America in the early 1960s and launched the first nationwide grape boycott, they gained an important measure of control over their lives. </p>
<p>So have Native Americans, African-Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, women and people in the LGBTQ community. Although their struggle to secure increased rights and opportunities did not always originate in California, and although there were setbacks <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_187,_Illegal_Aliens_Ineligible_for_Public_Benefits_(1994)">along the way</a>, their arguments gained greater political visibility, social currency, and cultural clout when manifest on the coast. The state, as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Dreams-California-Abundance-1950-1963/dp/0199832498/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">Kevin Starr once asserted</a>, nurtured everyone’s golden dreams.</p>
<h2>Setting pace on public health</h2>
<p>Even those who dreamed of blue skies. It has also taken decades to scrub the state’s polluted air, as grassroots activists, educators, scientists and some public officials fought long and hard against entrenched opposition in the state capital, among Detroit automakers and within the federal government. But eventually they <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Smogtown-Lung-Burning-History-Pollution-Angeles/dp/1585678600">succeeded in securing</a> what now are the nation’s toughest environmental controls.</p>
<p>It is not by happenstance that the air-monitoring EPA owes its existence to a Californian – <a href="https://www.epa.gov/history">President Richard Nixon</a> signed it into law December 1970. Or that the Clean Air Acts grants California the right to <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-responds-epa-statement-california-emission-standards">institute stricter smog controls</a> than the federal government requires of the rest of the nation.</p>
<p>For all its progress in ameliorating pressing racial, political, social and environmental problems, California today finds itself in a conundrum. To continue to advance what Becerra’s <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-responds-epa-statement-california-emission-standards">characterizes</a> as the state’s “forward-leaning” mission, it must vigorously defend its past achievements. But the vigor of that defense may complicate its ability to plan for and invest in a future that expands on California’s democratic promise.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article <a href="https://theconversation.com/once-at-the-vanguard-of-national-policy-california-plays-defense-under-trump-78301">originally published</a> on June 17, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93246/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Char Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Defiant against Trump’s policies on immigration and environment, California finds itself defending its way of life – the California Dream itself.Char Miller, W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis, Pomona CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/785842018-03-01T11:40:25Z2018-03-01T11:40:25ZThe history of the Hollywood sign, from public nuisance to symbol of stardom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193652/original/file-20171107-6715-th4feu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-ENT-CA-USA-APHS462573-Hollywood-Sign-1978/b589ca73c117473e81f68ba24b895319/81/0">George Brich/AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year at the Oscars, the cameras pan to the famed Hollywood sign and its bold white letters.</p>
<p>Ask someone today what the sign symbolizes, and the same words will likely crop up: <em>Movies. Stardom. Glamour.</em></p>
<p>But as I point in <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=eEnLlfsGfGkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=hollywood+sign+leo+braudy&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjLkpmk7b_ZAhUFR6wKHR0pCq8Q6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">my book on the Hollywood sign</a>, the sign didn’t always represent fame and fortune. As the city changed, so did the meaning of the sign, which, at one point, was even considered a public nuisance. </p>
<h2>Come to … Hollywoodland?</h2>
<p>California has long possessed the lure of material and personal fulfillment.</p>
<p>What started as a destination for those hoping to strike gold became, in the late 19th century, a mecca for anyone with real or imagined ailments. The state’s temperate climate and natural springs, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zm5oBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=california+health+destination+19th+century&source=bl&ots=gFkRyLbfW1&sig=5hWBgDNks80_z2mnZvn7ITx1a-o&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjW0tesscnZAhUBMqwKHcnRANAQ6AEITzAF#v=onepage&q=california%20health%20destination%2019th%20century&f=false">guidebooks claimed</a>, possessed “restorative powers for weakened dispositions.” </p>
<p>The state’s gold has since been drained, and the quest for perfect health has spread to rest of the country. But the erection of the famed Hollywood sign in 1923 marked the start of another phase, one still with us today. </p>
<p>During that decade, a real estate development group, one of whose principal backers was Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler, built a large sign – essentially a billboard – on an unnamed mountain between the Los Angeles basin and the San Fernando Valley. </p>
<p>“Hollywoodland,” the sign read. Its 40,000 blinking light bulbs advertised a new housing development built to accommodate the city’s surging population, which <a href="http://www.laalmanac.com/population/po02.php">more than doubled</a> during the 1920s to become the fifth largest in the country, as the city drew people from all over the country for its weather, open spaces and jobs. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193665/original/file-20171107-6733-1pjbpw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193665/original/file-20171107-6733-1pjbpw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193665/original/file-20171107-6733-1pjbpw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193665/original/file-20171107-6733-1pjbpw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193665/original/file-20171107-6733-1pjbpw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193665/original/file-20171107-6733-1pjbpw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193665/original/file-20171107-6733-1pjbpw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193665/original/file-20171107-6733-1pjbpw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sweeping view of the Hollywoodland sign.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7561/15647647441_0d8d1d1bf0_z.jpg">Breve Storia del Cinema</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The city of Hollywood <a href="https://www.discoverlosangeles.com/blog/historical-timeline-los-angeles">had been absorbed</a> into Los Angeles only a decade earlier. At the time, it was a wealthy area that had grudgingly accepted the movie business. Many mansions dotted the hillsides below the sign, and utopian communities like <a href="https://la.curbed.com/2014/5/22/10099768/the-creation-of-beachwood-canyons-theosophist-dreamland-1">Krotona</a>, the U.S. headquarters of a mystical organization called the Theosophical Society, had sprung up in the foothills and on the flats. </p>
<p>Accordingly, early advertising for Hollywoodland emphasized the development’s exclusivity. It would offer an escape from the smog, dirt and unwelcome neighbors of downtown Los Angeles.</p>
<h2>Saving the sign</h2>
<p>Because the sign holds such a prominent place in the nation’s cultural imagination today, it may be surprising to learn that it wasn’t until fairly recently that it achieved its iconic status. </p>
<p>In the 1930s and 1940s, the sign makes an appearance in only a few of the movies that were about Hollywood or the movie industry. Other Hollywood institutions, like the <a href="http://brownderbyhollywood.com/about.html">Brown Derby restaurant</a>, tended to represent the film world.</p>
<p>In the 1940s, Los Angeles – as both city and symbol – started to change. A dense smog settled over the metropolis, which would be featured as the grim, shadowy setting of noir films like “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038355/?ref_=adv_li_tt">The Big Sleep</a>” and “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036775/?ref_=adv_li_tt">Double Indemnity</a>.” </p>
<p>The sign – a little dingier, a little more unslightly – reflected the changing city. Since it was originally intended as an advertisement, few had considered its permanence or long-term significance. </p>
<p>The hillside where it had been built was dangerously steep; workers had cut the letters from thin sheet metal, which they tacked onto telephone poles. Heavy winds could easily rip the letters away, and by the late 1940s, there had been so much deterioration that the city of Los Angeles proposed to tear it down, calling it a dangerous public nuisance. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193658/original/file-20171107-6733-1vd7y81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193658/original/file-20171107-6733-1vd7y81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193658/original/file-20171107-6733-1vd7y81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193658/original/file-20171107-6733-1vd7y81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193658/original/file-20171107-6733-1vd7y81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193658/original/file-20171107-6733-1vd7y81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193658/original/file-20171107-6733-1vd7y81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193658/original/file-20171107-6733-1vd7y81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">In this 1978 photograph, workers prepare to lower the last letter of the old Hollywood sign that had stood at the site since the 1920s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-ENT-CA-USA-APHS462574-Hollywood-Sign-1978/2e26f25fa66743fd8a31003e114c9703/78/0">Wally Fong/AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That dismissive view of the sign began to change in 1949, when the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hollywood-sign-sold-for-450k/">told the city that it would take over its ownership and maintenance</a>. With that exchange, the “land” suffix was dropped. We could say that this is the point that the Hollywood sign we know today was actually born.</p>
<p>However, improvements and maintenance occurred in fits and starts. By the early 1970s, committees were being formed to “save” the sign in order to restore it beyond shoddy paint jobs and patchwork repairs. </p>
<p>Finally, in 1978 a committee headed by Hugh Hefner and Alice Cooper collected the funds – about US$27,000 per letter – to not simply repair, <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/09/hugh-hefner-hollywood-sign">but rebuild the sign</a>.</p>
<p>Today the big white letters are a permanent fixture in the Los Angeles landscape, and it’s even withstood the attempts of adventurous vandals to emulate <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/01/us/hollywood-hollyweed-sign/index.html">the art student</a> who, in 1976, tweaked the sign to read “<a href="http://www.trbimg.com/img-58694e84/turbine/la-lnelson-1483296437-snap-photo">Hollyweed</a>.”</p>
<p>In their own way, these vandals are trying to carve out their own slice of the Hollywood dream – a quest not for gold or for health, but for recognition and fame, whether by talent, ambition or selfie. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193649/original/file-20171107-6753-vfsiqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193649/original/file-20171107-6753-vfsiqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193649/original/file-20171107-6753-vfsiqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193649/original/file-20171107-6753-vfsiqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193649/original/file-20171107-6753-vfsiqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193649/original/file-20171107-6753-vfsiqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193649/original/file-20171107-6753-vfsiqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193649/original/file-20171107-6753-vfsiqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Today the Hollywood sign stands strong.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Travel-Trip-Essentials-Los-Angeles/d63dea50b58648868944cb81ec01c5d4/167/0">Reed Saxon/AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78584/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leo Braudy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Only recently did it come to represent the dream of fame.Leo Braudy, Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Literature, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/902092018-02-14T11:40:02Z2018-02-14T11:40:02ZWhen the next generation looks racially different from the last, political tensions rise<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205336/original/file-20180207-74476-10pxs1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">California's 1994 fight over immigration parallels the present-day U.S.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Nick Ut</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The election of Donald Trump may have surprised some observers, but many Californians felt a sense of déjà vu. </p>
<p>Just over 20 years ago, the state passed Proposition 187. The campaign around this ballot initiative, later deemed unconstitutional, portrayed undocumented immigrants as criminal invaders and sought to ban them from using nonemergency public services, including even primary and secondary education. </p>
<p>The anti-immigrant sentiment occurred against a backdrop of wrenching economic change. Nearly half of the country’s net job losses in the early 1990s <a href="https://stateofresistancebook.com/">occurred in California</a>, with a decline in manufacturing as steep as what would later occur between 2007 and 2010 in auto-heavy (and Trump-sympathetic) Michigan.</p>
<p>In another eerie parallel to today, profiting from political polarization was the order of the day: Rush Limbaugh arrived on the national stage in the late 1980s after perfecting his style hosting a talk radio show in Sacramento.</p>
<p>This toxic trio of immigration concerns, economic shocks and political blood-letting may be more than enough to demonstrate the parallels between California in the 1990s and the U.S. today. But there’s another important indicator: the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-1229-frey-racial-generation-gap-20151229-story.html">“racial generation gap.”</a> This is a straightforward measure of the relationship between the share of seniors who are white and the share of youth who are of color. But its interplay with public will and public policy is complex and consequential.</p>
<h2>Understanding the gap</h2>
<p>The racial generation gap is technically measured as the difference between the percent of those 65 or older who are white, minus the percent of those aged 17 and younger who are white. The bigger the gap, the more demographically distinct the generations.</p>
<p>Such gaps can emerge for several reasons, including new immigrants having children and an <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/07/biggest-share-of-whites-in-u-s-are-boomers-but-for-minority-groups-its-millennials-or-younger/">overwhelming white boomer generation</a> living longer lives. But the problem is that when seniors have trouble seeing themselves in children and young adults, <a href="https://www.russellsage.org/publications/immigrants-and-boomers-0">social cohesion is at risk, as are investments in the future</a>.</p>
<p>Take Arizona, for example. It’s the state with the largest racial generation gap in the U.S., where snowbirds arrive from elsewhere to retire even as young people of color are remaking the state. It’s also known for its fractious politics (and pot-stirring politicians) around immigration and state legislation banning the teaching of <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-mexican-american-studies-20171227-story.html">ethnic studies in schools</a>. And in a clear sign of retreating from the future, Arizona also made the <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/a-punishing-decade-for-school-funding">largest cuts in K-12 state spending per student between 2008 and 2015.</a> </p>
<p><a href="http://www.policylink.org/resources-tools/bridging-racial-generation-gap">In research published in September</a>, several colleagues and I looked at factors that predict state expenditures on students, such as median household income, home ownership levels, and the underlying age and race makeup of the population. Even when you take all those other factors into account, the larger the racial generation gap, the less the state spends per student. </p>
<p>In California, the racial generation gap was just about the same in California in 1970 as it was in the U.S. in 1990. In effect, the nation lags the Golden State by 20 years (something proud Californians often insist is true in a number of ways!).</p>
<p><iframe id="LQV5G" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/LQV5G/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>The peak of the racial generation gap occurred in California around 1994 to 1998. During this era, Proposition 187 passed, followed by a series of “<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/ebook.php?isbn=9780520947719">racial propositions</a>” that ended affirmative action, banned bilingual education and stepped up the incarceration of young men of color. </p>
<p>In the U.S., according to projections, the gap peaks around 2016. And much like in California in the 1990s, we have seen a racialized “<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/whitelash-what-is-it-white-vote-president-donald-trump-wins-us-election-2016-a7407116.html">whitelash</a>” which in this case brought the election of Donald Trump, the racist violence in Charlottesville, and the revocation of DACA, the program designed to protect undocumented youth brought to this country at an early age.</p>
<h2>This too shall pass?</h2>
<p>When the racial generation gap peaked, the damage to the California Dream was deep – and the state is still trying to work its way back from the wreckage.</p>
<p>California fell from among <a href="https://www.dailybreeze.com/2013/07/27/california-national-rank-on-per-pupil-spending-abysmal-but-tide-is-poised-to-change/">the top spending states on education</a> to become one of the <a href="http://www.edweek.org/media/2016/12/29/school-finance-education-week-quality-counts-2017.pdf">stingiest</a>. Our state prison population increased by more than <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/">sixfold between 1980 and 2006</a>, twice as fast as in the rest of the country. And we went from being roughly in the <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/dec/historical-income-states.html">middle of the pack in terms of income inequality back in the glory days of the late 1960s</a> to the <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/.../acsbr13-02.pdf">sixth most unequal state in 2012</a>.</p>
<p>As the demographics continued to shift in California, the politics eventually moved in the direction of the needs and politics of a younger and more diverse generation. California once wanted to strip immigrants of services. Now, it’s declared itself a “<a href="http://time.com/4960233/california-sanctuary-state-donald-trump/">sanctuary state</a>.” </p>
<p>California once launched a nationwide <a href="http://theconversation.com/after-tax-cuts-derailed-the-california-dream-is-the-state-getting-back-on-track-77919">grassroots revolt with a tax-slashing Proposition 13</a> – a measure tinged with a sense of an older and whiter generation drawing up the fiscal drawbridges just as a younger and more diverse generation arrived. Now, a very different grassroots revolt has helped to rebalance the books with progressive tax hikes in 2012 and 2016. And, although public schools are still languishing, a <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-gov-jerry-brown-s-signature-plan-for-1515466995-htmlstory.html">local control funding formula</a> passed in 2013 is steering dollars to those students and schools that are most in need. </p>
<p>Would California have gone through the same turmoil had the generational gap been narrower? It’s hard to know for sure, but it’s also not prudent to wait around for elders to come to their political senses or for the younger generation to age into power. We need a national game plan that can accelerate what the slower pace of demographic change might push along. </p>
<h2>Making our future</h2>
<p>California still has far to go, of course. Housing is too expensive, income divides are too wide and good-paying jobs are <a href="https://fairshakeca.org/">too scarce</a>. But the state no longer seems to be tearing at the seams over issues of race and representation.</p>
<p>In my new book, <a href="https://stateofresistancebook.com/">“State of Resistance: What California’s Dizzying Descent and Remarkable Resurgence Mean for America’s Future,”</a> I suggest that the U.S. can draw lessons from California’s political and social shifts. </p>
<p>Term limits, for example, opened up opportunities for new politicians of color. <a href="http://ccep.ucdavis.edu/s/CCEPFS9-FINAL-4-6dmz.pdf">Easier voter registration</a> helped lower the barriers for new and young voters. The power to “redistrict” – to draw the lines for state and congressional seats – was taken from a state legislature eager to protect incumbents and given to a citizen commission less invested in the past. </p>
<p>However, such structural reforms are only effective if there is a citizenry ready to take advantage of them. To make that happen, a new generation of community-based organizers became more adept at linking together communities, mobilizing voters and promoting winnable policy change.</p>
<p>This same strategy of combining structural shifts with grassroots organizing and pragmatic policy may help restore the American Dream as well. But to get there, the nation will need to overcome the tension between what journalist <a href="http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/politics/state/2016-election-anniversary/">Ron Brownstein</a> has called the “coalition of restoration” – older Trump voters seeking a way back to what they see as American greatness – and a “coalition of transformation” that consists of younger and more diverse constituents.</p>
<p>Closing that social distance will be crucial. The California Dream was never just about one person (or one generation) and their route to individual success. It was about the promise of a state that welcomed newcomers, confidently invested in its children and looked forward to its future. That’s a recipe for progress in the Golden State and America alike.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90209/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>For the research on which this book is based, Manuel Pastor received funding from Ford Foundation, The California Endowment, the California Wellness Foundation, and the James Irvine Foundation.</span></em></p>In the 1990s, older Californians struggled to make way for a younger, more diverse generation. Here’s how that ‘racial generation gap’ transformed the state – and what it means for the rest of the US.Manuel Pastor, Professor of Sociology, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/905172018-01-30T11:34:32Z2018-01-30T11:34:32ZCalifornia’s other drought: A major earthquake is overdue<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203607/original/file-20180126-100908-1qg3z3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fires break out across San Francisco after the April 18, 1906 earthquake.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/p1Jbxu">USGS</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>California earthquakes are a geologic inevitability. The state straddles the North American and Pacific tectonic plates and is crisscrossed by the San Andreas and other active fault systems.</p>
<p>Tragic quakes that occurred in 2017 <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/12/middleeast/iraq-earthquake/index.html">near the Iran-Iraq border</a> and in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/world/americas/mexico-earthquake.html">central Mexico</a>, with magnitudes of 7.3 and 7.1, respectively, are well within the range of earthquake sizes that have a high likelihood of occurring in highly populated parts of California during the next few decades.</p>
<p>The earthquake situation in California is actually more dire than people who aren’t seismologists like myself may realize. Although many Californians can recount experiencing an earthquake, most have never personally experienced a strong one. For major events, with magnitudes of 7 or greater, California is actually in an <a href="http://projects.scpr.org/timelines/historic-california-earthquakes">earthquake drought</a>. Multiple segments of the expansive San Andreas Fault system are now sufficiently stressed to produce large and damaging events. </p>
<p>The good news is that earthquake readiness is part of the state’s culture, and earthquake science is advancing – including much improved simulations of large quake effects and development of an early warning system for the Pacific coast.</p>
<h2>The last big one</h2>
<p>California occupies a central place in the history of seismology. The April 18, 1906 San Francisco earthquake (magnitude 7.8) was pivotal to both earthquake hazard awareness and the development of earthquake science – including the fundamental insight that earthquakes arise from faults that abruptly rupture and slip. The San Andreas Fault slipped by as much as 20 feet (six meters) in this earthquake. </p>
<p>Although ground-shaking damage was severe in many places along the nearly 310-mile (500-kilometer) fault rupture, much of San Francisco was actually destroyed by the subsequent fire, due to the large number of ignition points and a breakdown in emergency services. That scenario continues to haunt earthquake response planners. Consider what might happen if a major earthquake were to strike Los Angeles during fire season.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203610/original/file-20180126-100908-wl4bex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203610/original/file-20180126-100908-wl4bex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203610/original/file-20180126-100908-wl4bex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203610/original/file-20180126-100908-wl4bex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203610/original/file-20180126-100908-wl4bex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203610/original/file-20180126-100908-wl4bex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203610/original/file-20180126-100908-wl4bex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203610/original/file-20180126-100908-wl4bex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Collapsed Santa Monica Freeway bridge across La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles after the
Northridge earthquake, Jan. 17, 1994.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FEMA_-_1766_-_Photograph_by_Robert_A._Eplett_taken_on_01-17-1994_in_California.jpg">Robert A. Eplett/FEMA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Seismic science</h2>
<p>When a major earthquake occurs anywhere on the planet, <a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes">modern global seismographic networks and rapid response protocols</a> now enable scientists, emergency responders and the public to assess it quickly – typically, within tens of minutes or less – including location, magnitude, ground motion and estimated casualties and property losses. And by studying the buildup of stresses along mapped faults, <a href="https://theconversation.com/seismologists-deploy-after-a-quake-to-learn-more-so-we-can-prepare-for-the-next-one-34472">past earthquake history</a>, and other data and modeling, we can forecast likelihoods and magnitudes of earthquakes over long time periods in California and elsewhere. </p>
<p>However, the interplay of stresses and faults in the Earth is dauntingly chaotic. And even with continuing advances in basic research and ever-improving data, laboratory and theoretical studies, there are no known reliable and universal precursory phenomena to suggest that the time, location and size of individual large earthquakes can be predicted. </p>
<p>Major earthquakes thus typically occur with no immediate warning whatsoever, and mitigating risks requires sustained readiness and resource commitments. This can pose serious challenges, since cities and nations may thrive for many decades or longer without experiencing major earthquakes.</p>
<h2>California’s earthquake drought</h2>
<p>The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was the last quake greater than magnitude 7 to occur on the San Andreas Fault system. The inexorable motions of plate tectonics mean that every year, strands of the fault system accumulate stresses that correspond to a seismic slip of millimeters to centimeters. Eventually, these stresses will be released suddenly in earthquakes. </p>
<p>But the central-southern stretch of the San Andreas Fault has not slipped since 1857, and the southernmost segment may not have ruptured since 1680. The highly urbanized <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2017/5013/sir20175013ah.pdf">Hayward Fault</a> in the East Bay region has not generated a major earthquake since 1868. </p>
<p>Reflecting this deficit, the <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2015/3009/pdf/fs2015-3009.pdf">Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast</a> estimates that there is a 93 percent probability of a 7.0 or larger earthquake occurring in the Golden State region by 2045, with the highest probabilities occurring along the San Andreas Fault system.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203600/original/file-20180126-100893-18czthx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203600/original/file-20180126-100893-18czthx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203600/original/file-20180126-100893-18czthx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203600/original/file-20180126-100893-18czthx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203600/original/file-20180126-100893-18czthx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203600/original/file-20180126-100893-18czthx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203600/original/file-20180126-100893-18czthx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203600/original/file-20180126-100893-18czthx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Perspective view of California’s major faults, showing forecast probabilities estimated by the third Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast. The color bar shows the estimated percent likelihood of a magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake during the next 30 years, as of 2014. Note that nearly the entire San Andreas Fault system is red on the likelihood scale due to the deficit of large earthquakes during and prior to the past century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UCERF3_fig01-b.jpg">USGS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Can California do more?</h2>
<p>California’s population has grown more than 20-fold since the 1906 earthquake and currently is close to 40 million. Many residents and all state emergency managers are widely engaged in earthquake readiness and planning. These preparations are among the most advanced in the world. </p>
<p>For the general public, preparations include participating in drills like the <a href="https://www.shakeout.org/california/">Great California Shakeout</a>, held annually since 2008, and preparing for earthquakes and other natural hazards with <a href="https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/EPO/Pages/BePreparedCalifornia.aspx">home and car disaster kits and a family disaster plan</a>. </p>
<p>No California earthquake since the 1933 Long Beach event (6.4) has killed more than 100 people. Quakes in 1971 (San Fernando, 6.7); 1989 (Loma Prieta; 6.9); 1994 (Northridge; 6.7); and 2014 (South Napa; 6.0) each caused more than US$1 billion in property damage, but fatalities in each event were, remarkably, dozens or less. Strong and proactive implementation of seismically informed building codes and other preparations and emergency planning in California saved scores of lives in these medium-sized earthquakes. Any of them could have been disastrous in less-prepared nations. </p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/142904146" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Remington Elementary School in Santa Ana takes part in the 2015 Great California Shakeout.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nonetheless, California’s infrastructure, response planning and general preparedness will doubtlessly be tested when the inevitable and long-delayed “big ones” occur along the San Andreas Fault system. Ultimate damage and casualty levels are hard to project, and hinge on the severity of associated hazards such as landslides and fires.</p>
<p>Several nations and regions now have or are developing earthquake early warning systems, which use early detected ground motion near a quake’s origin to alert more distant populations before strong seismic shaking arrives. This permits rapid responses that can reduce infrastructure damage. Such systems provide warning times of up to tens of seconds in the most favorable circumstances, but the notice will likely be shorter than this for many California earthquakes. </p>
<p>Early warning systems are operational now in Japan, Taiwan, Mexico and Romania. Systems in <a href="http://www.cisn.org/eew/eew.html">California</a> and the <a href="https://pnsn.org/pnsn-data-products/earthquake-early-warning">Pacific Northwest</a> are presently under development with early versions in operation. Earthquake early warning is by no means a panacea for saving lives and property, but it represents a significant step toward improving earthquake safety and awareness along the West Coast. </p>
<p>Managing earthquake risk requires a resilient system of social awareness, education and communications, coupled with effective short- and long-term responses and implemented within an optimally safe built environment. As California prepares for large earthquakes after a hiatus of more than a century, the clock is ticking.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90517/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Aster receives/has received funding from the National Science Foundation, US Geological Survey, Sandia National Laboratories, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
He currently serve on the Advisory Council of the Southern California Earthquake Center</span></em></p>According to current forecasts, California has a 93 percent chance of an earthquake with magnitude 7 or greater occurring by 2045. Early warning systems, now in development, could limit casualties and damage.Richard Aster, Professor of Geophysics and Department Head, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/869072018-01-23T11:19:48Z2018-01-23T11:19:48ZHealthy to eat, unhealthy to grow: Strawberries embody the contradictions of California agriculture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193852/original/file-20171108-14159-4dgdct.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Suspected infestation of Macrophomina phaseolina, a "novel" soil pathogen, in the non-fumigated buffer zone of a strawberry field</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julie Guthman</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Agricultural abundance is a pillar of the California dream. In 2016 the state turned out <a href="https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/statistics/">more than US$45 billion worth</a> of meat, milk and crops. Long before nutritionists agreed that fresh fruits and vegetables should be the center of American diets, California farmers had planted much of their land in these products, and today they produce <a href="https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/farm_bill/">half of the nation’s fruits, vegetables and nuts</a>. </p>
<p>But although fruits and vegetables are vaunted as healthy foods, their impact as crops is quite different. On many California produce farms wages are low, working conditions are poor, and farmers use enormous quantities of pesticides and precious water. This is the central contradiction of California agriculture.</p>
<p>For the past five years I have been studying California’s strawberry industry, which currently is the state’s <a href="https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/statistics/">sixth</a> most important commodity in terms of the value of crops sold. Strawberries are attractive, reasonably nutritious and occasionally tasty fruits and can be grown and eaten within California nearly year-round. But the industry’s growth has relied on heavy use of toxic chemicals and now growers face heightened restrictions on some of their most favored chemicals: soil fumigants. Unfortunately, less toxic or non-chemical strategies that would allow strawberries to be grown for a mass market, maintaining affordable prices, are elusive and likely to remain so. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202607/original/file-20180119-110084-46utwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202607/original/file-20180119-110084-46utwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202607/original/file-20180119-110084-46utwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202607/original/file-20180119-110084-46utwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202607/original/file-20180119-110084-46utwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202607/original/file-20180119-110084-46utwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202607/original/file-20180119-110084-46utwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202607/original/file-20180119-110084-46utwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Strawberry pickers in Salinas, Calif., photographed April 27, 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Xp3-dot-us_DSC8991.jpg">Holgerhubbs</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Chemical dependence</h2>
<p>Although strawberry production once was scattered throughout the state, by the 1960s it had concentrated in coastal zones to take advantage of sandy soils and mild temperatures. Thereafter, the industry saw tremendous growth in productivity. In Monterey and Santa Cruz counties alone, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3733/ca.2016a0001">acreage more than tripled and production increased tenfold</a> from 1960 to 2014. Much of this growth was enabled by advances in plant breeding and use of plastic tarps to absorb heat, allowing growers to increase the length of strawberry seasons. </p>
<p>But the main driver of growth has been the use of pre-plant chemical fumigants. Growers hire pest control companies to fumigate soils before planting strawberries in order to kill soil-borne pests – most importantly, plant pathogens such as <em>Verticillium dahliae</em> and <em>Macrophomina phaseolina</em>. Without such treatment, these pathogens cause strawberry plants to wilt and die. </p>
<p>Now, however, the industry’s fumigant of choice – methyl bromide – can no longer be used in strawberry fruit production. In 1991 methyl bromide was banned under the <a href="http://ozone.unep.org/en/treaties-and-decisions/montreal-protocol-substances-deplete-ozone-layer">Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer</a>. The United States was supposed to phase out use by 2005, a deadline that was extended to 2015 and didn’t really take effect until two years later. Even so, this toxic chemical can still be used in nursery production to ensure that starter plants are virus- and pathogen-free. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202609/original/file-20180119-110103-1x1y52i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202609/original/file-20180119-110103-1x1y52i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202609/original/file-20180119-110103-1x1y52i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202609/original/file-20180119-110103-1x1y52i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202609/original/file-20180119-110103-1x1y52i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202609/original/file-20180119-110103-1x1y52i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202609/original/file-20180119-110103-1x1y52i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202609/original/file-20180119-110103-1x1y52i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recently fumigated field in Watsonville, Calif., Oct. 11, 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/791REj">Benketaro</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One potential replacement, methyl iodide, was approved for use in late 2010. But it was <a href="http://calag.ucanr.edu/Archive/?article=ca.2016a0003">withdrawn from the market in 2012</a>, following an activist campaign and lawsuit that accused California regulators of performing an inadequate review of potential health risks to workers and the general public. Among other things, the chemical is a known <a href="http://www.stpp.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/Final%20Report%20SRC.pdf">neurotoxin and carcinogen</a>. </p>
<p>Other fumigants are still allowed, but their use is increasingly restricted by buffer zones and township quotas. Consequently, growers are contending with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15538362.2012.697000">heightened levels of plant disease</a>, some from pathogens that had never before been evident in California strawberry fields. </p>
<h2>An embedded system</h2>
<p>Can California find a less toxic way to raise <a href="http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/LyraEDISServlet?command=getImageDetail&image_soid=FIGURE%207&document_soid=FE971&document_version=1">90 percent of the nation’s fresh strawberries</a>? Although the strawberry industry is <a href="http://www.calstrawberry.com/Portals/0/images/2013-CSC_enviroreport_web.pdf">investing significant resources into non-chemical alternatives to manage soil-borne disease</a>, the obstacles are formidable. The entire production system, including reliance on fumigants, is <a href="https://doi.org/10.3733/ca.2017a0017">embedded into the cost of land</a>. </p>
<p>Fumigation has allowed growers to plant on the same blocks of land, year after year, and not worry about soil disease. With fumigation available to control pathogens, strawberry breeders have emphasized productivity, beauty and durability rather than pathogen resistance. Meanwhile, nursery production has shifted away from prime fruit growing regions along the coast to take advantage of different environments for plant propagation, enabling coastal land to be used solely for growing fruit. </p>
<p>Together these innovations have allowed growers to keep prime strawberry land in production every year for much of the year, yielding exceptional amounts of fruit. High land prices reflect these expectations and make it unprofitable to grow strawberries using less intensive methods. The Pacific Ocean’s natural summer air-conditioning is attractive to suburbanites as well as strawberries, so coastal development is putting additional pressure on the cost of strawberry land while at the same time increasing public pressure to control use of fumigants. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202622/original/file-20180119-110106-1rcwmmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202622/original/file-20180119-110106-1rcwmmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202622/original/file-20180119-110106-1rcwmmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202622/original/file-20180119-110106-1rcwmmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202622/original/file-20180119-110106-1rcwmmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202622/original/file-20180119-110106-1rcwmmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202622/original/file-20180119-110106-1rcwmmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202622/original/file-20180119-110106-1rcwmmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Official logo of the California Strawberry Commission.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/California_Strawberry_Commission_Logo_-_Color.jpg">CA Strawberry Commission</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Chemical-free strawberries for the few</h2>
<p>Informed and concerned consumers ingrained with California’s deep culture of environmentalism have turned to organic strawberries, which they see as a more sustainable option. As conventional growers took note of this vibrant market, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3733/ca.2016a0001">organic strawberry production rose fivefold between 2000 and 2012</a>, to reach about <a href="http://www.organicproducenetwork.com/article/351/organic-strawberries-in-short-supply?utm_source=OPN+Connect+Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=1ad7c5557e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_11&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_558944fdc9-1ad7c5557e-123782331">3,300 acres planted in 2017</a>, which represents 12 percent of all strawberry acreage. </p>
<p>But although organic growers use non-chemical soil fumigation methods or rotate strawberries with crops that have a mild disease-suppressing effect, such as broccoli, few of them fundamentally alter the production system in other ways. In my research, I have observed that some growers are finding land away from prime areas that can be quickly certified for organic production, but have no long-term plans to manage soil diseases when they inevitably arise – a practice that is not in the spirit of organic production. </p>
<p>A small but dedicated set of growers have learned how to raise strawberries for the long haul without fumigants. However, even they use starter plants produced on fumigated soil, since no nurseries produce organic plants. Crucially, for these growers strawberries are a minor crop in what are otherwise highly diversified systems. And most of these producers are located outside of prime strawberry growing regions, where land is cheaper. Their approach therefore is not nearly replicable for growers producing for the mass market.</p>
<p>These exceptions tell us as much about the limits of California strawberry production as does mainstream production. Consumers who want organic strawberries must be willing to live with compromises, pay premium prices – and eat their broccoli. For others, the dream of affordable year-round strawberries grown without toxic chemicals is already an impossible one.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86907/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Guthman has received funding from the National Science Foundation in support of this research. She is currently a co-principal investigator on a USDA-funded project that aims to develop pathogen-resistant strawberries. </span></em></p>California produces 90 percent of the US strawberry crop, but growers face curbs on toxic chemicals that have helped their industry expand. Can a system centered on mass production become more sustainable?Julie Guthman, Professor of Social Sciences, University of California, Santa CruzLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/777772018-01-10T11:39:23Z2018-01-10T11:39:23ZHow California’s megachurches changed Christian culture<p>The popular view of California is of a liberal, godless region, a land of possibilities that is open to experimentation in all things. As novelist Wallace Stegner <a href="http://www.unz.org/Pub/SaturdayRev-1967sep23-00028">wrote in 1967</a>, the California motto is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Why not? It might work.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is true even in an otherwise conventional field as religion, with perhaps the most illustrative example being that of the state’s <a href="http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/megachurches.html">megachurches</a>. </p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://factsandtrends.net/2017/06/09/where-are-all-the-megachurches/">California has more megachurches</a> than any other state: There are over 200 Protestant, theologically conservative churches with at least 2,000 weekly attenders. And while <a href="http://crcc.usc.edu/california-megachurches/">most</a> are in major metropolitan areas, megachurches can be seen in the Inland Empire and the Central Valley, on up through Sacramento and as far north as Redding. </p>
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<p>In my multiple <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/finding-faith/9780813542737">research</a> projects conducted over the last 25 years, I have seen that California megachurches have played a significant role in how millions of people – Christian or not – understand Christianity.</p>
<h2>Adapting church to culture</h2>
<p>Large churches <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/when-church-became-theatre-9780195143416?cc=us&lang=en&">have been around</a> since the industrialization and urbanization of the U.S. in the 19th century. But it was only in the <a href="http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/definition.html">the mid-20th century</a> that megachurches became a phenomenon.</p>
<p>Beyond their large size, which can range from the threshold 2,000 regular weekly attenders up to 25,000 to 50,000 attenders at U.S. megachurches, it is the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160514173618/http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/definition.html">number of different activities</a>, outreach programs and suburban locations that characterize these churches. In my view, the <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/finding-faith/9780813542737">most important characteristic of megachurches</a> is their ability to “appropriate” elements from the larger culture, be it popular music, performances or even dress styles. </p>
<p>While they are found in major cities across the U.S. and globally, it is in California that megachurches led the way in merging larger cultural trends into people’s religious lives. Two important examples illustrate their impact.</p>
<p>The first is the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-robert-schullers-california-brand-christianity-20150402-story.html">Crystal Cathedral</a>. Founded in 1955, this church became famous for its weekly television show, <a href="http://hourofpower.org">“The Hour of Power”</a> and glitzy holiday productions at Christmas and Easter. </p>
<p>Televising the morning service from the Crystal Cathedral both extended the reach of the church and allowed people to enjoy Sunday worship service from the comfort of their living rooms. The holiday productions, complete with performances from live animals and actors, were aimed at bringing people into the church to see, hear and experience biblical stories.</p>
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<p>For example, the Christmas story from the New Testament Gospels was reenacted in the main sanctuary of the church with Jesus, Mary and Joseph in the stable, along with the wise men, angels, and even camels and donkeys. The Easter story was similarly reenacted with a depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus, Roman soldiers, weeping followers and an empty tomb.</p>
<p>However, perhaps more important than those costume dramas, was founding <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/03/us/rev-robert-h-schuller-hour-of-power-evangelist-dies-at-88.html?_r=0">pastor Robert Schuller’s</a> idea to use a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/06/reel-faith-how-the-drive-in-movie-theater-helped-create-the-megachurch/258248/">local drive-in movie theater</a> for Sunday services. Motivated at least in part by the lack of availability of other venues, Schuller turned the necessity of meeting in a drive-in theater into a cultural adaptation.</p>
<p>In the post-World War II jobs and housing boom, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520073951">Schuller capitalized</a> on a Southern Californian’s dependence on and familiarity with the automobile. People could come to church and never have to leave their car. Thus, partly out of necessity, partly out of vision, Schuller combined the car culture of Southern California and the more casual vibe of the region, by linking church with what people did in their everyday lives.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199100/original/file-20171213-27568-bbipnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199100/original/file-20171213-27568-bbipnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199100/original/file-20171213-27568-bbipnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199100/original/file-20171213-27568-bbipnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199100/original/file-20171213-27568-bbipnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199100/original/file-20171213-27568-bbipnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199100/original/file-20171213-27568-bbipnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Garden Grove community drive-in church.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A6207-GardenGroveCommunityDriveInChurch.jpg">Robert J. Boser, Editor ASC (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Informal attire and music</h2>
<p>The second example is <a href="https://calvarychapel.com">Calvary Chapel</a>, best known in evangelical Christian circles as the epicenter of the emerging Christian youth culture in the late 1960s and early 1970s. </p>
<p>Calvary Chapel was <a href="https://calvarychapel.com/about/calvary-chapel-history">founded by pastor Chuck Smith</a> in 1965 with 25 members in the Orange County city of Costa Mesa. Exhibiting a similar vision as Schuller, Smith created a church that embraced the surrounding culture by accepting young hippies and surfers into its fold. </p>
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<p>People came to church <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520218116">wearing</a> jeans, shorts, T-shirts, beach slippers and even barefoot. There was no need to “dress up.” Once there, they heard a traditional, “Bible-based” sermon from Chuck Smith.</p>
<p>But what really differentiated Calvary Chapel was its inclusion of music that sounded just like the popular rock and folk music of the day. </p>
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<p>Calvary Chapel became a hub of activity for young people in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/jesus-people-a-movement-born-from-the-summer-of-love-82421">“Jesus Movement,”</a> that combined a conservative evangelical Christianity with the look of the countercultural hippie style. Calvary Chapel sponsored concerts of “Jesus music” which was essentially folk and rock music with Christian lyrics. </p>
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<p>These concerts <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/gods-forever-family-9780195326451?q=God%27s%20Forever%20Family&lang=en&cc=us">attracted scores of young people</a>. Rather than Sunday services being characterized by organ and choir music, guitars and folksy music with Christian lyrics became the norm.</p>
<p>Calvary Chapel institutionalized and popularized the music through the creation of the <a href="https://maranathamusic.com/pages/about-us">Maranatha Music</a>, a record label that soon gained immense popularity. Along with other Christian music labels that followed, this music reached a much larger population of evangelical Christians than any concert or church worship service could. Indeed the music proved to be so popular, that it <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zr02DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT413&lpg=PT413&dq=maranatha+music+evangelicals&source=bl&ots=Lz3UYQq2ek&sig=3kXk5sD5hH96sCOf2u1YePot0Qg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiB97uB1MvYAhUD_IMKHTC2CSIQ6AEILTAB#v=onepage&q=maranatha%20music%20evangelicals&f=false">quickly moved beyond</a> the Calvary Chapel and the Jesus People, replacing more traditional “organ and choir” music in most evangelical and charismatic churches. </p>
<p>Ultimately, this music <a href="http://www.abingdonpress.com/product/9781426795138#.WlPhO2Q-f-Y">found its way</a> into the Protestant mainline and Catholic worship services, transforming the way that Christians in these other traditions experienced Sunday worship services. </p>
<p>Today there is a worldwide association of over 1,700 Calvary Chapel congregations, <a href="https://calvarychapel.com/church-locator">all traceable</a> to the Orange County origins.</p>
<h2>California soul</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199102/original/file-20171213-27588-1497w92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199102/original/file-20171213-27588-1497w92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199102/original/file-20171213-27588-1497w92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199102/original/file-20171213-27588-1497w92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199102/original/file-20171213-27588-1497w92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199102/original/file-20171213-27588-1497w92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199102/original/file-20171213-27588-1497w92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A band performing prior to a sermon by Mosaic Church’s pastor Erwin McManus at The Mayan night club in Los Angeles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill</span></span>
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<p>Current iterations of California megachurches, such as <a href="http://mosaic.org">Mosaic</a> and <a href="http://www.oasisla.org">Oasis</a> in Los Angeles, C3 (now <a href="https://vivechurch.org">VIVE Church</a>) in the Bay Area, <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/nitashatiku/c3-silicon-valley-church?utm_term=.iivZMZ184#.teym5mlEw">among others,</a> follow a similar script and arguably build on elements of California culture: the promise of a comfortable experience in church, the opportunity to feel good about oneself, and participation in a community of like-minded people that doesn’t require any deeper commitments unless one so desires.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199110/original/file-20171213-27583-z8e8c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199110/original/file-20171213-27583-z8e8c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199110/original/file-20171213-27583-z8e8c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199110/original/file-20171213-27583-z8e8c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199110/original/file-20171213-27583-z8e8c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199110/original/file-20171213-27583-z8e8c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199110/original/file-20171213-27583-z8e8c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Inside of Crystal Cathedral.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACrystalCathedral.jpg">Via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Across the country, the broader impact of the California churches can be seen in the different ways that megachurches, such as <a href="https://churchome.org/gather">City Church</a> in Seattle, which caters to young Christian hipsters, or the more family-oriented programming at <a href="https://www.willowcreek.org">Willow Creek</a> in Chicago, have adapted their purpose and programming to specific cultural currents in order to create their own unique identity – an approach pioneered in California.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77777/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Flory has received funding from the John Templeton Foundation. </span></em></p>California megachurches played a significant role in how millions of people - Christian or not - understand Christianity.Richard Flory, Senior Director of Research and Evaluation, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/798892017-12-21T11:12:03Z2017-12-21T11:12:03ZWhat the ‘California Dream’ means to indigenous peoples<p>The California Dream is a myth for many California Indian peoples and tribes. </p>
<p>Since settlers arrived, California Indians’ reality has largely been one of land dispossession, cultural assimilation and even <a href="http://www.history.com/news/californias-little-known-genocide">genocide</a>.</p>
<p>If California Indians were to design their own dream it would place <a href="http://decolonization.org/index.php/des/article/view/18630/15554">decolonization</a> at its core. Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism, part of what I study as a scholar of <a href="http://ethnicstudies.berkeley.edu/areas-of-study/area/native-american-studies">Native American studies</a>. The process of decolonization requires the return of land to tribes so they can fully determine their own futures, political status and independence.</p>
<p>The California Dream is a settler dream, unless it can come to terms with its colonial past and prioritize California Indians’ dreams for the state. </p>
<h2>Myth of the California Dream</h2>
<p>The mythology of the California Dream has a long history. </p>
<p>A popular <a href="https://archive.org/details/LasSergasDeEsplaNDianElRamoQueD">Spanish novel</a> published in 1510 told the legend of a mythical, gold-filled island inhabited by black Amazonian women ruled by Queen Calafia. Even though the story of Queen Calafia and the island of California was fictional, the narrative <a href="http://scholarworks.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.2/2492/CAgeographer1987_p1-38.pdf?sequence=1">stuck with the Spaniards</a> who traveled to the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries.</p>
<p>The Spanish undertook their colonial project to convert and enslave Indigenous peoples at Catholic missions in Baja California in the late 1600s. Yet the urge to discover the wealth of Alta California, what is now present day California, drove the Spanish north. The first Catholic mission in Alta California was established in 1769 in San Diego on land that belonged to the <a href="http://sycuantribe.com/about-sycuan/">Kumeyaay people</a>. The Spanish continued to claim land and use Indigenous peoples to build missions along the coast of Alta California into the 1800s.</p>
<h2>Dark side of a dream</h2>
<p>Spanish colonization had disastrous effects on the environment and dozens of tribes, from San Diego to Sonoma. Social control, aggressive interactions and violence against Native women and children characterized <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=XxMWSOEgTXcC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">Spanish colonization</a>. Moreover, Spanish colonialism brought new diseases like smallpox and measles, and introduced invasive species of plants and animals. This drastically changed the natural landscape, the practices of <a href="https://www.kcet.org/shows/tending-the-wild/episodes/tending-the-wild">Indigenous landscape management</a>, and the relationship between California Indians and their environment.</p>
<p>In 1848, gold was discovered in California’s Sierra foothills. Incoming American settlers claimed land as their own and often viewed Native Americans as primitive peoples destined to vanish. <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Indians_of_California.html?id=BaToHQtsraMC">These misconceptions</a> were used to justify the theft and appropriation of California Indian land. Individual settlers and gold miners who killed or removed California Indian peoples from their lands often believed they were merely quickening a process that was bound to happen.</p>
<p>Acts of violence against California Indians accelerated throughout the Gold Rush period, and into the 1870s. Those who came to California did so at the cost of Native ancestral lands, natural and cultural resources, and lives. In 1849, the non-Native population in California surged from approximately <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300181364/american-genocide">25,000 to at least 94,000</a> people in less than a year. The California Indian <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-madley-california-genocide-20160522-snap-story.html">population dropped</a> from 150,000 in 1846, to approximately 30,000 by 1870. </p>
<p>Not only was frontier violence sanctioned by the state, it was largely funded by the federal government. By 1863, the federal government had given the state of California more than US$1 million to <a href="https://www.library.ca.gov/crb/02/14/02-014.pdf">reimburse militia expenditures</a> for expeditions to find and kill California Indian people.</p>
<p>In addition, state legislators passed laws that stripped California Indians of their power to protect themselves, their land, their culture or their livelihoods. One of the <a href="http://www.indiancanyon.org/ACTof1850.html">first laws passed</a> by the California Legislature in 1850 set up a form of legalized slavery. California Indian adults could be bought at public auction and Native children could be exploited under the guise of “apprenticeship.” The law fractured families and tribal communities, while furthering land dispossession.</p>
<p>In an attempt to calm hostilities between settlers and California Indians, from 1851 to 1852, the federal government negotiated <a href="https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/5views/5views1c.htm">18 treaties</a> with approximately 139 <a href="http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/%7Esurvey/languages/california-languages.php">California tribes</a>. The treaties would have set aside about <a href="https://www.library.ca.gov/crb/02/14/02-014.pdf">7.5 million acres</a> to establish reservations for California Indians away from areas of non-Native settlement. However, responding to the pressures of settlers, the California Legislature strongly urged the U.S. Congress to deny the treaties. Congress listened, and the treaties were never approved. In fact, they were denied in a secret session and did not appear in the public record again for 50 years. </p>
<p>Violent interaction eventually decreased in the 1870s, as the effects of genocide on California Indians became a topic of national interest. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/948031778">The works of</a> writer and poet Helen Hunt Jackson in the 1880s <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/940859637">exposed injustices</a> towards Native Americans. She spurred humanitarian sympathizers to aid Native peoples in the state. Notably, California Indian organizations and allies brought a suit against the U.S. government for not approving the 18 treaties. After decades of legal maneuvering and dozens of <a href="https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/opinions/the-court-of-claims-ruling-in-california-indians-k-344/">claims cases</a> brought against the federal government, California Indians were awarded meager cash settlements in 1944 and 1963 for lost lands. </p>
<p>The effects of land dispossession and other injustices, however, are still felt by California Indian communities throughout the state. The lasting impacts include historical trauma, tribes that are not recognized by the federal government, a legacy of uneven funding from federal agencies, and barriers to cultural practices and economic development. </p>
<p>Yet, California Indians have been resilient. Today, they are citizens of strong tribal nations guided by their own cultural mandates and responsibilities to take care of their people and their lands however they can.</p>
<h2>A California Indian Dream</h2>
<p>The success of the California Dream depends on the disappearance of Indigenous peoples, who have been historically figured as roadblocks to land acquisition, progress and civilization. </p>
<p>How do we reimagine the California Dream to honor and respect California Indians? </p>
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<span class="caption">San Diego County is on the original lands of the Kumeyaay and the Luiseño.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Marlene Fosselman</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>It’s a difficult question with difficult answers. In my opinion, a California Indian Dream is true decolonization, or the return of all land in California to California Indian tribes. The return of land would not require the millions of non-Native peoples who live in California to leave. It would require a reorientation of relationships to land and the natural world that prioritizes Indigenous belief systems and forms of Native governance that have long been obscured by settler colonialism.</p>
<p>Imagining a decolonial future is necessarily uncomfortable, but it can lead to new possibilities for a more conscious California. If there is ever to be a viable and successful dream for the state, I’d argue, it must be a decolonized dream that centers California Indian peoples, cultures and tribal rights to land and self-determination.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79889/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olivia Chilcote does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For the Native people of California, the dream has been more of a nightmare.Olivia Chilcote, Assistant Professor Department of American Indian Studies, San Diego State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/794692017-12-13T11:23:51Z2017-12-13T11:23:51ZGold rush opportunists, hippie goat ladies, Latino newcomers: California entrepreneurs dream of cheese<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198638/original/file-20171211-9396-2ppeyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=182%2C82%2C3245%2C2443&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Humboldt Fog chèvre, born in a dream.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.cypressgrovecheese.com/resources/press-kit.html">T.Depaepe</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The idea for Humboldt Fog goat’s milk cheese first came to Mary Keehn in a dream. She fell asleep on an airplane and awoke with a vivid picture in her mind of how the cheese looked. And then she set out to realize her vision – in the process, helping to launch a late-20th-century American renaissance in artisan cheese-making.</p>
<p>But the dream didn’t come from nowhere. In Keehn’s telling, the revelation occurred on a transatlantic flight home from France, where she’d gone in 1992 as a young cheese-maker looking for new inspiration by tasting traditional French cheeses and visiting their makers. Indeed, a wheel of Humboldt Fog melds elements of two iconic French cheeses, with a Morbier-like ribbon of ash running through chalky paste more reminiscent of a soft-ripened Valançay. The result is thoroughly distinct.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.cypressgrovecheese.com/about-us/our-story.html">story of Keehn’s Cypress Grove Cheese</a> is a quintessential telling of the California dream. Not merely an entrepreneurial success story, it is a narrative of self-reinvention. The California dream is about moving west (or, as in Keehn’s case, farther north, to Humboldt County from Sonoma) to start anew, seeking not so much to get rich quick as to envision and inhabit a new identity. Cypress Grove’s heroine embodies characteristics that could describe the American artisan cheese industry as a whole: scrappy, innovative and unapologetically indebted to European tastes and know-how – condensing themes that emerged through anthropological research I conducted across the United States for my book, “<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520270183">The Life of Cheese</a>.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vWqH0SXhEEM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A day in the life of Humboldt Fog.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Back to the land, making cheese</h2>
<p>Mary Keehn acquired her first goats in 1970, wanting to feed fresh goat’s milk to her first daughter, whom she was herself then weaning. For years, Keehn and her family lived as self-sufficiently as possible. Overwhelmed with more goat’s milk than her human companions could or were willing to drink, she began experimenting in her kitchen and learned to make fresh cheese, or chèvre. </p>
<p>A friend who was opening a restaurant told Keehn, now a divorced mother of four, “If you start a [licensed] cheese factory, I’ll buy your cheese.” And in 1983 – without any official training, apprenticeship or business experience beyond selling her goats’ breed stock – Keehn launched <a href="http://www.cypressgrovecheese.com/cheese/">Cypress Grove</a>. For nine years, prior to the trip to France and subsequent introduction of Humboldt Fog, Cypress Grove sold fresh chèvre and fromage blanc, cheeses more wholesome than gourmet.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198633/original/file-20171211-9383-5vvabh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198633/original/file-20171211-9383-5vvabh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198633/original/file-20171211-9383-5vvabh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198633/original/file-20171211-9383-5vvabh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198633/original/file-20171211-9383-5vvabh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198633/original/file-20171211-9383-5vvabh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198633/original/file-20171211-9383-5vvabh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198633/original/file-20171211-9383-5vvabh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mary Keehn with a new wheel of Humboldt Fog.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.cypressgrovecheese.com/resources/press-kit.html">Cyprus Grove</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, Keehn was one of a number of Americans involved in the back-to-the-land movement who, in the early ‘80s, began making cheese by hand for commercial sale. Located in the Northern California coastal town of Arcata, Keehn grew Cypress Grove into a successful business with national distribution and name recognition that employs over 40 workers – a far cry from its modest origins. In 2010, Keehn sold the company to the Swiss corporation Emmi, although her daily involvement continues.</p>
<p>Today’s cheese lovers can drive (or internet browse) along the <a href="http://cheesetrail.org/trail-map/">California Cheese Trail</a>, stretching from Crescent City near the Oregon border south to Los Angeles. It leads to artisan microdairies as well as Kraft Foods subsidiaries. Created in 2010 by a Marin County dairy farmer’s daughter on the model of wine-tasting maps, the California Cheese Trail today features 72 cheese-making operations. Nationwide, the <a href="http://www.cheesesociety.org/events-education/state-of-the-industry/">American Cheese Society</a> counts more than 900 artisan and specialty cheese operations.</p>
<p>Reflective of the state’s cultural diversity, the variety in California cheese-making is neither new nor unique to the state. But it is indicative of how <a href="https://www.crcpress.com/Edible-Identities-Food-as-Cultural-Heritage/Brulotte-Giovine/p/book/9781138634947">food-making traditions</a> in the United States are often animated by personal narratives of innovation rather than, as in Europe, adherence to customary tradition.</p>
<p>Since 2000, the number of California’s artisan cheese producers has grown exponentially. But while hippie goat ladies have been celebrated as cheese-making pioneers, they are not without precedent. The California dream of a century earlier saw a similar flourishing of cheese-making activity in port cities up and down the Pacific Coast.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198642/original/file-20171211-9451-okw1jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198642/original/file-20171211-9451-okw1jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198642/original/file-20171211-9451-okw1jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198642/original/file-20171211-9451-okw1jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198642/original/file-20171211-9451-okw1jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198642/original/file-20171211-9451-okw1jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198642/original/file-20171211-9451-okw1jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198642/original/file-20171211-9451-okw1jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">San Francisco harbor at Yerba Buena Cove was so busy during the Gold Rush that ships could wait days to unload.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004664511/">Sterling C. McIntyre, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Gold rush roots for new cheese markets</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.marinfrenchcheese.com/">Marin French Cheese Company</a>, in Petaluma, California, claims to be the oldest continuously operating cheese factory in the United States. In 1865, with Lincoln in the White House and the Civil War coming to an end, Marin French (originally Thompson Brothers Cheese Co.) got its start when Jefferson Thompson, a dairy farmer, recognized an emergent market niche in the nearby port town of San Francisco. </p>
<p>The now late Jim Boyce, who purchased Marin French in 1998 from Thompson’s descendants, related the company’s history to me in the course of my <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520270183">own research</a>. During the California Gold Rush between 1849 and 1855, European stevedores who sailed into what’s now called San Francisco Bay delivering goods to support the mining enterprises got “caught up in the fever” themselves. Many abandoned ship to seek their own fortunes mining.</p>
<p>After the gold rush went bust, workers returned to the bay to make a living at the dockyards. As Boyce said to me, “Now, in any workman’s bar or inn… the beer gives them hydration and carbohydrate but no protein,” so “typically in a workman’s bar there’s a jar of pickled eggs or something like that – pig knuckles, sausage.” But in the Bay Area at that time agriculture had yet to be fully developed. “There weren’t any eggs,” Boyce explained, as there were no commercial hen farms. So according to Boyce, enterprising dairy farmer Jefferson Thompson said to himself:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“in a moment of marketing brilliance, ‘I wonder if they’d eat cheese, instead?’ So he starts making these little cheeses, three-ounce cheeses, more or less. And he hauls them off to the docks, and they put them on the table in a bowl, and they were an immediate hit! Why? Because these are European stevedores: They knew cheese! They ate it breakfast, lunch and dinner. And that was the origin of the company.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/_Te1OHOtLk","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>With new migrants come new tastes</h2>
<p>If Mary Keehn’s Humboldt Fog exemplifies personal insight and passion, Jefferson Thompson’s Breakfast Cheese (now Marin French’s <a href="http://www.marinfrenchcheese.com/history/petite-breakfast/">Petite Breakfast</a>) celebrates the generation of new markets. It’s a reminder that the California dream of entrepreneurial reinvention requires not only creative genius but also the appreciative taste of willing consumers.</p>
<p>The Gold Rush brought European deckhands eager to eat soft-ripened cheeses. Marin French was at the ready, hand-ladling Camembert. In the late-20th century, hippie eaters of “health foods” gave way to American Europhiles who valued a diversity of distinctive tastes.</p>
<p>Here it is worth remembering that California, nearly all the up way to present-day Arcata, was until 1848 part of Mexico. Cross-cutting immigrant histories have long underwritten the California dream – and they still do.</p>
<p>The California Cheese Trail declares <a href="http://ariza-cheese.com/">Ariza Cheese</a>, established in 1970, to be “the oldest artisan Mexican cheese-maker in Southern California.” It specializes in Salvadoran cheeses in addition to crumbly Mexican Cotija. You will find Ariza just off Alondra Blvd. in the city of Paramont, east of Compton in LA County.</p>
<p>In 2015, four of the company’s long-term employees – immigrants from Mexico and El Salvador – <a href="https://laopinion.com/2015/02/01/ariza-la-adquisicion-de-un-sueno/">purchased</a> the company with the aid of <a href="http://www.concernedcapital.org/">Concerned Capital</a>, a social benefit corporation that invests in low- to moderate-income communities by helping to transfer business ownership to workers.</p>
<p>In 21st-century narratives of new beginnings are echoes of earlier immigrant worlds. Dreams upon dreams – while consumers continue to savor California cheeses with wide-ranging inspirations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79469/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather Paxson receives funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. She is on the Academic Advisory Committee of Oldways Cheese Coalition.</span></em></p>California’s artisan cheese-making industry has followed the changing tastes of the state’s population waves, from the mid-1800s through today.Heather Paxson, Professor of Anthropology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/839442017-12-06T11:19:20Z2017-12-06T11:19:20ZHow a group of California nuns challenged the Catholic Church<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197208/original/file-20171130-30912-dfi9ep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Immaculate Heart College Art Department c. 1955.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://corita.org/">Photograph by Fred Swartz. Image courtesy of the Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>California in the 1960s was the epicenter for spiritual experimentation. <a href="http://pluralism.org/religions/hinduism/hinduism-in-america/the-rush-of-gurus/">Indian gurus</a> and <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/mystics-and-messiahs-9780195127447?cc=us&lang=en&">New Age prophets</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/jesus-people-a-movement-born-from-the-summer-of-love-82421">Jesus freaks</a> and Scientologists all found followings in the Golden State. </p>
<p>But among those looking for personal and social transformation, the unlikeliest seekers may have been a small community of Roman Catholic religious: <a href="https://litpress.org/Products/2770/Witness-To-Integrity">the Immaculate Heart Sisters</a>. </p>
<p>Theirs was, as I discovered in my research on the order, a compelling spiritual saga, culminating in a showdown with the Catholic hierarchy. The story of that conflict spotlights the impact of the California dream on a Church in transition. </p>
<h2>Who were the Immaculate Heart Sisters?</h2>
<p>The Daughters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was founded in Spain in 1848. Twenty-three years later, at the invitation of the bishop of California, <a href="http://www.paulistpress.com/Products/4959-9/take-heart.aspx">10 sisters came to the United States</a>. </p>
<p>Initially, the nuns worked with the poor, but pivoted later to education. In 1886 they began teaching in Los Angeles. Over the next several decades, they staffed Catholic schools, started a convent, and founded a high school and a college. The college, though, closed in 1981 due to financial problems. Among the high school’s most famous graduates is Meghan Markle, the fiancee of Prince Harry.</p>
<p>In 1924, the order separated from Spain. The women renamed themselves the California Institute of the Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. </p>
<p>The “new” order flourished: By the 1960s, it had 600 members, most of whom were teachers. And by 1967 almost 200 sisters worked in Los Angeles’ Catholic schools. More served in their own order’s educational institutions.</p>
<p>Led by broad-minded mother superiors, their order and their college were <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/474982">intellectually rigorous and open to diverse perspectives</a>. They welcomed female speakers such as <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060617516/the-long-loneliness">social activist Dorothy Day</a> to campus as well as Protestant, Jewish and even Hindu religious leaders.</p>
<h2>Changes in Rome</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, change was stirring at the Vatican, the center of world Catholicism. In 1959, <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/journal-of-a-soul-9780385497541">Pope John XXIII</a> had invited Roman Catholic leaders to discuss the role of the Church in the modern world. From 1962 to 1965, this Second Vatican Council debated Catholicism’s future. Centuries had passed with little change in Church teaching, ritual, community life and worldview. But now the council would, in the words of the pope, “open the windows and let in the fresh air.”</p>
<p>Catholic leaders reviewed everything from interreligious dialogue to the <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/index.htm">role of the Church in the modern world</a>. They even updated the traditional <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-pope-francis-is-reviving-a-long-tradition-of-local-variations-in-catholic-services-83942">liturgy.</a> The language changed from Latin to the vernacular, priests faced the people and popular music was welcomed into Mass. </p>
<p>The debate over Vatican II’s achievements <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2012/10/11/fifty-years-on-catholics-still-debate-the-meaning-of-vatican-ii/">continues today</a>. At the time, many Catholics were excited by the innovations, but others preferred the Church as it was. They were not eager to see the council’s intentions put into practice. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197192/original/file-20171130-30912-1eb5zl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197192/original/file-20171130-30912-1eb5zl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197192/original/file-20171130-30912-1eb5zl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197192/original/file-20171130-30912-1eb5zl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197192/original/file-20171130-30912-1eb5zl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197192/original/file-20171130-30912-1eb5zl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197192/original/file-20171130-30912-1eb5zl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">James Francis Cardinal Mcintyre, Archbishop of Los Angeles, U.S., left.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Mario Torrisi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among these conservatives was <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/442135/pdf">James Francis Cardinal McIntyre of Los Angeles</a>.</p>
<h2>Challenging the Church hierarchy</h2>
<p>Following the recommendations of the Second Vatican Council, the Immaculate Heart Sisters decided to review and renew their religious life. In 1963, the sisters began a multi-year study of their spiritual practice, community structure and mission. They met regularly to talk and pray about the future of their order. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/us/anita-caspary-95-nun-who-led-breakaway-from-church-dies.html">According to Anita Caspary,</a> the order’s head at the time, the nuns were inspired by the Second Vatican Council; the spirit of the times (that is, the 1960s); and the growth of diverse populations that were roiling Southern California. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197194/original/file-20171130-30893-1q6rucm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197194/original/file-20171130-30893-1q6rucm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197194/original/file-20171130-30893-1q6rucm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197194/original/file-20171130-30893-1q6rucm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197194/original/file-20171130-30893-1q6rucm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197194/original/file-20171130-30893-1q6rucm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197194/original/file-20171130-30893-1q6rucm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sister Anita Caspary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/David S. Smith</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://litpress.org/Products/2770/Witness-To-Integrity">She later wrote</a> that in this “historic moment of faith and freedom,” the community saw itself as “part of the women’s struggle for equal status in the mid-20th century.” </p>
<p>Many of the council’s directives did indeed reflect cultural shifts, such as reaching out to the modern, secular world, that had inspired the sisters. But the women also were inspired by trends closer to home. For example, Caspary and her community were intrigued by <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780061834769/encountering-america">humanistic psychology</a>, the psychological school that emphasized personal growth and fulfillment and which had a <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Upstart_Spring.html?id=_pOl3_rrr18C">significant West Coast following</a>.</p>
<p>Until the 1960s, the women had followed Church rules that governed their religious as well as personal lives. Now, rather than assume that they all needed to pray, study or meditate in the same way or at the same time, they <a href="https://litpress.org/Products/2770/Witness-To-Integrity">encouraged individual experimentation</a>. When they did worship together, they wanted the freedom to decide when, where and how to do so. </p>
<p>Likewise, the sisters sought relief from Church mandates that controlled their daily activities, ranging from what they wore and what time they went to bed to which books they were allowed to read. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197630/original/file-20171204-22982-11gftms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197630/original/file-20171204-22982-11gftms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197630/original/file-20171204-22982-11gftms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197630/original/file-20171204-22982-11gftms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197630/original/file-20171204-22982-11gftms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197630/original/file-20171204-22982-11gftms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197630/original/file-20171204-22982-11gftms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sisters of the Immaculate Heart College preparing for a spring festival.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://corita.org/">Image courtesy of the Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On October 14, 1967, the sisters celebrated what they called Promulgation Day, the announcement of plans for their order’s renewal. A new vision for their lives and their work, the document, for example, said that sisters who taught in religious schools would be allowed to pursue teaching credentials and graduate degrees to professionalize their work. Those who did not feel the call to teach could find other careers. </p>
<p>Additionally, each sister could choose the length, time and type of her individual prayer, and group prayer would be shaped by the community. They no longer had to seek permission from the mother superior for the small decisions of daily life. They would be free to set their bedtimes, see a doctor or make a quick trip to the store. </p>
<h2>Opposition to the sisters</h2>
<p>Two days later, on Oct. 16, a delegation of six sisters <a href="https://litpress.org/Products/2770/Witness-To-Integrity">sat in the office of Los Angeles’ Cardinal McIntyre</a>. Furious with the sisters’ plans for renewal, he first asked about about their dress: Did they indeed intend to wear street clothes to their classrooms? Caspary said they might, and an angry McIntyre ended the meeting. </p>
<p>Even when the cardinal’s men persuaded him to continue the conversation, he refused to accept the order’s plan for renewal. Instead, he berated their defiance and doubted their commitment to religious life. As of June 1968, he told them, they would no longer teach in the city’s Catholic schools. </p>
<p>Over the next six months, the sisters and the cardinal <a href="https://litpress.org/Products/2770/Witness-To-Integrity">presented formal cases</a> to emissaries from the Vatican. Each side also sought support from Church colleagues and from the court of public opinion. Unfortunately, many newspapers played up the conflict as if the entire fight hinged on whether or not the sisters wore their traditional habits or street clothes. </p>
<p>By spring, the message was clear: The Vatican would support the cardinal. According to official pronouncements, the women’s experimentation went too far. They had not, in other words, worked within the guidelines of the male hierarchy. </p>
<p>Rather than give up their vision for religious renewal, however, 350 of the order’s 400 sisters began planning a new lay community outside the Church.</p>
<h2>A new vision</h2>
<p>By the start of 1970, many of the Immaculate Heart sisters had decided to renounce their vows and <a href="https://www.immaculateheartcommunity.org">reorganize as a lay community</a>. The new group, the Immaculate Heart Community, was open to laypeople as well as clergy, men as well as women.</p>
<p>In the intervening years, most of the innovations that the sisters sought – including professionalizing standards, experimenting with community worship and giving sisters control of their daily activities – were adopted by Catholics across the country. </p>
<p>The Immaculate Heart Sisters drew on their time and place to create a new vision of religious community. Their sources ranged from the reforms of the Second Vatican Council to the writings of California’s humanist psychologists. They also included women’s liberation, the anti-war movement and the countercultural wave that rolled outside their convent door.</p>
<p>The California dream and its promise of new possibilities was central to the spiritual journey of the Immaculate Heart Sisters. It continues to inspire a new generations of seekers in and out of the Church. </p>
<p><em>Read more about the past and future of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/california-dream-39642">California Dream</a>. This series is published in collaboration with KQED.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diane Winston does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the ‘60s, a Roman Catholic religious order, the Immaculate Heart Sisters, created a new vision of a religious community. Meghan Markle, engaged to Prince Harry, attended the high school founded by the nuns.Diane Winston, Associate Professor and Knight Center Chair in Media & Religion, USC Annenberg School for Communication and JournalismLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/879922017-12-01T00:41:36Z2017-12-01T00:41:36ZCharles Manson and the perversion of the American dream<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196404/original/file-20171126-21805-ao52xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Charles Manson leaves a Los Angeles courtroom in March 1970.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Californi-/296e3fb8237b4c4c8d9987cf367d284a/94/0">George Brich/AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Charles Manson died in November 2017, his name carried weight even among those who weren’t alive when he committed his crimes.</p>
<p>For decades, Manson was the symbol of evil, a real-life boogeyman who loomed as the American conception of wickedness incarnate. His death ended 48 years of imprisonment for a series of murders in August 1969, some of which he committed, most of which he ordered.</p>
<p>But his death also reminds us of Manson’s obsessive longing to make a name for himself. As I was researching <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Everybody-Had-Ocean-Mayhem-Angeles/dp/1613734913/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509465732&sr=8-1&keywords=everybody+had+an+ocean">my book on Los Angeles in the 1960s</a>, I was struck by how fame – more than art, more than religion, more than money – motivated Manson as he careened from prison, to musician, to murder. In his way, he was an early adopter of something that permeates American culture today.</p>
<h2>Becoming something out of nothing</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.groveatlantic.com/?title=Manson+in+His+Own+Words">According to Charles Manson</a>, when he was a boy, his family didn’t pay him much attention: His mother, a prostitute and small-time thief, once traded him for a pitcher of beer. </p>
<p>Manson was jailed for the first time at 13, for burglary. By the time he was in his early 30s, he’d already spent half his life behind bars.</p>
<p>As he was being released from California’s Terminal Island prison in 1967, he panicked and asked the jailer not to turn him out into the world. The guard laughed, but Manson was serious. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Everybody-Had-Ocean-Mayhem-Angeles/dp/1613734913/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509465732&sr=8-1&keywords=everybody+had+an+ocean">Prison was the only real home he’d known</a>.</p>
<p>When the lifelong con man hit the streets, much had changed since 1960, the year he had last tasted freedom. It was the <a href="http://www.the60sofficialsite.com/Summer_of_Love.html">Summer of Love</a>, and Manson drifted to San Francisco, the epicenter of America’s cultural revolution. </p>
<p>There he found docile flower children – easy marks, even for an inept crook. He adopted the hirsute look of the tribe, recycled some of the Scientology babble he’d picked up in the joint and started building a “family” of followers drunk on his flattery. He preyed on lost and damaged young women – wounded birds – and made them think they were beautiful, as long as they followed him.</p>
<p>He sought fame. He deserved fame, he reasoned, and he needed to make the world notice him. Music would be his vehicle: He knew a few chords and could reasonably mimic the peace, love and flowers ethos in his lyrics. </p>
<p>“His followers had no idea that Charlie was obsessed with becoming famous,” biographer <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/books/review/manson-a-biography-by-jeff-guinn.html">Jeff Guinn</a> wrote. “He told them that his goal, his mission, really, was to teach the world a better way to live through his songs.”</p>
<p>He brought his “family” of damaged goods to Los Angeles and sent his women to find people who could help him in his quest. While hitchhiking one day, a couple of the girls found an easy mark: the big-hearted, generous and sex-obsessed drummer for the Beach Boys, <a href="http://www.williammckeen.com/an-excerpt-from-everybody-had-an-ocean/">Dennis Wilson</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Everybody-Had-Ocean-Mayhem-Angeles/dp/1613734913/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509465732&sr=8-1&keywords=everybody+had+an+ocean">He picked them up</a>, took them home for milk, cookies and sex, then left for a recording session. When Dennis returned home in the middle of the night, the girls were still there, along with Charles Manson and 15 other young women, all mostly nude. For a sex junkie like Dennis, it was paradise. He bragged about his nubile roommates to his rock star pals, and by the end of 1968, Britain’s Record Mirror <a href="http://www.smileysmile.net/uncanny/index.php/dennis-wilson-i-live-with-17-girls">published a profile</a> titled “Dennis Wilson: I Live With 17 Girls.”</p>
<h2>Grasping at coattails</h2>
<p>Manson saw Dennis – and his Beach Boy brothers Brian and Carl – as his entrée to the music business and international fame. Although the group’s star was dimming by the late ‘60s – they were no longer the hip boy band they had once been – it was at least a foot in the music industry’s door. Through his time as Dennis Wilson’s roommate, Manson had gotten to know record producer Terry Melcher, Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas, Neil Young and Frank Zappa. </p>
<p>Convinced he would make Manson – whom he called the Wizard – into a star, Dennis urged his brothers to record the fledgling singer at the Beach Boys studio in Brian Wilson’s home. Wherever Manson went, of course, his “family” followed. Marilyn Wilson, married to Brian at the time, had the bathrooms fumigated after every session, fearing the filthy girls were spreading disease. (And they were, though not the kind that showed up on toilet seats. Dennis ended up footing, for the Manson women, <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beach-boys-a-california-saga-part-ii-19711111">what was jokingly referred to</a> as the largest gonorrhea bill in history.)</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196559/original/file-20171127-2004-h174uf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196559/original/file-20171127-2004-h174uf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196559/original/file-20171127-2004-h174uf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196559/original/file-20171127-2004-h174uf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196559/original/file-20171127-2004-h174uf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196559/original/file-20171127-2004-h174uf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196559/original/file-20171127-2004-h174uf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196559/original/file-20171127-2004-h174uf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Beach Boys pictured in November 1966. Clockwise from left: Dennis Wilson, Alan Jardine, Bruce Johnston, Mike Love and Carl Wilson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-Associated-Press-International-News-Ente-/6cebe0432e3243d999c5f65a92f1aa08/8/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After Dennis’s efforts bore no fruit, Manson glommed onto Melcher, who had produced the Byrds and Paul Revere and the Raiders. Melcher and Wilson introduced Manson to Los Angeles’s music society, largely through lavish parties at the estate on Cielo Drive that Melcher shared with actress Candace Bergen. At Cass Elliot’s parties, Manson played whirling dervish on the dance floor, entertaining all with his spastic monkey moves. </p>
<p>When Neil Young heard Manson <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpx4ODP35VQ&list=PLj2l6Lgg-kToX1vJaO881hGiUmqSzJ9n_">sing his compositions</a> during a drop-in at Dennis Wilson’s house, he called Mo Ostin, president of Warner-Reprise Records, to urge the boss to give the guy a listen. Young warned him that Manson was a little out there and spewed songs more than sang him. But still, Young insisted there was something there.</p>
<p>And there was. Manson’s voice was good enough that he had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/style/charles-manson-annoying-hipster.html">a reasonable expectation of getting a recording contract</a>. His original compositions were good enough to be recorded: The Beach Boys adapted one of his songs into something called “Never Learn Not to Love,” which they performed on the supremely wholesome “Mike Douglas Show.” </p>
<p>Manson’s lyrics, unfortunately, were mostly gibberish, bad enough to justify Ostin’s rejection and for Melcher to tell Manson he couldn’t get him the record contract he so desperately wanted.</p>
<p>But it was too late to stop now. He had drunk from the trough of fame. He mingled with rock stars and thought he was entitled to be one. </p>
<h2>Manson’s American dream</h2>
<p>The American dream used to be described thus: Come to America with nothing and, with the great freedoms and opportunity offered by the country, exit life with prosperity. It has also been described as simply the ideal of freedom – of living in a free and robust society, with nothing to impede people but an open road.</p>
<p>At some point, this changed. In the post-war world of abundant leisure and instant gratification, an ethos of opportunity, hard work and the gradual accumulation of wealth fell away, replaced by a longing for instant fame and fortune. Perhaps it was a result of the conspicuous wealth so visible on the new medium of television. Maybe these new celebrities burned so much brighter because their images slipped through the cathode ray into millions of American homes, turning the house into the new movie theater. </p>
<p>Either way, for millions today, the American dream is simply <a href="https://theconversation.com/inspired-by-kim-kardashian-a-feverish-legion-of-followers-struggle-to-achieve-online-fame-51534">the delirious pursuit of fame</a>. Ask a schoolchild what he wants and <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/yalda-t-uhls/kids-want-fame_b_1201935.html">many will say to be famous</a> – by any means necessary. </p>
<p>Charles Manson was an early avatar for this new concept of the American dream. He sought fame at any cost. He tried to achieve celebrity through music and, when he didn’t reach that goal, he turned to crime. Sure, he would spend 61 of his 83 years in prison. But the cameras rolled, the papers were printed, the books were sold. No one would ever forget his name.</p>
<p>In the summer of 1969, actress Sharon Tate and some houseguests were living in a <a href="http://cielodrive.com/10050-cielo-drive.php">Cielo Drive</a> home recently vacated by Terry Melcher and Candace Bergen. Manson didn’t send his murderous family for Melcher and Bergen – he knew they had moved. Instead, he wanted to frighten Melcher and other members of the rock’n’roll elite. The following night’s murder of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca was likewise intended to breed hysteria. It worked.</p>
<p>Manson achieved his goal, becoming so famous that his name replaced those of his victims. The crimes became known as the Manson murders.</p>
<p>Look to the media today to see Manson’s ideological descendants, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/fashion/jake-paul-team-10-youtube.html">thirsting for fame</a>. Some don’t just risk humiliation, they court it. Remember the early rounds of “American Idol” with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d5eP0wWLQY">jarringly dreadful performances</a> giving the reprehensible “singers” their 15 seconds of fame? </p>
<p>Other, more deadly offspring, could be the boys who shoot up schools and coffee shops and prayer-group meetings. They might be dead, they might have left a trail of destruction in their wake and they aren’t mourned. But like Manson, they are remembered. That’s certainly more than most failed con men can claim.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Manson did end up achieving his goal. Perhaps the best way to honor his victims is to forget his name.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87992/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William McKeen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Desperate to achieve fame by any means necessary, Manson was ahead of his time: Today, the delirious pursuit of fame has gone mainstream.William McKeen, Professor and Chair, Department of Journalism, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/798232017-11-29T12:18:11Z2017-11-29T12:18:11ZRosie the Riveters discovered a wartime California dream<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195735/original/file-20171121-6016-1umzjy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women shipfitters working on board the USS Nereus at the U.S. Navy Yard in Mare Island, circa 1943.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/%22Women_shipfitters_worked_on_board_the_USS_NEREUS%2C_and_are_shown_as_they_neared_completion_of_the_floor_in_a_part_of..._-_NARA_-_296892.jpg">Department of Defense</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For many American families, the Great Depression and Dust Bowl struck like swift punches to the gut. New Deal work relief programs like the <a href="https://livingnewdeal.org/glossary/works-progress-administration-wpa-1935/">Works Progress Administration</a> tossed lifelines into the crushing economic waves, but many young people soon started looking farther west for more stable opportunities.</p>
<p>A powerful vision of the California dream took hold in the late 1930s and early 1940s, featuring steady work, nice housing, sometimes love – all bathed in abundant warm sunshine. </p>
<p>Perhaps most important were the jobs. They attracted people to the Pacific Coast’s new airplane factories and shipyards. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 led to an intensified war effort, and more Americans sought ways to demonstrate patriotism while also taking advantage of new employment opportunities. People from economically downtrodden regions began <a href="http://vm154.lib.berkeley.edu:3002/searchinterview/display?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=&project=Rosie+The+Riveter+World+War+II+American+Home+Front">flooding into California en masse</a> – where <a href="https://www.nps.gov/rori/learn/management/upload/3%20RORI_Chapter2Feb09.pdf">nearly 10 percent of all federal government expenditures</a> during the war were spent.</p>
<p>Following wartime opportunities west, “Rosie the Riveters” found more than just jobs, though, when they reached the Golden State. And at the war’s conclusion, each had to decide whether her own version of the California dream had been temporary or something more durable.</p>
<h2>Moving on to another life</h2>
<p>Moving to find work looms large in the historical memory surrounding the Great Depression, and migration continued in the ensuing years. The Second World War led to the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/rori/learn/historyculture/index.htm">largest mass migration within the United States</a> in the nation’s history.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195723/original/file-20171121-6044-u7n24h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195723/original/file-20171121-6044-u7n24h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195723/original/file-20171121-6044-u7n24h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195723/original/file-20171121-6044-u7n24h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195723/original/file-20171121-6044-u7n24h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195723/original/file-20171121-6044-u7n24h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195723/original/file-20171121-6044-u7n24h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195723/original/file-20171121-6044-u7n24h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Posters aimed to recruit women to jobs left vacant by drafted men during the war.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Do_The_Job_He_Left_Behind%22_-_NARA_-_513683.jpg">Office of War Information</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People in rural parts of the country learned about new jobs in different ways. Word of mouth was crucial, as people often chose to travel with a friend or relatives to new jobs in growing cities along the West Coast. <a href="http://kaiserpermanentehistory.org/latest/the-permanente-richmond-field-hospital-proud-reminder-of-health-cares-role-in-world-war-ii/">Henry Kaiser, whose production company</a> would open seven <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/World-War-II-created-industrial-cultural-2503378.php">major shipyards during the war</a>, sent buses around the country recruiting people with the promise of good housing, health care and steady, well-paying work.</p>
<p>Railroad companies, airplane manufacturers and dozens if not hundreds of smaller companies supporting major corporations like Boeing, Douglas and Kaiser all offered similar work opportunities. Eventually the federal government even <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/11/daycare-world-war-rosie-riveter/415650/">helped out with child care</a>. Considered against the economic hardships of the Great Depression, the promises often sounded like sweet music.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/txkMFGP6Xbk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front Oral History Project, a collaboration of the National Park Service and the Regional Oral History Office of The Bancroft Library of UC Berkeley, collected hundreds of wartime memories.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During an oral history I recorded in 2013 for the <a href="http://vm154.lib.berkeley.edu:3002/searchinterview/display?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=&project=Rosie+The+Riveter+World+War+II+American+Home+Front">Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front Oral History project</a>, Oklahoman Doris Whitt remembered seeing an advertising poster for jobs, which sparked her interest in moving to California.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“[T]he way I got in with Douglas Aircraft was I went to the post office, and I saw these posters all over the walls. They were asking people to serve in these different projects that were opening up because the war had started.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For a kid from the Great Plains, the notion of going to California to help build airplanes seemed like moving to another world. Whitt grew up on a farm without a telephone. Even catching a glimpse of an airplane in the sky was unusual. </p>
<p>Whitt applied and was hired for training almost immediately. She became a “<a href="https://www.nps.gov/rori/index.htm">Rosie the Riveter</a>”: one of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.55">estimated seven million American women</a> who joined the labor force during the war. Even the pay Whitt began earning while training in Oklahoma City was more than she had ever made in her life to that point. When she transferred to the West Coast and arrived in Los Angeles, Whitt felt she was living the California dream.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Oh, it was great. I remember coming through Arizona and seeing all the palm trees, and those were the first I had ever seen. They were way up in the air, and all I could do was look…. Then we got down into Los Angeles, and I was just amazed at the difference…. I just thought, ‘Oh, boy, we’re in Glory Land.’”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195740/original/file-20171121-6039-ka6e48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195740/original/file-20171121-6039-ka6e48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195740/original/file-20171121-6039-ka6e48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195740/original/file-20171121-6039-ka6e48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195740/original/file-20171121-6039-ka6e48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195740/original/file-20171121-6039-ka6e48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195740/original/file-20171121-6039-ka6e48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195740/original/file-20171121-6039-ka6e48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Workers install fixtures and assemblies to a B-17 tail fuselage at the Douglas Aircraft Company plant in Long Beach.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:B17F_-_Woman_workers_at_the_Douglas_Aircraft_Company_plant,_Long_Beach,_Calif.jpg">Alfred T. Palmer, Office of War Information</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Whitt began walking to work every day, to a job at an airplane factory disguised as a canning company. She helped assemble P-38 Lighting aircraft by riveting the fuselage together on the day shift. She later moved to Northern California, working as a welder at a shipyard. When I met her more than 70 years later, she still resided in California.</p>
<h2>Did California remain a living dream?</h2>
<p>Ultimately, the wartime version of the California dream proved real for some people. The <a href="https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wwiibayarea/intro.htm">state boomed in the war years</a>. Wartime jobs in the defense industries paid well, profoundly so for those coming from rural poverty. African-Americans, especially those working in extremely poor conditions like sharecropping farmers in the South, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/190696/the-warmth-of-other-suns-by-isabel-wilkerson/9780679763888/">moved in large numbers</a> to better their lives.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195728/original/file-20171121-6044-1ff2dwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195728/original/file-20171121-6044-1ff2dwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195728/original/file-20171121-6044-1ff2dwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195728/original/file-20171121-6044-1ff2dwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195728/original/file-20171121-6044-1ff2dwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195728/original/file-20171121-6044-1ff2dwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195728/original/file-20171121-6044-1ff2dwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195728/original/file-20171121-6044-1ff2dwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Worker at Vega Aircraft Corporation in Burbank checks electrical assemblies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World_War_II_woman_aircraft_worker,_Vega_Aircraft_Corporation,_Burbank,_California_1942.jpg">U.S. Office of War Information</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Golden State didn’t always deliver on the promise it offered to those who moved there during World War II, though.</p>
<p>Many migrants found housing hard to find. Around shipyards, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=0E-GDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&dq=sleep+in+%22hot+beds%22+world+war+ii&source=bl&ots=b0zNg8ueEB&sig=5JcM2Zw2QZ23W-2ULzzbdEQEhlI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwivhKWjqtDXAhWI5oMKHYFeBNgQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=hot%20beds&f=false">some people even shared “hot beds.”</a> Workers slept in shifts: When one roommate returned home, another would head in to work, leaving behind a still-warm bed. Unauthorized, or <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/54gmn3pt9780252020940.html">“wildcat,” strikes</a> happened across California in spite of wartime rules intended to prevent such labor actions, suggestive of ongoing labor unrest bubbling over in a new wave of strikes happening after the war.</p>
<p>While many women moving to California stayed in relationships, some marriages came to an end as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/593087">divorce rate spiked</a>. Whitt and her husband separated not long after her move to California.</p>
<p>And despite wartime factories’ outstanding productivity with women working in traditionally male jobs, <a href="https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/gi-roundtable-series/pamphlets/do-you-want-your-wife-to-work-after-the-war">women were mostly pushed out of their jobs</a> at war’s end.</p>
<p>Some Rosies returned to their home states. But many others did stay in California, transitioning from wartime work in defense industries to other occupations. After all, the state still offered <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520084704">more progressive social conditions</a> and a wider range of opportunities for women than could be found in many other parts of the country during the post-war era.</p>
<p>Doris Whitt stayed in California and found a job at a meatpacking company, working there for 14 years. She moved to a small town near the ocean where she lived for decades. The California dream never completely disappeared for people like Whitt, but nothing is quite as magical as those few moments when one first discovers it. In her oral history, she remembered seeing San Francisco for the first time:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Oh, it was fantastic. Fantastic. I’d never seen anything like it in my life. It was just like going to a whole new country, you know? And the ocean… Oh it was just fantastic.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The California dream continued to evolve in the postwar era, with each passing generation and each new group of migrants making it into something new.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79823/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Redman received funding from the National Park Service to assist in the creation of the oral histories noted in this article. </span></em></p>Thousands of American women moved west to take advantage of wartime employment opportunities during WWII. For some, this version of the California dream was temporary; for others, it lasted a lifetime.Samuel Redman, Assistant Professor of History, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/858102017-11-16T01:41:16Z2017-11-16T01:41:16ZHow Silicon Valley industry polluted the sylvan California dream<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192293/original/file-20171027-2402-15ejnas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Aerial view of San Jose, California, 2016.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gordon-s/29670306746/in/photolist-ZHvaXX-Uo5oeM-RcXnY3-UjXT4J-N7tLMF-T9Tnno-Xea8Ym-McS5uS-Ui2ybJ-qEMBub-PfD9EU-e9RRfi-VWgfbi-QiHUXk-S4wGvz-LzFHTp-S64S7H-VWge8X-ABtoak-qg77S5-URsuhd-SrcUo8-eUPCUc-AePQJj-qzF7PW-Vy2pDG-pjpyPc-BE9Ed4-Rvoc4U-szHCZC-QBgQpX-Hg3Lgy-PtWFnc-Gjc4CG-PJMPp1-Liz43E-TTfx1R-ML7E2u-Sht5zW-eTpurL-TgKPJq-S64THD-8hxSP2-8hBsFA-Jy7ccp-TLXcao-pjb9gm-hskJKv-ACsLw6-rqdGgk">Gordon-Shukwit</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Labor Day 1956, a caravan of moving trucks wound their way into Santa Clara County, just south of San Francisco, carrying the possessions of 600 families and equipment for the missile and space labs of the Lockheed Corporation. One month later, Lockheed’s Sunnyvale campus opened for business. Many of the arriving families were relocating to Sunnyvale from the company’s facility in Burbank, in Southern California.</p>
<p>The draw included good jobs in the emerging businesses of electronics research and development, as well as manufacturing of semiconductors and other electronic components for machinery and computers. Affordable housing, a pastoral landscape and a pleasant environment proved very attractive for newcomers. Local boosters, corporate executives and new residents alike <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=KwvEBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT54&dq=Margaret+O%27Mara+environmental+contradictions&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjDxbPal7LXAhUS3YMKHbuvBiwQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">envisioned a modern future</a> in stark contrast with the declining dirty urban industrial model of the Northeast and Midwest. </p>
<p>This type of industrial work and manufacturing didn’t need smokestacks, large warehouses, or other markers of the industrial age. The Santa Clara Valley’s promise for leading Northern California into a bright economic future quickly brought the area the nickname “Silicon Valley.” But in the book I am writing, I note that if this convergence of natural surroundings, suburban homes and high-tech industrialization represented a facet of the California dream, it also betrayed it.</p>
<h2>A bright illusion of the future</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191217/original/file-20171020-13995-1qaicjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191217/original/file-20171020-13995-1qaicjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191217/original/file-20171020-13995-1qaicjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191217/original/file-20171020-13995-1qaicjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191217/original/file-20171020-13995-1qaicjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191217/original/file-20171020-13995-1qaicjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191217/original/file-20171020-13995-1qaicjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191217/original/file-20171020-13995-1qaicjp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A promising advertisement for homes in San Jose.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">San Jose Mercury, January 18, 1956</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition to jobs in electronics and aerospace, the emerging suburbs of Silicon Valley promised newcomers a countryside experience. David Beers, whose father worked at the Sunnyvale Lockheed campus, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=bVMuLOrHoU8C&pg=PT50&dq=Beers+%22all-year+garden%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjz7KDatP_WAhWB64MKHRy-BGgQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Beers%20%22all-year%20garden%22&f=false">remembered</a> the chamber of commerce brochures claiming an “all-year garden” and “the most beautiful valleys in the world.” Such advertisements were common, assuring home buyers “good living,” the “calm of the country” and “a beautiful walnut and cherry orchard” that “the builder is leaving … for your enjoyment.” The white-collar workers of high tech could make their homes in what appeared to be the countryside.</p>
<p>Workplaces, too, were different, with manufacturing happening in places that didn’t look like the old industries of the East. The Stanford Industrial Park, founded in the early 1950s, had <a href="https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/58349">strict building guidelines</a> that made it look more like a suburban area than a manufacturing center. Crucially, 60 percent of each lot had to be preserved as open green space, and no smokestacks were allowed. “Everyone thought of smokestacks,” <a href="https://purl.stanford.edu/dv559gn8984">recalled Alf Brandin</a>, Stanford’s business manager in the 1940s and 1950s. “These new people who came out from the East and settled here thought, ‘Don’t change it. We just left all the smoke and all that junk. Don’t change this.’”</p>
<p>The overall feeling was of much more than just a good job and a nice place to live: a new world was opening, based on computing. Promising young engineers could come west, buy a home and work in the future of the nation’s industry. “There’s a sense of being pioneers here,” Mark Leslie, founder of Synapse Computers, <a href="https://www.inc.com/magazine/19820901/3259.html">told a reporter</a> in 1982. “I view myself as the kind of guy who would have been living in Detroit in 1910. The future depends on high technology, and we are spearheading it.”</p>
<p>Recent college graduates and white-collar workers flocked to the valley to work at companies like Fairchild, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, International Business Machines and Lockheed. The county’s population <a href="http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/bayarea70.htm">more than quadrupled</a> in 30 years, from 290,547 in 1950 to 1,265,200 in 1980. But the clean, gleaming future they imagined was already being tarnished.</p>
<p><iframe id="GAWiv" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/GAWiv/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Fairchild contamination</h2>
<p>Semiconductor manufacturing involves very carefully connecting microscopic electrical components to each other on large plates of silicon. Pieces of dust can block sensitive circuits, and the smallest scratches can render everything useless. So to clean the silicon wafers and the parts joined to them, manufacturers used <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=-L0ODAAAQBAJ&pg=PA185&dq=semiconductor+chemical+solvents+cleaning+TCE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxra6JuP_WAhXE1IMKHUqAD6cQ6AEINzAD#v=onepage&q=semiconductor%20chemical%20solvents%20cleaning%20TCE&f=false">harsh chemical solvents</a> like <a href="https://www.epa.gov/assessing-and-managing-chemicals-under-tsca/risk-management-trichloroethylene-tce">1,1,1 trichloroethane</a>, <a href="https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/mmg/mmg.asp?id=291&tid=53">xylene</a> and <a href="https://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/text_version/chemicals.php?id=77">methanol</a>. These chemicals were stored on-site in containers designed to safely hold them.</p>
<p>But in December 1981, construction workers discovered a leaking chemical solvents tank at Fairchild Semiconductor’s southern San José facility. A cancer-causing chemical, TCE, had found its way into <a href="https://www.inc.com/magazine/19820901/3259.html">nearby drinking-water wells</a>. The water company promptly shut off pumping water from those wells. A month later, the San Jose Mercury broke the story of the chemical leak. TCE accumulated in wells at nearly 20 times the permissible limit established by the Environmental Protection Agency. Over the course of two years, <a href="https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyNET.exe/9100976C.txt?ZyActionD=ZyDocument&Client=EPA&Index=1986%20Thru%201990&Docs=&Query=&Time=&EndTime=&SearchMethod=1&TocRestrict=n&Toc=&TocEntry=&QField=&QFieldYear=&QFieldMonth=&QFieldDay=&UseQField=&IntQFieldOp=0&ExtQFieldOp=0&XmlQuery=&File=D%3A%5CZYFILES%5CINDEX%20DATA%5C86THRU90%5CTXT%5C00000020%5C9100976C.txt&User=ANONYMOUS&Password=anonymous&SortMethod=h%7C-&MaximumDocuments=1&FuzzyDegree=0&ImageQuality=r75g8/r75g8/x150y150g16/i425&Display=hpfr&DefSeekPage=x&SearchBack=ZyActionL&Back=ZyActionS&BackDesc=Results%20page&MaximumPages=1&ZyEntry=4">more than 60,000 gallons</a> of toxic chemicals had leaked from the tank, spreading underground more than half a mile into the surrounding neighborhood of Los Paseos.</p>
<h2>Neighbors speak up</h2>
<p>For the residents of the Los Paseos neighborhood, just across the street from Fairchild, the news of the chemical leak suddenly explained the stories of birth defects among their neighbors. <a href="https://www.inc.com/magazine/19820901/3259.html">Lorraine Ross</a>, whose daughter had her first open-heart surgery at nine months old, couldn’t help but wonder if the four birth defects, two miscarriages and one stillbirth of Los Paseos in the past two years were <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/20/us/leaking-chemicals-in-california-s-silicon-valley-alarm-neighbors.html">connected to water contamination</a>. She organized others in the neighborhood to ask questions, eventually partnering with a young lawyer, Ted Smith, who founded a new advocacy organization called the <a href="http://svtc.org/">Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition</a>. The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition was designed to advocate for neighborhoods, helping draft new county and city ordinances related to the storage, transportation and disposal of chemicals and gases in Santa Clara County.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190905/original/file-20171018-32348-9u7c5d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190905/original/file-20171018-32348-9u7c5d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190905/original/file-20171018-32348-9u7c5d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190905/original/file-20171018-32348-9u7c5d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190905/original/file-20171018-32348-9u7c5d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190905/original/file-20171018-32348-9u7c5d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190905/original/file-20171018-32348-9u7c5d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190905/original/file-20171018-32348-9u7c5d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition flyer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt2b69r7hf/">Folder 3, Box 11, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition Papers, San Jose State University</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>News of the Fairchild leak captured the attention of the San Francisco Bay Area. The presence of these chemicals and synthetics were a revelation. “There was no doubt in my mind that this was a clean industry,” <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/20/us/leaking-chemicals-in-california-s-silicon-valley-alarm-neighbors.html">remarked</a> San José Mayor Janet Gray Hayes. Lorraine Ross echoed this sentiment, telling a reporter that “we thought we were living with a clean industry.” But it wasn’t true.</p>
<h2>Widespread pollution</h2>
<p>Fairchild wasn’t alone in leaking pollution into the vibrant environment and thriving communities around its industrial sites. By 1992, one study found that <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814767092/">57 private and 47 public drinking wells</a> were contaminated. Santa Clara County authorities determined that 65 of the 79 companies they investigated had contaminated the soil beneath their facilities. Several companies were forced to pay several million dollars for the cleanup of polluted sites, as well as install new monitoring equipment to prevent leaks for occurring again. Fairchild Semiconductor and other companies in the Los Paseos area found to have contaminated the water agreed to pay a multi-million-dollar settlement to 530 residents in southern San José.</p>
<p>The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency eventually <a href="http://dissertation.jasonheppler.org/visualizations/companies/">determined 29 polluted sites were eligible for Superfund</a> cleanup money over the course of the 1980s – 24 of which resulted from high-tech industries. Under <a href="https://www.epa.gov/superfund">Superfund</a>, polluted sites that particularly threaten wildlife or human health become eligible for federal funding to help clean up hazardous and contaminated sites. By the end of the 1980s, Santa Clara County had <a href="https://qz.com/1017181/silicon-valley-pollution-there-are-more-superfund-sites-in-santa-clara-than-any-other-us-county/">more Superfund sites</a> than any other county in the United States. <a href="https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-you-live">Twenty-three of the sites</a> remain in remediation today.</p>
<p>By accident and by neglect, the promise of clean industrialization proved elusive. Thousands of people migrated to the Santa Clara Valley hoping to take part in the remarkable convergence of affordable housing and new jobs. And while smokestacks were absent from electronics manufacturing, the presence of highly toxic chemicals – trichloroethane and chlorinated solvents – shattered the illusion behind the tech industry’s green image. The industry permanently altered the land and human bodies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85810/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason A. Heppler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Silicon Valley brought together natural surroundings, suburban homes and futuristic high-tech work. But industrial pollution betrayed the California dream.Jason A. Heppler, Digital Engagement Librarian and Assistant Professor of History, University of Nebraska OmahaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/808712017-11-07T03:26:33Z2017-11-07T03:26:33ZLatino elites are paying the California dream forward<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193257/original/file-20171103-1055-tmdygq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A small – but powerful – Latino middle class has emerged in California, led by elites like State Senator Kevin de Leon.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jae C. Hong</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>American Latino economic elites have incomes and wealth in the top five percent of earners. Some own multi-million-dollar companies or work as corporate executives. Latino politicians – like Kevin De León, who is serving as California Senate president while running for U.S. Senate, and California’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra - are especially visible in the state.</p>
<p>What role do these successful men and women play in the wider Latino community?</p>
<p>It’s an important question because <a href="http://newdiversities.mmg.mpg.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2014_16-01_02_Lee.pdf">scholars view</a> elites of color as critical to the creation of educational, financial and social resources that help ethnic communities thrive. </p>
<h2>Sharing resources</h2>
<p>California is at the vanguard of racial and ethnic demographic change in the United States. </p>
<p>In 1980, <a href="http://nationalequityatlas.org/indicators/Race%7Eethnicity/Racial_and_ethnic_composition:32756/California/false/">two-thirds of California’s population was white</a> and 19 percent was Latino. By 2015, Latinos had edged just past whites to become the state’s largest ethnic group at 39 percent of the population. By 2050, Latinos are projected to make up 51 percent of California’s population. Whites will decrease to 24 percent. </p>
<p>Births are fueling this population growth, not immigration. In fact, <a href="http://www.pewhispanic.org/states/state/ca/">two-thirds of Latinos in California</a> – and the U.S. more generally – are born on American soil. The Golden State’s future is linked to the social and economic integration of Latino Californians. </p>
<p>In contrast to the <a href="http://time.com/4473972/donald-trump-mexico-meeting-insult/">criminal</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/08/31/trumps-repeated-claim-that-more-hispanics-are-in-poverty-under-obama/?utm_term=.81e5d0eb2b86">poverty narratives</a> so often told by President Donald Trump, <a href="http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=21566">I study</a> the Latino middle class. Currently, I’m looking into the rise of a small but powerful class of Latino economic and political elites. </p>
<p><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/handbook-of-family-diversity-9780195120394?cc=us&lang=en&">Latino communities are often viewed</a> as lacking ethnic elites who can infuse communities with educational and financial resources. <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo13375722.html">Scholars also question</a> whether those who enter the middle and upper class abandon lower-income neighborhoods and the people who live there, taking with them networks and financial resources that can support mobility. </p>
<p>Who is correct? Interviews I’ve conducted in California’s Latino community as research for a book suggests that a small well-heeled group is actively involved in growing a Latino middle class. They are using their social, economic and political resources to help others attain college degrees, start small businesses and build wealth. </p>
<p>Their desire to work for change is rooted in optimism for the future based on their own success, as many are the children of immigrants. They also say they were politicized by key moments when politicians targeted Latinos with nativist anti-immigrant rhetoric and punitive legislation. These positive and negative experiences have instilled in them a sense of responsibility for the community. </p>
<p>Some trace their ethnic solidarity to California’s anti-immigrant era in the 1990s. Pete Wilson, then governor of California, ran his reelection campaign on a <a href="http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/latinos/rise-nativism.pdf">nativist platform</a>. Some people I interviewed who were in college during this period participated in actions against laws like <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_187,_Illegal_Aliens_Ineligible_for_Public_Benefits_(1994)">Proposition 187</a>, an anti-immigrant initiative that sought to deny benefits to unauthorized immigrants. Others have been pushed into action by more recent threats to the Latino population, such as <a href="http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2010/05/arizona-immigration-law-and-racial-profiling.html">SB 1070</a>, Arizona’s harsh 2010 immigration law that institutionalized racial profiling. Their desire to combat negative stereotypes and infuse their communities with resources has only grown more urgent in the Trump era, a time when many feel once again under attack. </p>
<h2>What matters to Latino economic and political elites?</h2>
<p>Latino economic elites are overseeing and funding Latino institutions centered on two key social issues. One issue is Latino youths’ access to higher education and college degree completion. The second is economic empowerment through the financial sector. </p>
<p>“We are on the verge of a major demographic shift, a power shift,” one person I interviewed told me. “It’s already happening in politics. The idea is to create our own opportunities and open up access to these areas. To grow the Latino middle class, we have to give back by providing access.” </p>
<p>They approach these concerns in different ways. </p>
<p>Despite <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/29/hispanic-dropout-rate-hits-new-low-college-enrollment-at-new-high/">record level of college enrollments nationwide</a>, Latino educational attainment remains relatively low. Latino elites are organizing around this issue through what I call “ethnoracial philanthropy.” This is the practice of creating, or giving to, Latino nonprofit organizations that focus on alleviating social and economic inequalities. They give to Latino-led organizations that facilitate college prep programs in low-income communities with the goal of increasing the number of Latinos going to college. They spearhead charter schools in Latino communities. They collectively give millions to local and national Latino scholarship funds. They attempt to establish pipelines into careers in which Latinos are severely underrepresented, such as media and STEM. </p>
<p>Others, like Gil and Jacki Cisneros, start their own educational <a href="http://cisnerosfoundation.org/">philanthropic organizations</a>. The Cisneroses won the Mega Millions jackpot in 2010 and are <a href="https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2015/6/24/lucky-and-focused-a-lottery-winner-uses-his-millions-to-boos.html">focusing their giving on Latino educational access and attainment</a>. The Cisneros’ have endowed a scholarship at USC Annenberg and established the Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute at George Washington University. </p>
<p>Gil Cisneros told me, “To me, education is the biggest issue. It really is a game changer. It has the potential to change the trajectory of your life… As the Latino population grows, we need to talk about how we will elevate this community.” Gil Cisneros is now one of several candidates of color running for Congress in the primaries in <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/California%27s_39th_Congressional_District_election,_2018">California’s 39th Congressional District</a>, a battleground in Orange County and my hometown district. </p>
<p>Similarly, Latino elites are concerned about <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/06/27/1-demographic-trends-and-economic-well-being/">the persistent Latino wealth gap</a>. White households hold 10 times the wealth of Latino households. Some Latino elites have started Latino banks or are engaging in other efforts to connect Latinos to sources of financial capital from which they’ve traditionally been excluded. They believe that these efforts will help Latinos build assets and wealth. </p>
<p>While these actions may be profit-driven, those involved also see a broader mission of “creating economic stability in the community” by helping unbanked low-income Latinos open bank accounts and build credit scores. Other efforts concentrate on providing access to loans to Latino entrepreneurs, who are growing at a rate <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/state-latino-entrepreneurship-2016">faster than any other group</a> and <a href="http://soba.ucr.edu/centers/carousel/Minority_Business_Owner_Report_Hispanic_4_13_2016.pdf">who own a quarter of all businesses in California</a>. </p>
<p>“The bank is a critical component of a successful community,” one wealthy business owner told me. “Banks can play a vital role for communities and groups. It is not just about the bottom line for us, but more about how do we build a sound and total community.”</p>
<p>Latino political leaders in California are also working to help Latinos attain the California dream. </p>
<p>Most, like Kevin de León and <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-ricardo-lara-20130728-dto-htmlstory.html">Sen. Ricardo Lara</a>, are the upwardly mobile children of immigrants. These elected officials, along with others like Sen. Tony Mendoza, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher, LA City Council member Gil Cedillo – are proposing and passing progressive immigrant integration legislation at all levels of <a href="http://policymatters.ucr.edu/vol6-3-immigration/">California state government</a>. </p>
<p>Who should bear the responsibility of relieving inequalities in an era where the federal and <a href="https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/11/01/after-tax-cuts-derailed-the-california-dream-can-the-state-get-back-on-track/">state government</a> has continuously moved away from funding basic services to the poor and middle class? And in a period where the current president constantly makes villains of Latinos? </p>
<p>Latino elites’ efforts to infuse their communities with resources are important, but they alone cannot solve widespread social and economic inequalities. These economic elites have not amassed enough wealth to generate resources on a scale that can adequately address growing income and wealth inequality in California. Creating and supporting pathways to the California dream is the responsibility of us all. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This article was edited to add a sentence about Gil and Jacki Cisneros’ contributions to higher education.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80871/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jody Agius Vallejo receives funding from the American Sociological Association's Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline, the John and Dora Haynes Foundation, the USC Office of the Provost, the Lusk Center for Real Estate, and the UC Davis Center for Poverty Research. She is affiliated with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. Vallejo is a registered Democrat.</span></em></p>Scholars say elites are critical to helping ethnic communities thrive. So, who are the Latino elites and what work are they doing for their community?Jody Agius Vallejo, Associate Professor of Sociology and American Studies and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration at USC, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/795692017-11-01T10:14:39Z2017-11-01T10:14:39ZImagining the ‘California Dream’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178291/original/file-20170714-7354-ta5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is the California Dream still alive and well?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/vintage-california-view-oil-painting-526016404?src=oiGDFrNPr3v9ETEZq1Km2w-1-0">Ivan Aleshin/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Who gave the world the idea of the California Dream? </p>
<p>One way to answer this question is: “Who didn’t?” Millions of people today and in the past imagined California before ever going there – or without ever going there at all. Their collective vision of this place, what it means and how it might make, or remake, those who come here is one way to think about the California Dream, writ large.</p>
<p>But there’s also a person, a single thinker, in another answer to this question. </p>
<p>Kevin Starr, the prolific historian of California, died in January 2017. His passing took from the Golden State its most important scholarly interpreter and the one person most closely identified with chronicling the California Dream as a dynamic vision of a place and its possibilities. Across 40 years, Starr built a body of published work that put him in the most distinguished company of California commentators: <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/488109">Carey McWilliams</a> and <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/291675">Joan Didion</a> in the 20th century; <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/882088301">Richard Henry Dana</a>, <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/223807026">Mark Twain</a> and <a href="https://archive.org/details/bancrofthistcal01bancroft">H.H. Bancroft</a> in the 19th.</p>
<p>The loss feels especially poignant, even raw, just now. With California poised to flex more of its considerable clout across many stages, largely in antagonistic environmental, cultural and legislative response to the current presidential administration, it would be comforting to have Kevin Starr’s booming voice and clever opinions as narration and context to what is happening out here on the West Coast.</p>
<h2>West to East and back</h2>
<p>Born and raised in San Francisco in hardscrabble circumstances, Kevin Starr spent time as a boy in a Catholic orphanage, went to college at the Jesuit-led University of San Francisco and joined the Army. He then went to Harvard in the mid-1960s and ran headlong into American civilization. That meant the constellation of brilliant Harvard humanists shaping understanding of American intellectual and cultural history in books still consulted, and it meant steeping in the hothouse of Ivy League presumptions about just where American civilization existed and where it surely did not. Boston was in, of course, and so was Philadelphia. New York? Maybe. New Haven counted for something. </p>
<p>“I am going to write a dissertation on the West,” I said once to one of my own Ivy League historian mentors, who responded with an immediate and knee-jerk “West of what?” I went on to study the West, and have done so for the last 30 years. Over this entire time, I was fortunate to count Kevin Starr as mentor, friend and colleague. </p>
<h2>Inviting scholarly scrutiny</h2>
<p>Starr loved his time at Harvard. He marinated in the seminars and in the libraries. He felt at home. The old-school courtliness of Harvard matched his own bearing and respect for institutions. He also felt very much a Californian, and he chose to bring his home state to scholarly scrutiny. Starr wrote a doctoral thesis under the supervision of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/03/arts/alan-heimert-70-professor-and-expert-on-early-america.html">Alan Heimert</a>, the brilliant scholar of 18th-century American religion who had just brought out his masterpiece, <a href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;idno=heb01364">“Religion and the American Mind: From the Great Awakening to the Revolution</a>,” on the religious enthusiasms of pre-Revolutionary America. Under Heimert’s close mentoring – they were only about a decade apart in age – Starr wrote on a Great Awakening of a different sort: California’s sudden and imaginative hold on the American psyche. The thesis became <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/americans-and-the-california-dream-1850-1915-9780195042337?lang=en&cc=us">“Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915</a>,” which Oxford University Press brought out in the early 1970s. </p>
<p>In one big book, Starr made the California Dream mean and stand for so much more than the mid-19th-century search for gold nuggets in Sierra streams and rivers. The dream took that adventure in, to be sure, but Starr expanded our understanding of it well beyond the expectations of so many inexperienced miners trying their luck. Though initially conceived as a one-off monograph, the book launched an intellectual pilgrimage sparked from a deceptively simple query. What is the meaning – and the condition – of the “California Dream” through time? </p>
<h2>A West Coast civilization</h2>
<p>Each of the <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=Kevin+Starr+Dream&qt=results_page">more than half-dozen books that followed</a> is another illumination of the history and culture of California. Starr broke through much of the nonsense of California studies – the “Old West” school of daring days of yesteryear – by taking the place, its people and the ideas they generated seriously. </p>
<p>Each successive volume is pinned, across eras or single decades, to the state and well-being of the oft-elusive California Dream at this or that moment in time. A redemptive California, a West Coast civilization made of the best hopes and dreams of the young nation, embodies the first book, and this idea animates the full series. Californians, Starr insists, can rise above the worst impulses of greed, violence or racism and, in so doing, render the state exemplary to the rest of the nation and the world. Starr knew his William Bradford, he of the obligations of an American “city on a hill”; he knew his Alan Heimert; he knew his <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674261556">Perry Miller</a>, another of Harvard’s brilliant scholars of American mission and destiny. He brought them all with him to California. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186677/original/file-20170919-22657-1my2iaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186677/original/file-20170919-22657-1my2iaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186677/original/file-20170919-22657-1my2iaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186677/original/file-20170919-22657-1my2iaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186677/original/file-20170919-22657-1my2iaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186677/original/file-20170919-22657-1my2iaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186677/original/file-20170919-22657-1my2iaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, right, and Kevin Starr unveil the California Quarter in 2004.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Stacked end to end, Starr’s dream series does not describe a straight line of hope or success. California is not so regenerative a place as to avoid the worst of human impulses and actions, and Starr knew that – despite his impressively irrepressible hopes that it might. California is always more parts hope than promise in Starr’s reckoning, and it has ever been thus. Woven into his lofty prose are indications of darkness and disappointment. “Old in error,” he noted as he closed the best of his books on this place, “California remains an American hope.” </p>
<p>What he did brilliantly was to temper faith with realism, realism with faith. That trait is what makes his absence especially painful right now. California is resurgent these days, even in its many imperfections. Feisty, even smug about its considerable power, the state – its political leadership and wide swaths of its population – is <a href="http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-ed-california-fights-back/">boldly going against the national zeitgeist</a> in such arenas as environmental, social and immigration policies and perspectives. Given his erudition and the bully pulpit he so enjoyed opining from, Kevin Starr would have much to say about how the nation might not only learn from California examples, but how, as it has for two centuries, California might take the nation forward and not back.</p>
<p><em>Read more about the past and future of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/california-dream-39642">California Dream</a>. This series is published in collaboration with KQED.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79569/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Deverell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Millions of people have imagined California, but only one man was its historian.William Deverell, Professor of History, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/845572017-11-01T10:14:17Z2017-11-01T10:14:17ZCalifornia’s higher education: From American dream to dilemma<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190048/original/file-20171012-31431-5dey19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students at Berkeley campus</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Ben Margot, File</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the Golden State of California, 1960 was a golden year: It was a time of rapid development, when the state chose to use its tax revenues to fund magnificent freeways and other infrastructure. </p>
<p>Part of this massive development was a system of <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/25157701">public higher education</a> – a model that put California center stage in the American imagination.</p>
<p>From my perspective as a social historian who started high school in Southern California in 1961 and then entered graduate school at the University of California Berkeley in 1969, the story of higher education in California over the past 60 years has been a fantastic voyage – albeit with detours and delays.</p>
<h2>Start of the dream</h2>
<p>California’s higher education prospects of 1960 were built on a distinctive historical foundation. The idea that the state’s colleges and universities could – and should – be the <a href="http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=339">source</a> of an informed, responsible citizenry and state leadership had been established by legislators and voters by World War I. </p>
<p>Robert Gordon Sproul, president of the University of California, who served from 1930 to 1958, built on this early vision. He set up <a href="http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=339">six campuses statewide</a> as part of a creation of a multi-campus system to meet California’s growing demand for higher education. </p>
<p>After World War II, as returning veterans headed back to school the demand continued to grow: <a href="http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/uchistory/archives_exhibits/masterplan/MasterPlan1960.pdf">Enrollments in universities increased by as much as 50 percent.</a> At the same time, the <a href="http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/uchistory/archives_exhibits/masterplan/MasterPlan1960.pdf">number of high school graduates</a> went up as well. The number of campuses needed to be further increased. </p>
<p>The rapid growth in potential students coinciding with the crazy quilt of a large number of public and private institutions led to <a href="http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=339">turf wars</a>. The foremost problem was a contentious rivalry between the University of California system and other state-funded higher education institutions. Both were <a href="http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19601017,00.html">in competition</a> for funding and students.</p>
<h2>The dream years</h2>
<p>When Clark Kerr was named president of the University of California system in 1958, he sought to end the chaos of the <a href="http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19601017,00.html">statewide academic “guerrilla warfare</a>.” Kerr was an economist who had served for seven years as chancellor of the university’s flagship campus at Berkeley.</p>
<p>With Kerr’s efforts higher education became part of the California dream. In 1960 the state legislature passed the Donahoe Act. This legislation included a 246-page report, <a href="http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/uchistory/archives_exhibits/masterplan/MasterPlan1960.pdf">“A Master Plan for Higher Education in California, 1960-1975.”</a></p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190050/original/file-20171012-31386-rqx9mv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190050/original/file-20171012-31386-rqx9mv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190050/original/file-20171012-31386-rqx9mv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190050/original/file-20171012-31386-rqx9mv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190050/original/file-20171012-31386-rqx9mv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1018&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190050/original/file-20171012-31386-rqx9mv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1018&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190050/original/file-20171012-31386-rqx9mv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1018&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Clark Kerr on the cover of Time magazine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanoasis/3560475324/">Dale Winling</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<p>To reduce chaos, missions were clearly defined for each institutional segment: University of California was to admit the top 12.5 percent of high school graduates, and the California State University and Colleges would draw from the top 33 percent of remaining high school graduates. The others could enroll in junior colleges, later renamed “community colleges.” These junior colleges provided associate degree programs, and their graduates could apply for transfer to the four-year colleges.</p>
<p>The plan gained national attention. On Oct. 17, 1960, Time magazine featured Clark Kerr on its cover as the <a href="http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19601017,00.html">“Master Planner.”</a> </p>
<p>A distinctive feature of the California master plan was that the state’s private colleges and universities (also known as “independent colleges and universities”) too were <a href="https://www.aiccu.edu/about/">included in this public policy</a>, the rationale being that distinguished private colleges and universities such as Stanford, University of Southern California, California Institute of Technology and Claremont Colleges were a unique resource to the state. Their alumni, as skilled professionals and leaders, contributed to the state’s development. These institutions were also major employers within their counties and communities.</p>
<h2>Affordable and a place of excellence</h2>
<p>What is particularly important to note is that the California dream of higher education combined access to higher education with affordability and choice. Until then, the City University of New York (CUNY) had been the only major public higher education system that had a tradition of not charging tuition. But the New York policy for its CUNY segment did not apply to New York’s other public institutions, such as the State University of New York (SUNY). </p>
<p>In contrast, the new California policy of no tuition was extended to all public colleges and universities statewide. Furthermore, the master plan promoted <a href="http://www.csac.ca.gov/doc.asp?id=128">state-funded student scholarships</a> through a state agency created in 1955, the California Student Aid Commission. </p>
<p>California came to provide a high quality of education – the best in the country. A 1966 report by the American Council on Education (based on data collected in 1964) shows that University of California, Berkeley was the <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED016621">top university at the time in America</a> for overall quality in graduate education. </p>
<p>Excellence was encouraged and nurtured. Between 1939 and 1968, 12 professors at UC Berkeley had received the Nobel Prize, the <a href="https://www.berkeley.edu/news/features/nobel/">highest number</a> at any university. </p>
<p>Resources were made available for the realization of the dream. As part of passing the Donahoe Act in 1960, the California state government <a href="http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19601017,00.html">approved US$1 billion</a> (equivalent to about $10 billion in 2017) in funding for higher education facilities. Central to its growth was an expansion of campuses. Between 1964 and 1965 the University of California <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/25157701">built three new campuses</a> – at San Diego, Irvine and Santa Cruz. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190049/original/file-20171012-31408-1fra4yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190049/original/file-20171012-31408-1fra4yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190049/original/file-20171012-31408-1fra4yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190049/original/file-20171012-31408-1fra4yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190049/original/file-20171012-31408-1fra4yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190049/original/file-20171012-31408-1fra4yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190049/original/file-20171012-31408-1fra4yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">University of California, Irvine, 1966.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/2868164141/">Orange County Archives</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Inflation, tuition, loans</h2>
<p>By 1967, however, the master plan was encountering problems – it was expensive and increasingly seemed not sustainable.</p>
<p>In addressing citizen groups, state Senator George Deukmejian voiced Republican concerns about higher education. According to a front-page story in The Whittier Daily News on October 14, 1967, Deukmejian argued in favor of adding a tuition charge for University of California students and endorsed <a href="http://www.newfoundations.com/Clabaugh/CuttingEdge/Reagan.html">Governor Ronald Reagan’s new “equal education plan.”</a> The plan called for a modest tuition of $250 per year (worth approximately $2,500 today) for the university and $80 per year in the state colleges (equivalent to $800 per year today).</p>
<p>The Republican reform plan included grants or loans to those who could not afford the modest tuition. He noted that half of the enrolled students came from relatively affluent families. Only about 12 percent came from modest-income families earning $6,000 year or less (about $60,000 today). </p>
<p>When Deukmejian took office as governor in 1983, he <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/28/science/california-weighs-end-of-free-college-education.html">continued</a> to impose tuition charges on students at the University of California and other state colleges.</p>
<h2>The realities today</h2>
<p>Today, California’s higher education system struggles with budget cuts and an uncertain future. The reasons are many.</p>
<p>The percentage of Californians seeking to go to college gradually increased, and so did the overall number of high school graduates. Consequently, the expansion in college enrollments over a little more than a half-century was incredibly large. </p>
<p>In 1960, for example, the total enrollment for all institutions in the state was 234,000. By 2015 University of California enrolled 253,000 students at 10 campuses, California State University enrolled 395,000 students at 16 campuses, and the community colleges enrolled 1,138,000 at 113 campuses. This was a <a href="http://www.lao.ca.gov/handouts/education/2017/Overview_of_Higher_Education_in_California_083117.pdf">seven-fold enrollment increase</a> since 1960 – the most among all states in the nation. </p>
<p>In contrast to 1960, <a href="http://www.lao.ca.gov/handouts/education/2017/Overview_of_Higher_Education_in_California_083117.pdf">student fees and tuition increased</a> while state general fund subsidies per student tapered. In 2015, tuition charges at UC were $12,240, a tenfold increase over 1960.</p>
<p>During the past four decades, California’s public colleges and universities have <a href="http://www.ppic.org/wp-content/uploads/r_0917hj3r.pdf">endured lean budgets</a>. The start of this came about in 1978, when <a href="http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1904938,00.html">passage of Proposition 13</a> placed a ceiling on property taxes, which, among others, had helped provide revenues to the state for meeting expenditures for public education.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190051/original/file-20171012-31414-w0mb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190051/original/file-20171012-31414-w0mb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190051/original/file-20171012-31414-w0mb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190051/original/file-20171012-31414-w0mb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190051/original/file-20171012-31414-w0mb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190051/original/file-20171012-31414-w0mb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190051/original/file-20171012-31414-w0mb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Signs from students who came together from all California university campuses to protest against tuition hikes in November 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/42047737@N07/4119078870/in/photolist-9nCY4K-bUCrXX-9nFYNY-bzQeJW-cbZFeo-7gWjGZ-8HcCJd-7gWzBa-bUCrMp-cbZFA1-bUCryX-bzQeM5-9nCYrX-9nCXvr-8HcGNE-9nFZUQ-7gWzBg-8HcGpf-8HcGQL-8HcGBL-8HcH1y-8H9yRT-7gZmDd-8H9yZt-7gZmDf-8HcGo9-8HcGUq-7gWjGX-8H9yHr-8H9yPB-8H9zdD-7gZPR1-7gZPQN-7h1zwh-7gWzB4-7gWjH4-7gWzAZ-7gZPR7-8HcGSd-7gZmDh-GYJ4xU-7gZPQQ-bUCs4T-bUCrzP-cbZEXy-cbZEV9-cbZENo-bNJT5v-8HcGJo-7gWjGV">Sarah Smith</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today there are concerns that the public universities, as a result of budget cuts, are soon going to be <a href="http://stanford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.11126/stanford/9780804780506.001.0001/upso-9780804780506">“public no more.”</a> As education scholar <a href="https://scholars.opb.msu.edu/en/persons/brendan-j-cantwell">Brendan Cantwell</a> notes, even the preeminent research university, Berkeley, has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-berkeleys-budget-cuts-tell-us-about-americas-public-universities-54997">hit by budget cuts</a>. At the same time, the state’s outstanding private colleges and universities <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21560290">have soared</a> in terms of academic standards, selective admissions, tuition revenues, new construction and federal research grants. </p>
<p>The master plan has struggled to keep up. It has gone through many reviews and revisions, the latest of which, in 2017, emphasized improving access and <a href="https://edsource.org/2017/college-leaders-urge-changes-to-californias-higher-education-master-plan-to-improve-access-and-affordability/586647">affordability.</a></p>
<p>But the convergence of these trends, combined with <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21560290">fluctuations in the state economy and tax revenues</a>, has turned the Californian dream of higher education into an American dilemma. </p>
<h2>California dreaming: Questions ahead</h2>
<p>In truth, the 1960 Master Plan was hardly a panacea for making a college education available to all. It has, however, been an enduring document with its essential principles and goals.</p>
<p>To go from the ideal to the real requires attention to the context of a new era.</p>
<p>In looking ahead, California’s higher education system faces <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Excellence.html?id=liE59woX624C">the challenge</a> that president of the Ford Foundation, John Gardner, a Californian, aptly posed in 1961:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Can we be equal and excellent, too?” </p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Read more about the past and future of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/california-dream-39642">California Dream</a>. This series is published in collaboration with KQED.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84557/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John R. Thelin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Post-World War II California built an unrivalled system of higher education combining access, affordability and choice. Then a contraction of the vision came in the 1980s.John R. Thelin, University Research Professor, University of KentuckyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/779192017-11-01T10:12:41Z2017-11-01T10:12:41ZAfter tax cuts derailed the ‘California dream,’ is the state getting back on track?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188673/original/file-20171003-31723-rqh9np.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">While Prop 13 may have saved the California dream for some, it destroyed it for many others. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Lennox McLendon</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1978, the year I graduated from college with a degree in economics, most voters in my state chose to turn their backs on the “California dream.” </p>
<p>Not unlike the American dream, California’s iteration focused on the limitless possibilities awaiting anyone who moved to the state. It was the state’s basic philosophic footing, a <a href="https://www.russellsage.org/publications/immigrants-and-boomers-0">social compact</a> that connected generations, geographies and economic classes in a common destiny.</p>
<p>Proposition 13, which Californians approved in a referendum in June 1978, marked a turning point away from the kind of public investment in education, infrastructure and social services – as well as a shift in an attitude that welcomed all comers – that made the California dream a reality for so many. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Prop-13-remains-controversial-after-a-quarter-of-2595918.php">highly controversial measure</a> slashed property taxes, impoverished local governments and made it very hard for the state to raise new revenues. Besides ushering in an era of underinvestment, it spread the fantasy – since gone national – that governments can cut taxes without reducing services. </p>
<p>Almost 40 years later, California <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/have-california-voters-finally-had-enough-of-prop-13/">is at a crossroads</a> and may finally be ready to begin to reverse Prop 13’s damage. As <a href="https://stateofresistancebook.com/">I explore in a forthcoming book</a>, the state is pushing against the national grain by protecting immigrants, tackling climate change and raising the minimum wage. And most significantly for the legacy of Proposition 13, more residents are coming to see how replenishing the state’s coffers is key to restoring prosperity. </p>
<h2>Pulling up the drawbridge</h2>
<p>Just days after Proposition 13 passed, I stood in front of my fellow graduates at the University of California, Santa Cruz, to give the student address. I chose to talk about the result of the vote – not because it had anything to do with my chosen field of study but because of the sharp rift with the past it represented. </p>
<p>California had invested in me, like millions of others, by funding quality public schools, a world-class university system and economic growth. Now, a majority of voters were seeking to selfishly pull up the drawbridge on future generations. So I spent my 15 minutes of fame in front of classmates, professors and parents explaining why I thought Prop 13 would shipwreck the state. </p>
<p>I wish I had been wrong – and that I’d spent more of my allotted time thanking my parents, neither of whom had finished high school and were beaming with pride because the California dream had come true for their son. Sadly, Prop 13 meant that dream would be much less likely to come true for others. </p>
<p>At its core, Proposition 13 was written as an amendment to the state’s constitution with <a href="https://www.nationalaffairs.com/public_interest/detail/on-understanding-proposition-13">three key elements</a> and affected all types of property, from residential to commercial: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>It rolled back assessed property values to their estimated market value in 1975 and limited annual increases to no more than 2 percent as long as the property wasn’t sold. With any new sale, the assessed value could climb to the actual sale price, essentially locking in the property tax for long-time homeowners and shifting the burden to newcomers. </p></li>
<li><p>It capped the property tax rate at 1 percent of the assessed value for city, county, school and other local governments, down from an <a href="https://www.nationalaffairs.com/public_interest/detail/on-understanding-proposition-13">average of 2.6 percent</a> before the measure, draining local coffers.</p></li>
<li><p>It mandated that any change in state taxes that would increase the tax take would require a two-thirds vote in the legislature (while tax cuts required only a majority vote) and that any increase in designated or special purpose taxes by local governments would require two-thirds voter approval. This effectively staightjacketed the ability of a changing electorate to raise new revenues.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188669/original/file-20171003-739-5wnt1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188669/original/file-20171003-739-5wnt1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188669/original/file-20171003-739-5wnt1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188669/original/file-20171003-739-5wnt1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188669/original/file-20171003-739-5wnt1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188669/original/file-20171003-739-5wnt1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188669/original/file-20171003-739-5wnt1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Howard Jarvis, right, joins Gov. Jerry Brown at a news conference after Proposition 13 passed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Robbins</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Prop 13 and its racial undertones</h2>
<p>One reason for Prop 13’s popularity was that the median value of a house in California rose by over <a href="http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/histcensushsg.html">250 percent</a> from 1970 to 1980, more than twice as fast as <a href="http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/Databank/Income/state1.xls">median household income</a> in the state. With reassessments triggering property tax hikes that outpaced family finances, the die was cast for a taxpayer rebellion.</p>
<p>But the roots of this <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7634.html">suburban-based revolt</a> were far deeper than a fight over taxes. The forces behind it were the same ones that fought against fair housing in the 1960s and busing to promote <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520266568">school integration</a> throughout the 1970s. And they were goaded by a series of court decisions that mandated the <a href="https://heydaybooks.com/book/game-changers/">equalization of school spending</a> across districts, stirring white resentment that local property tax dollars were not being spent on “our kids.”</p>
<p>Indeed, at the same time that property rates were soaring, the <a href="https://usa.ipums.org/usa">share of youths who were minorities</a> rose from 30 percent in 1970 to 44 percent by 1980 – the largest decadal change in California’s history. And while these racial undertones were, well, undertones, the resentment of the changing demography was clear when Prop 13’s main architect, Orange County businessman <a href="https://www.hjta.org">Howard Jarvis</a>, wrote after it passed that immigrants “<a href="https://web.stanford.edu/%7Emrosenfe/Hanono_Thesis_California_Dreamin.pdf">just come over here to get on the taxpayers’ gravy train</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188675/original/file-20171003-30864-11arrxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188675/original/file-20171003-30864-11arrxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188675/original/file-20171003-30864-11arrxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188675/original/file-20171003-30864-11arrxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188675/original/file-20171003-30864-11arrxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188675/original/file-20171003-30864-11arrxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188675/original/file-20171003-30864-11arrxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters demonstrate against California’s Proposition 187 outside the Heritage Foundation in Washington in 1994 as then-Gov. Pete Wilson speaks inside.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Joe Marquette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In essence, Proposition 13 became the first shot across the bow in a series of referendums some dubbed “<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520266643">racial propositions</a>” that reached their apogee with <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_187,_Illegal_Aliens_Ineligible_for_Public_Benefits_(1994)">Proposition 187</a>, the famous 1994 measure that sought to cut off nearly all public services, including education, to undocumented immigrants.</p>
<p>That was followed by voter-approved measures to ban affirmative action, eliminate bilingual education and expand a prison system <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520266643">marred by racial disproportionality</a> in its sentencing and rates of incarceration. </p>
<p>That Prop 13 itself was a sort of generational warfare with overtones of race was clear in its structure. Since the assessment didn’t increase more than 2 percent unless property changed hands, incumbent homeowners (<a href="https://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html">who were older and whiter</a>) wouldn’t see their tax burden change much as long as they didn’t sell. Meanwhile, <a href="http://popdynamics.usc.edu/pdf/2009_Myers_Demographics-Prop-13.pdf">new homeowners</a> (more likely to be younger, minority and eventually immigrant) would have to pay higher tax rates and thus bear a disproportionate share of the costs of local services.</p>
<p>And that wasn’t the only bias against the future. The requirement for a supermajority to pass legislation to raise taxes effectively constrained the ability of future state governments to pour in the sort of money that had built the state’s <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/171974/california-by-kevin-starr/9780812977530/">famed transportation, water and university systems</a>.</p>
<h2>The consequences</h2>
<p>The immediate damage from Prop 13, however, was masked. When local property tax revenues quickly fell by about 60 percent, the <a href="https://www.nationalaffairs.com/public_interest/detail/on-understanding-proposition-13">state government stepped in</a> to fill the gaps. </p>
<p>But over time, the damaging effects of Proposition 13 in terms of education spending and income inequality became increasingly apparent. In the 1960s, California <a href="http://www.dailybreeze.com/article/zz/20130727/NEWS/130728685">ranked among the top 10 states</a> in terms of per-pupil spending. By 2014, its ranking <a href="http://www.edweek.org/media/2016/12/29/school-finance-education-week-quality-counts-2017.pdf">had plunged to as low as 46</a>. And while California’s level of income inequality was in the middle of the pack nationally in 1969, it is now the <a href="https://stateofresistancebook.com/">fourth most unequal state in the country</a>. </p>
<p>While Proposition 13 was not the only culprit behind these trends, it didn’t help. About <a href="http://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3497">half of the total residential property tax relief</a> provided by Prop 13 went to homeowners with incomes in excess of US$120,000 a year – or about 15 percent of all households. </p>
<p>And because the property tax was no longer a growing source of revenue for local governments, cities and counties had more reason to chase sales taxes with retail development and less incentive to promote housing, helping to set in motion the <a href="http://www.ocregister.com/2017/03/29/amending-prop-13-by-raising-property-taxes-could-help-solve-housing-affordability-crisis-expert-says/">severe housing shortage that wracks the state today</a>.</p>
<p>The final irony is that Prop 13 – a measure promoted by those in favor of smaller government – <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520266568">pushed authority and decision-making to the state capitol</a>, which became the main source to bail out local municipalities.</p>
<h2>Efforts to change it</h2>
<p>So why has Proposition 13 not been overturned?</p>
<p>Its political appeal remains, particularly to older residents who vote and to businesses worried about any increase in taxes. Efforts to keep the protections for residential homeowners but allow commercial and industrial property to be assessed at market rates – a so-called “split roll” – have <a href="https://www.boe.ca.gov/meetings/pdf/3a_101911_Split_Roll.pdf">failed or stalled</a> and currently command the <a href="http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/survey/S_515MBS.pdf">thinnest possible majority in public polling</a>.</p>
<p>So while the split role remains <a href="http://makeitfairca.com/">a goal for some reformers</a>, many concerned about the effects of Prop 13 have simply tried to raise taxes elsewhere to offset the lost revenue. California voters approved a <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_30,_Sales_and_Income_Tax_Increase_(2012)">temporary “millionaire’s tax”</a> in 2012 and its <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_55,_Extension_of_the_Proposition_30_Income_Tax_Increase_(2016)">long-term extension</a> in 2016. And more than two-thirds of voting taxpayers in Los Angeles County approved sales tax hikes in 2008 and 2016 that will generate <a href="http://prospect.org/article/great-los-angeles-revolt-against-cars">$160 billion over the next 40 years</a> for transportation investments ranging from rail expansion to highway improvement to new bike paths. </p>
<p>But such tinkering does not solve the fundamental problems with Prop 13 that I’ve noted above. Addressing those will require a new set of conversations about optimal tax policy and how to address legitimate concerns such as how to protect older homeowners with a fixed income from the potential end of Prop 13. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188674/original/file-20171003-12115-3wj7tz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188674/original/file-20171003-12115-3wj7tz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188674/original/file-20171003-12115-3wj7tz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188674/original/file-20171003-12115-3wj7tz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188674/original/file-20171003-12115-3wj7tz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188674/original/file-20171003-12115-3wj7tz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188674/original/file-20171003-12115-3wj7tz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ plans follow a playbook similar to what resulted from Prop 13.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jae C. Hong</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>California – and the country – at a crossroads</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, the same demographic shifts, economic anxieties and political polarization that spurred Prop 13 have since gone national. The president’s plan to “Make America Great Again” similarly involves slashing taxes while underinvesting in <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/05/22/529534031/president-trumps-budget-proposal-calls-for-deep-cuts-to-education">education</a> and social services – the kinds of investments that actually made America great in the 20th century.</p>
<p>California has the opportunity to show the nation how to get this right and invest in our future and our collective dreams rather than shortchange them. And a <a href="http://makeitfairca.com/endorsements/">growing number of voices</a>, including local governments, unions and political groups, are calling for reform. </p>
<p>So while the discussion about Prop 13 might seem to be about a few obscure tax rules, it is highly symbolic: At stake is the future of the state and, indeed, the nation. A day of reckoning for a measure that seems increasingly out of date may soon be upon us.</p>
<p><em>Read more about the past and future of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/california-dream-39642">California Dream</a>. This series is published in collaboration with KQED.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77919/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Manuel Pastor receives funding from the Ford Foundation, The California Endowment, the James Irvine Foundation, and the California Wellness Foundation.</span></em></p>In 1978, Californians voted to pass Proposition 13, which slashed property taxes and ushered in an era of underinvestment, ending the ‘California dream’ for many.Manuel Pastor, Professor of Sociology, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/769272017-10-11T00:37:32Z2017-10-11T00:37:32ZCoastal protection on the edge: The challenge of preserving California’s legacy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188429/original/file-20171002-12122-kh4p0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Big Sur coastline.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/ppi46K">Ashley Spratt, USFWS</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The California coast is an edge. It’s the place where 1,100 miles of shoreline meets the largest ocean on the planet. Many different forces collide there, and a lot of exciting things happen. The coast is a geological edge, zippered to North America by 800 miles of the San Andreas Fault and battered by the Pacific Ocean. </p>
<p>It’s also a social, political, cultural, spiritual, economic and technological edge. It is where the most populous state and sixth-largest economy in the world is <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/ebook.php?isbn=9780520938670">exposed to wind, waves, tides, El Niños, earthquakes and tsunamis</a>. These forces made California’s coastline rugged, beautiful and beckoning.</p>
<p>But the natural beauty that has drawn so many to the edge of the Golden State has been seriously impacted by human actions. Forty-four percent of California residents live along the southern California coast, from Ventura to San Diego counties, and you can’t squeeze <a href="http://www.dof.ca.gov/Forecasting/Demographics/Estimates/E-1/">18 million people</a> into 233 miles of coast without some impacts. If they all went to the beach at the same time, each resident would have less than an inch of shoreline.</p>
<p>In 1972 California launched a great experiment to protect its coast. The resulting California Coastal Act sought to protect public shoreline access, wetlands and threatened coastal habitats. It also limited development to protect the beauty and grandeur of the shore for future generations. </p>
<p>Today California’s coastal management program is <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08920757409361692">recognized</a> around the world for its success, even as the state’s coast and ocean economy thrive. But new challenges loom large, including sea level rise, ocean acidification and proposals for offshore wind and wave energy development. California’s population continues to grow, and an internet-driven vacation-rental economy threatens the character of many coastal cities and towns. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188433/original/file-20171002-3782-fi0bx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188433/original/file-20171002-3782-fi0bx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188433/original/file-20171002-3782-fi0bx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188433/original/file-20171002-3782-fi0bx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188433/original/file-20171002-3782-fi0bx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188433/original/file-20171002-3782-fi0bx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188433/original/file-20171002-3782-fi0bx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188433/original/file-20171002-3782-fi0bx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Three Arch Bay, Laguna Beach.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Three_Arch_Bay_Photo_Taken_by_pilot_D_Ramey_Logan.jpg">Don Ramey Logan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Impacts of the postwar boom</h2>
<p>The coast of California has attracted humans since the earliest Americans arrived, perhaps 15,000 years ago, and still draws them today. <a href="https://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p25-1139.pdf">About two-thirds</a> of the Golden State’s 39.6 million people live in coastal counties, and for good reasons. Some 75 percent of the state’s jobs are based in coastal counties. California has the nation’s largest ocean economy, valued at about <a href="https://coast.noaa.gov/data/digitalcoast/pdf/california-ocean-economy.pdf">$44 billion</a>. Nearly half of that is provided by tourism and recreation.</p>
<p>The state’s population more than doubled between 1945 and 1970, and many of these people settled in coastal counties. Cliffs, bluffs and low-lying shoreline areas were developed as more and more new residents arrived to get their piece of the Golden State’s coast. This period of rapid coastal growth coincided with a calm climatic cycle with fewer <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-north-america-can-expect-from-el-nino-51959">El Niño events</a> than the previous decades. As a result, the coast experienced relatively few damaging storms and generally mild and welcoming weather.</p>
<p>Rapid growth reduced public access to the shore, polluted coastal waters and led to habitat loss and development of rural agricultural lands. In 1978 the climate shifted to a 20-year period of <a href="http://ggweather.com/enso/oni.htm">more frequent and severe El Niños</a>. Homes, businesses, roads, park facilities and other infrastructure – some of it newly built – suffered significant losses in the winters of 1978, 1983 and 1997-98.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HU35kCrfEyI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Sea otters, once hunted close to extinction along the Pacific coast, are making a comeback in Central California.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Managing coastal development</h2>
<p>In 1972, tired of inaction by the legislature, voters passed <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_20,_Creation_of_the_California_Coastal_Commission_(1972)">Proposition 20</a>, building on the model of the <a href="http://www.bcdc.ca.gov/">San Franciso Bay Conservation and Development Commission</a> – the nation’s first coastal management program. Proposition 20 launched a statewide planning process to create the California Coastal Plan – a citizen-based document that set out a vision to protect the coast for the “benefit of present and future generations” while using the resources of the coast sustainably. </p>
<p>At the same time six regional commissions and a statewide commission implemented an interim regulatory process for new development, acting on more than 16,000 permit applications between 1973 and 1976. The scope of this planning and regulatory scheme was unprecedented, addressing issues from marine protection to community design and character. </p>
<p>In 1976, the legislature enacted the <a href="https://www.coastal.ca.gov/coastact.pdf">California Coastal Act</a>, which created the <a href="https://www.coastal.ca.gov/">Coastal Commission</a> to oversee coastal development. The law required public access to and along the shoreline, and prioritized visitor services and recreational development. It also required the protection of sensitive resources like wetlands, streams and habitats for endangered and threatened species. To battle urban sprawl, it directed new development to already existing urban areas while protecting agricultural lands and scenic rural landscapes. A state <a href="http://scc.ca.gov/">Coastal Conservancy</a> was also created to help acquire, protect and restore sensitive lands. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188442/original/file-20171002-12107-eypmy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188442/original/file-20171002-12107-eypmy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188442/original/file-20171002-12107-eypmy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188442/original/file-20171002-12107-eypmy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188442/original/file-20171002-12107-eypmy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188442/original/file-20171002-12107-eypmy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188442/original/file-20171002-12107-eypmy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188442/original/file-20171002-12107-eypmy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crews clean up oil-soaked straw on the beach in Santa Barbara, Feb. 6, 1969, after an offshore oil well ruptured. California has enacted laws and regulations to prevent new drilling along its coast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Californi-/f363baaae75e454fb4b59e871c3814a9/215/0">AP Photo/Wally Fong</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Guarding the shore</h2>
<p>The Coastal Act has been a clear success. Although California’s population has doubled again since 1970, the urban footprint along the coast is <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08920753.2013.784891">largely the same today as it was in 1972</a>. The Coastal Commission and local governments have acted to reduce losses of wetlands and riparian areas and protect many coastal habitats. Visitors from around the world marvel at protected scenic landscapes like the Big Sur Coast.</p>
<p>The commission has fought <a href="http://www.ocregister.com/2016/12/20/california-sues-to-block-offshore-oil-fracking/">risky federal offshore oil development</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/14/us/oil-tanker-plan-is-backed-in-west.html">oil-tankering proposals</a>, and rigorously evaluated the marine life and water quality impacts of ocean water intakes and outfalls at electric power plants and industrial desalination facilities. It has set a gold standard for addressing noise in the marine environment through such actions as <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/2013/03/08/california-coastal-commission-rejects-navy-offshore-explosives-sonar-training/">limiting the use of sonar</a> in U.S. naval exercises to avoid potential impacts on sensitive marine mammals. </p>
<p>California is well-known for protecting public beach access and coastal trails. Since the 1970s the Coastal Commission has required thousands of property owners to provide public access across their property in exchange for developing along the coast. This has enabled residents and visitors to freely use such beautiful and previously exclusive beaches as Stillwater Cove at Pebble Beach and “<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/malibus-exclusive-billionaires-beach-is-now-open-to-the-public-after-a-decade-long-legal-fight-2015-7">Billionaire’s Beach</a>” in Malibu – a decades-long legal battle. The commission has even required coastal trails and beach access at the <a href="http://variety.com/2016/biz/news/donald-trump-national-golf-club-palos-verdes-golf-course-value-1201791482/">Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188443/original/file-20171002-4693-cf1odp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188443/original/file-20171002-4693-cf1odp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188443/original/file-20171002-4693-cf1odp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188443/original/file-20171002-4693-cf1odp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188443/original/file-20171002-4693-cf1odp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188443/original/file-20171002-4693-cf1odp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188443/original/file-20171002-4693-cf1odp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188443/original/file-20171002-4693-cf1odp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Skateboard park, Venice Beach.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/9f42PR">Alberto Cabello</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rising seas and rising prices</h2>
<p>California has shown that rigorous coastal protection and a strong economy can go hand in hand. But sea level rise driven by climate change threatens to literally erode away many of the gains of the last four decades. One recent study projects that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2017JF004308">up to two-thirds of Southern California’s beaches may be gone by 2100</a>. According to current estimates, sea levels could rise <a href="http://www.opc.ca.gov/webmaster/ftp/pdf/docs/rising-seas-in-california-an-update-on-sea-level-rise-science.pdf">12 to 18 inches by 2050 and 3 to 4 feet by 2100</a>, possibly higher.</p>
<p>Huge investments will be needed to help communities adapt to increased flooding and storm impacts. Critical public infrastructure is at risk, including Highway One along the coast and dozens of wastewater and other industrial facilities. Climate change also will alter coastal ecology as sea level rise inundates wetlands and intertidal zones. Temperature changes shift habitats both on- and offshore, making it even more challenging to protect them. </p>
<p>Fortunately California is embracing these challenges. The Coastal Commission is leading a sea level rise planning effort, and more than two-thirds of California’s 76 local governments on the outer coast have completed or are undertaking <a href="https://www.coastal.ca.gov/climate/slr/">coastal hazards vulnerability assessments</a>. In 2018 voters likely will consider a <a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB5&search_keywords=parks+bond">new bond measure</a> that would direct hundreds of millions of dollars to climate adaptation projects on the coast.</p>
<p>Another alarming trend is that the shore is <a href="http://www.abc10.com/news/local/california/are-californias-beaches-gentrified/413624195">becoming less accessible</a> for many Californians. The state has largely failed to protect affordable housing along the coast, and coastal communities are gentrifying at a breakneck pace. New campgrounds are rare, and overnight accommodations are increasingly too expensive for the average visitor.</p>
<p>Continuing to meet the lofty aspirations and legacy of California’s first 50 years of coastal management won’t be easy. It will require renewed commitment to coastal protection and environmental justice, major new investments in coastal adaptation, and increased collaboration among all of California’s coastal stakeholders and citizens.</p>
<p><em>Read more about the past and future of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/california-dream-39642">California Dream</a>. This series is published in collaboration with KQED.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76927/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Lester worked for the California Coastal Commission for 20 years, including serving as the agency's executive director from 2011 to 2016.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gary Griggs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For 50 years California has used laws and policies to manage development along its 1,100-mile coastline and preserve public access to the shore. Climate change will make that task harder.Gary Griggs, Director, Institute of Marine Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa CruzCharles Lester, Researcher, Institute of Marine Sciences, University of California, Santa CruzLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/816592017-08-31T00:07:17Z2017-08-31T00:07:17ZOld West theme parks paint a false picture of pioneer California<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183209/original/file-20170823-6579-500s06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=109%2C9%2C984%2C664&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Old West, as seen through 1967 Orange County eyes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/4724276311">Orange County Archives</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1940, just a year before Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into a world war, Walter and Cordelia Knott began construction on a notable addition to their thriving berry patch and chicken restaurant in the Orange County, California, city of Buena Park. This new venture was an Old West town celebrating both westward expansion and the California Dream – the notion that this Gold Rush state was a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/americans-and-the-california-dream-1850-1915-9780195016444">land of easy fortune for all</a>. The Knotts’ romanticized Ghost Town – including a saloon, blacksmith’s shop, jail and “Boot Hill” cemetery – became the cornerstone of the amusement park that <a href="https://www.knotts.com">is today Knott’s Berry Farm</a>.</p>
<p>While Ghost Town is arguably the first of its kind, since 1940 Old West theme parks have proliferated around <a href="https://roadtrippers.com/stories/north-carolinas-legendary-old-west-theme-park-set-to-reopen">the United States</a> and <a href="http://www.michaeljohngrist.com/2011/06/japans-abandoned-wild-west-town/">the world</a>. They’re more than just destinations for pleasure seekers. Like Hollywood Westerns and dime novels, these theme parks propagate a particular myth of “the West.”</p>
<p>The relationship between history and entertainment is especially complex when these theme parks exist in California – a place that actually experienced “the Wild West.” Visitors can have a hard time differentiating between fantasy landscapes and local history.</p>
<p>In studying California’s Old West theme parks and their version of the state’s past, I’ve conducted oral histories, visited these sites and observed continued nostalgia for these places. What do these imagined spaces reveal about cultural conflicts of politics and regional identity in midcentury California? How do they demonstrate the attraction of a fantasy past that has captivated Californians?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183212/original/file-20170823-6594-8y65l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183212/original/file-20170823-6594-8y65l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183212/original/file-20170823-6594-8y65l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183212/original/file-20170823-6594-8y65l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183212/original/file-20170823-6594-8y65l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183212/original/file-20170823-6594-8y65l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183212/original/file-20170823-6594-8y65l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183212/original/file-20170823-6594-8y65l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Knott’s original berry stand, Buena Park, California, circa 1926.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/2902334175">Orange County Archives</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Chicken with a side of ‘pioneer spirit’</h2>
<p>The addition of a Ghost Town may seem an odd choice for the Knotts, who were farmers and restaurateurs. But it was a calculated move to entertain guests waiting upwards of three hours in line for their chicken dinner – as well as to tell a particular story about the California Dream.</p>
<p>Walter Knott grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales about traveling across the Mojave Desert to California in a covered wagon, with her young daughter (Walter’s mother) in tow. <a href="http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/Browse.do?descCvPk=27814">Knott admired his grandmother’s “pioneering spirit,”</a> which influenced his own decisions to homestead (unsuccessfully) in the desert. For Knott, his grandmother’s account sparked ongoing admiration for independence and adventure, qualities that <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-0501-9.html">embody the myth of the West</a> but not necessarily the realities of California’s past.</p>
<p>And it was this personal connection to California’s past that colored Knott’s critique of his present. Looking back over the <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520251670">devastation the Great Depression wrought on California</a>, the farmer – a lifelong proponent of free enterprise – concluded federal interference had prolonged the situation by offering aid and social welfare programs, instead of encouraging struggling residents to work harder.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183213/original/file-20170823-6570-sip9tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183213/original/file-20170823-6570-sip9tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183213/original/file-20170823-6570-sip9tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183213/original/file-20170823-6570-sip9tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183213/original/file-20170823-6570-sip9tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183213/original/file-20170823-6570-sip9tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183213/original/file-20170823-6570-sip9tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183213/original/file-20170823-6570-sip9tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the 1930s, Orange County was starting to transition from a land of orange groves and strawberry fields.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/8228030404">Orange County Archives</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This assessment ignores the fact that an agricultural hub like <a href="https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/9781626194885/The-New-Deal-in-Orange-County-California">Orange County gained much from New Deal programs</a>. The Agricultural Adjustment Act, for instance, <a href="https://livingnewdeal.org/glossary/agricultural-adjustment-act-1933-re-authorized-1938-2/">offered farmers price support</a> for their crops, which <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520251670">Orange County growers accepted</a>. </p>
<p>But Knott remained steadfast. In <a href="http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/Browse.do?descCvPk=27814">an oral history from 1963</a>, he explained,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We felt that if [Ghost Town visitors] looked back, they would see the little that the pioneer people had to work with and all the struggles and problems that they had to overcome and that they’d all done it without any government aid.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This virulent independence shaped Ghost Town and ensured that Knott’s Berry Farm’s memorial to California history was a political statement as much as a place of leisure.</p>
<p>Beyond its political message about the past, Walter Knott wanted Ghost Town “<a href="http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/Browse.do?descCvPk=27814">to be an educational feature as well as a place of entertainment</a>.” Indeed, the first edition of the theme park’s printed paper Ghost Town News in October 1941 explained, “…we hope it will prove of real tangible educational advantage and a lasting monument to California.” By 1963, <a href="http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/Browse.do?descCvPk=27814">Knott asserted</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I suppose there’s hundreds of thousands of kids today that know what you mean when you say, ‘pan gold.’ I mean, when they read it in a book they understand it because they’ve gone down and actually done it [at Ghost Town].”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed, the message reached generations of visitors.</p>
<h2>Perpetuating the myth of rugged individualism</h2>
<p>But Knott learned – and taught – the wrong lesson from the past. Certainly 19th-century Anglo pioneers faced financial, physical and psychological challenges in reaching California. But these individuals did actually benefit from the “government aid” Knott scorned.</p>
<p><a href="http://books.wwnorton.com/books/978-0-393-30497-8/">Federal funds and policies supported</a> land grants in the West, a military to expand territory and fight indigenous peoples and even <a href="http://books.wwnorton.com/books/978-0-393-34237-6/">the development of the railroad</a> that eventually connected California to the rest of the country. Government intervention helped <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/25177378">support these Anglo pioneers</a> as much as it did their Depression-era descendants. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183208/original/file-20170823-6641-170jiij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=77%2C35%2C1102%2C703&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183208/original/file-20170823-6641-170jiij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=77%2C35%2C1102%2C703&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183208/original/file-20170823-6641-170jiij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183208/original/file-20170823-6641-170jiij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183208/original/file-20170823-6641-170jiij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183208/original/file-20170823-6641-170jiij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183208/original/file-20170823-6641-170jiij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183208/original/file-20170823-6641-170jiij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What’s left out of this picture?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/16257232173">Orange County Archives</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the fantasy past it represented, the premise of Ghost Town inspired local appreciation. Visitors to Knott’s Berry Farm saw evidence of California’s financial greatness when they panned for gold. Stories about the trials Walter Knott’s own relatives faced crossing the Mojave Desert reinforced the fortitude of those who settled in the Golden State. Indeed, by midcentury many Orange County residents had themselves <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/american-exodus-9780195071368">moved west to California</a> and could well identify with the theme of 19th-century migration. </p>
<p>Ghost Town played on mid-20th-century nostalgia for simpler and more adventurous times in California, especially as the area began to rapidly shed its agricultural past in the years following World War II. The Knotts’ nod to California’s 19th-century history was a welcome distraction from the modernization efforts in Orange County’s backyard.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183207/original/file-20170823-6598-flpdmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183207/original/file-20170823-6598-flpdmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183207/original/file-20170823-6598-flpdmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183207/original/file-20170823-6598-flpdmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183207/original/file-20170823-6598-flpdmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183207/original/file-20170823-6598-flpdmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183207/original/file-20170823-6598-flpdmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183207/original/file-20170823-6598-flpdmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Richard Nixon pans for gold with Walter Knott in 1959.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/2902334139">Orange County Archives</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The romantic and often whitewashed version of California’s past embodied by Ghost Town played an ongoing role in shaping midcentury cultural and political identity in the region. The Knotts used the living they earned from Ghost Town and their other attractions to <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10488.html">support conservative causes</a> locally and nationally. In 1960, Ghost Town and the Old California it represented was the literal backdrop of a Richard Nixon rally during his first presidential run.</p>
<p>Later, fellow conservative and the Knotts’ personal friend Ronald Reagan produced a segment about their attraction on his political radio show. On the July 15, 1978 episode, Reagan said, “Walter Knott’s farm is a classic American success story…And, it still reflects its founder’s deep love and patriotism for his country.” Reagan celebrated the theme park as the pinnacle of free enterprise and the California Dream.</p>
<p>Among California’s Old West theme parks, Ghost Town at Knott’s Berry Farm is not unique in tweaking the state’s 19th-century past to more closely align with a Hollywood Western than the complex racial, cultural and political reality. Today Ghost Town serves millions of domestic and foreign visitors annually and continues to sell <a href="https://www.knotts.com/explore/ghost-town-alive">a fantasy version of the Golden State’s history</a>. But this fantasy memorializes mid-20th-century conservative values rather than 19th-century California.</p>
<p>With renewed debates about public memory and monuments, it’s more important than ever to examine sites like historical theme parks as places where individuals learn (false) history. These romantic and politicized versions of the Old West can leave visitors longing for a past that never was.</p>
<p><em>Read more about the past and future of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/california-dream-39642">California Dream</a>. This series is published in collaboration with KQED.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81659/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Tewes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Knott’s Berry Farm and others romanticize the state’s past and influence visitors’ sense of history. But their ideology reflects mid-20th-century political conservatism more than settlers’ reality.Amanda Tewes, Ph.D. Candidate in History, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/783012017-06-17T12:54:43Z2017-06-17T12:54:43ZOnce at the vanguard of national policy, California plays defense under Trump<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174073/original/file-20170615-24991-t2pgps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A May Day protest in San Francisco. The state is at odds with the Trump administration on a number of policies, notably immigration and environment. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jeff Chiu</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Xavier Becerra, California’s combative attorney general, has become the Golden State’s face of resistance to the Trump administration’s domestic initiatives, the blunt voice rejecting the president’s attempts to roll back the progressive immigration and environmental policies so central to California’s sense of itself. </p>
<p>At a June 16 press conference, for example, Becerra pushed back against stricter immigration enforcement, <a href="http://www.scpr.org/news/2017/06/15/72968/ca-lawmakers-approve-bill-to-bar-local-governments/">saying</a> his office would review conditions at immigrant detention facilities in conjunction with a legislative measure that prohibits local governments from renting out jail beds to U.S. Immigration and Customs. One week earlier, Becerra <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-california-monuments-20170608-story.html">sent</a> Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke a withering, 11-page letter that flat-out rejected the president’s executive order aimed at delisting or shrinking national monuments his predecessors had established in California. </p>
<p>Yet as eloquent and forceful as the attorney general may be in his defiance, there are limits to the state’s protective stance. Becerra is mounting what amounts to a rearguard action because he has little choice in this age of Trump the Tumultuous. </p>
<p>Viewed from my perspective as an <a href="https://www.pomona.edu/news/2016/09/27-prof-char-miller-looks-california%E2%80%99s-not-so-golden-history-new-book">environmental historian</a>, this defensive rhetoric runs counter to the no-holds-barred approach that defined California’s post-World War II drive for economic growth and social justice. </p>
<p>It is as if, for the time being, the California Dream so critical to Becerra’s personal success – and many others’ – has been put on hold. </p>
<h2>Challenging Trump</h2>
<p>The hardworking son of immigrants and the first in his family to go to college, Becerra finished law school in 1984, was elected to the state assembly, and then served in the state’s Department of Justice before winning an impressive 12 terms to the U.S. House of Representatives. </p>
<p>At each stop along the way, he has been a staunch advocate for the poor and marginalized, those who need a hand up and out. In January 2017, Gov. Jerry Brown (who is playing a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/world/asia/xi-jinping-china-jerry-brown-california-climate.html">similar role as Becerra on an international stage</a>) tapped the politically savvy Becerra to replace newly elected Senator Kamala Harris as AG to become the first Latino to hold this high office in California. </p>
<p>Becerra’s tough-minded approach to his latest job has made him ubiquitous this commencement season. Between May 15 and 23 alone, he addressed the political science graduates at the University of California, Berkeley, those receiving their law degrees at USC and the University of San Francisco, and bachelor’s-earning undergrads at Occidental College. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174075/original/file-20170615-24943-1g3npbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">California’s first Latino attorney general, Xavier Becerra has taken a defiant – and, by necessity, a defensive – tone vis a vis Washington.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even as he cheered these graduates’ academic successes, he reminded them of the rough-and-tumble political environment they were entering. Becerra spoke of how he and other state AGs were challenging the legality of Trump’s Muslim travel ban. He <a href="https://www.usfca.edu/law/news/commencement-2017">affirmed</a> his deeply felt support for the undocumented and asserted that cities could proclaim themselves sanctuaries, free from executive branch interference. </p>
<p>In resisting the Trump administration’s <a href="http://ktla.com/2017/05/05/6-california-national-monuments-including-san-gabriel-mountains-among-27-named-for-review-by-trump-administration/">review of national monuments</a>, Becerra wrote what amounts to a legal brief that cited judicial rulings and legislative records and made a strong case for a kind of states-rights environmentalism. Arguing separately against a plan to open up offshore drilling, he <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-california-atty-gen-becerra-vows-to-1493398354-htmlstory.html">said</a>: “Instead of taking us backwards, the federal government should work with us to advance the clean energy economy that’s creating jobs, providing energy and preserving California’s natural beauty.”</p>
<h2>California’s cultural clout</h2>
<p>The late, great Kevin Starr argued in his magisterial, multi-volume <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-kevin-starr-obit-20170115-story.html">study of California</a> that the state’s particular genius is in offering “the highest possible life for the middle classes.” It proved time and again to be “the best place in the nation to seek and attain a better life.” </p>
<p>Fueled by a generous stream of tax dollars, the state’s educational systems, from K-12 through college and university, were the envy of the world. So, too, were its high-speed highways and highly engineered water systems, as well as its agricultural productivity, artistic energy and technological creativity. California was a state on the move.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174074/original/file-20170615-24981-19o6yh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Sequoia National Monument is one of the national monuments the Trump administration has put under review, which the state is fighting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/33671002@N00/4242556683/in/photolist-8zp1C-8zp6T-kCzNG-kCzUp-8zu7E-kCBsW-4PoE6-a8Bwkp-kCAH6-8zoW3-8zoPh-8zoUM-8zpb4-8zoRK-8zp8Z-8zoXk-xDNTRb-xWq8FB-eNccXN-rGmUoE-8zp4v-8zu3j-8zoLn-8zu1L-qUFJSx-7sUcuD-7sUdi2-8zoQj-8zpdZ-8zoMw-8zp36-7sUe4r-7sYdYS-tXhkRS-rGsRqM-stfEzU-MMwHU3-Mvwzv3-MUyDLS-MvwFcU-MQb96n-uLJGLP-uJ9CTU-qCq1Dr-kCBg5-kCzG2-wZpiBu-xX5o4K-xDUVPt-722ChY">David Prasad/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Its benefits were also broadly accessible: Beaches were public, parks and open spaces plentiful, higher education was cheap. Here, democracy flourished, or at least it could do so. Where it did not, people battled to ensure that it would. </p>
<p>Those toiling in the fields of the Central and Imperial valleys, for example, endured oppressive conditions, but gained an important measure of control over their lives and livelihoods through the formation of the United Farm Workers of America. The struggles that African-Americans and Asian-Americans, Latinos, women and LGBT activists have waged for increased rights, solidarity and opportunities did not always originate in California, but they gained political visibility and cultural clout when manifest on the coast. If you wanted to remake yourself, go West. </p>
<h2>Setting pace on public health</h2>
<p>But all that prosperity took its toll. Clearing the air of the state’s legendary pollution – “don’t breathe too deeply when you arrive in California” used to be the warning – has taken decades. Grassroots activists, dedicated educators and scientists, and some principled public officials fought against entrenched opposition in Sacramento, Detroit and Washington, D.C. to secure what now are the nation’s toughest environmental controls. More needs to be done, but these regulations have had a profound impact. </p>
<p>It is not by happenstance that the EPA owes its existence to a Californian (President Richard Nixon signed it into law December 1970). Or that the Clean Air Acts grant the state the right to institute stricter measures than the federal government (which is why the current administration <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-responds-epa-statement-california-emission-standards">tried</a> to deny California’s right to set higher standards). </p>
<p>The ground-level consequences of such innovations as catalytic converters is evident in enhanced public health. When I was a student at Pitzer College in Claremont in the 1970s, I almost never glimpsed the smog-enshrouded Mt. Baldy (elevation 10,050 feet), a few miles away. Today, its towering presence is visible 24/7.</p>
<p>There was no way to predict this remarkable turnaround when my classmates and I gathered outdoors for our graduation in 1975. And no way would bluer skies have become commonplace had the state heeded the advice our commencement speaker imparted to those entering a depressed job market in a society constrained by the budget-busting Vietnam War and post-Watergate cynicism. Hunker down, he said, hunker down.</p>
<p>That 1975 recommendation from a California <a href="http://pitweb.pitzer.edu/archives/wp-content/uploads/sites/34/2014/02/Commencement-dates.pdf">assemblyman</a> to retreat from the world was as wrong then as it is now in our similarly fraught environment. Rather than simply throw up a wall to fend off the barbarians at the gates, however understandable, California needs to reassert the bold, expansive, and democratic vision that has made it California. A prospect that requires a shared and tenacious commitment to the commonweal. </p>
<p>And a sense of agency. “You don’t have to do it by yourself,” Xavier Becerra <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/California-AG-Becerra-urges-grads-to-fight-for-11145514.php">told</a> Berkeley seniors. “You don’t have to have done it before. But when you get out there with the guts and the grit and the ganas [desire], you can make a difference.” </p>
<p>That’s how dreams become real.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Char Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Defiant against Trump’s policies on immigration and environment, California finds itself defending its way of life – the California Dream itself.Char Miller, W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis, Pomona CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.