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By Jeanne Kuang, CalMatters
Over several rivers and through even more woods, flags advocating secession from California flutter above hills dotted with cattle, which outnumber people at least sixfold.
This ranching region with a libertarian streak might have more in common with Texas than the San Francisco Bay Area.
But it’s not Texas. Five hours northeast of Sacramento on an easy day, Modoc County and its roughly 8,500 residents are still — begrudgingly — in California.
And California is dominated by Democrats, who are embroiled in a tit-for-tat redistricting war with the Lone Star State that will likely force conservative Modoc County residents to share a representative in Congress with parts of the Bay Area.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to split up the solidly Republican 1st Congressional District covering 10 rural, inland counties in the North State as part of his plan to create five more Democratic seats to offset a GOP-led effort to gain five red seats in Texas.
That would mean Republican Doug LaMalfa, the Richvale rice farmer who represents the district, would likely lose his seat.
Modoc County and two neighboring red counties would be shifted into a redrawn district that stretches 200 miles west to the Pacific Coast and then south, through redwoods and weed farms, to include some of the state’s wealthiest communities, current Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman’s home in San Rafael and the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, all in uber-liberal Marin County.
“It’s like a smack in the face,” said local rancher Amie Martinez. “How could you put Marin County with Modoc County? It’s just a different perspective.”
The proposal would even likely force Modoc residents to share a district with the governor, who moved back to Marin County last year and splits his time between there and Sacramento. Modoc County voted 78% in favor of recalling him, and voters asked about redistricting there view it as a publicity stunt for Newsom’s presidential ambitions.
The ballot measure known as Proposition 50, on voters’ ballots Nov. 4, has sparked outrage in the North State. Yet for a region known for its rebellious spirit, residents are also resigned: they know they’re collateral damage in a partisan numbers game.
The map would dilute conservative voting power in one of the state’s traditional Republican strongholds. It would cut short the career growth of politicians from the state’s minority party and make room for the growing cadre of Democrats rising up from state and county seats, jockeying for bigger platforms.
But locals say they’re most concerned it’s a death-knell for rural representation. They worry their agricultural interests and their views on water, wildlife and forest management would be overshadowed in a district that includes Bay Area communities that have long championed environmental protection.
“They’ve taken every rural district and made it an urban district,” said Nadine Bailey, a former staffer for a Republican state senator who now advocates for agricultural water users and the rural North State. “It just feels like an assault on rural California.”
Though Modoc County supervisors have declared their opposition to Prop. 50, there’s little else locals can do. Registered Republicans are outnumbered by Democrats statewide nearly two-to-one. Rural residents represent an even smaller share of the state’s electorate.
“It’ll be very hard to fight back,” said Tim Babcock, owner of a general store in Lassen County, a similar and neighboring community that’s proposed to be drawn into a different liberal-leaning congressional district. “Unless we split the state. And that’s never going to happen.”
An isolated county
Far-flung but tight-knit, the high desert of Modoc County has been an agricultural community for generations.
In the west, cattle graze through a series of meadows and valleys into the hills of the Warner Mountains. Hundreds of them are sold weekly at an auction yard Martinez’s family runs on the outskirts of Alturas. The 3,000-person county seat consists of a cluster of government buildings, a high school and empty storefronts. In the east, migratory birds soar over vegetable farms on the drained Tule Lake bed that the U.S. granted to World War II veteran homesteaders by picking names out of a pickle jar. Not far away sit the remains of an internment camp where the government imprisoned nearly 19,000 Japanese Americans.
The sheer remoteness and harsh natural beauty are a point of pride and a source of difficulty. Residents live with the regular threat of wildfires. A fifth of the county’s residents live below the poverty line. There’s no WalMart and no maternity ward, and there are few jobs outside of agriculture. Like other forested counties, local schools are facing a fiscal cliff after Congress failed to renew a source of federal funding reserved for areas with declining timber revenues.
It’s so sparsely populated that local Republican Assemblymember Heather Hadwick, who lives in Modoc County, represents 10 neighboring counties besides her own. She puts in hundreds of miles on the road holding town halls between Sacramento and home, and struggles to imagine a congressmember reaching her county, with winding roads and the Klamath Mountains between Modoc and the coast.
“It’s just not good governance,” she said.
Modoc County went for Trump by over 70% last fall. Its sheriff, Tex Dowdy, proudly refuses to fly the California flag over his station out of grievance with the state’s liberal governance. In 2013, Modoc made headlines for declaring its intent to secede from California and form the “State of Jefferson” with neighboring counties in the North State and southwest Oregon.
County Supervisor Geri Byrne said she knew it was a longshot — but thought, “when’s the last time The New York Times called someone in Modoc County?”
Byrne, who is also chair of the Rural County Representatives of California and of the upcoming National Sheepdog Finals, said the secession resolution was about sending a message.
“It wasn’t conservative-liberal,” she said. “It was the urban-rural divide, and that’s what this whole Prop. 50 is about.”
Even a Democratic resident running a produce pickup center in Alturas observed that her neighbors are “not that Trumpy.” Instead, there’s a pervasive general distrust of politics on any side of the aisle.
In particular, residents who live by swaths of national forests bemoan how successive federal administrations of both parties have flip-flopped on how to manage public lands, which they say have worsened the risk of wildfire and prioritized conservation over their livelihoods.
Flourishing wolves are a problem
At the moment, all anyone can talk about is the wolves.
The apex predator returned to California more than a decade ago, a celebrated conservation success story after they were hunted to near-extinction in the western U.S. Now they’re flourishing in the North State — and feeding on cattle, throwing ranching communities on edge. Federally, they’re still listed as an endangered species under the landmark conservation law signed by President Richard Nixon.
Under California rules, ranchers can only use nonlethal methods to deter the wolves, like electrifying fencing or hiring ranch hands to guard their herds at night.
“That whole issue is softened by the organizations that mean well for the animals, but this is our absolute existence here,” said Teri Brown, owner of a local feed store, who said she’s had cows go missing that she suspects were killed by wolves.
It’s one of the rural issues Brown, a registered Republican, said voters closer to the Bay Area wouldn’t understand. She said she doesn’t support gerrymandering anywhere — in Texas or California.
In town to visit his bookkeeper, rancher Ray Anklin scrolled through his phone to show videos of wolves trotting through his property and grisly photos of calf kills. He said last year, wildlife killed 19 of his cattle — a loss of over $3,000 per head. He’s set up a booth at a nearby fair, hoping to get public support for delisting wolves as an endangered species, and wants any representative in Congress to take the issue seriously.
As California’s battlegrounds increasingly take shape in exurban and suburban districts, rural North State conservatives at times feel almost as out of touch with their fellow Republicans as they do with Democrats.
Few Republicans in the state and nation understand “public lands districts,” said Modoc County Supervisor Shane Starr, a Republican who used to work in LaMalfa’s office. “Doug’s the closest thing we’ve got.”
“This whole thing with DEI and ‘woke culture’ and stuff,” he said, referring to the diversity and inclusion efforts under attack from the right, “it’s like, yeah, we had a kid who goes to the high school who dyed his hair a certain color. Cool, we don’t care. All of these things going on at the national stage are not based in our reality whatsoever.”
At a cattlemen’s dinner in Alturas one recent evening, Martinez said she once ran into LaMalfa at a local barbecue fundraiser for firefighters and approached him about a proposal to designate parts of northwestern Nevada as protected federal wilderness. Her 700-person town of Cedarville in east Modoc County is 10 minutes from the state line.
Martinez worried about rules that prohibit driving motorized vehicles in wilderness, which she said would discourage the hunters who pass through during deer season and book lodging in town. Even though the proposal was in Nevada, LaMalfa sent staff, including Starr, to meetings to raise objections on behalf of the small town, she said.
“I know we won’t get that kind of representation from Marin County,” she said.
Reached by phone, Huffman defended his qualifications to represent the region.
Adding Siskiyou, Shasta and Modoc counties would mean many more hours of travel to meet constituents, but Huffman pointed out his district is already huge, covering 350 miles of the North Coast. And it includes many conservative-leaning, forested areas in Trinity and Del Norte counties. A former attorney for the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council, he’s the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, where LaMalfa also sits.
Huffman said he would run for re-election in the district if voters approve its redrawing, and “would work my tail off to give them great representation.”
As for the wolves, he doesn’t support delisting their endangered status and said he only supports nonlethal methods of managing the population.
“There are plenty of win-win solutions,” he said of conflict between ranchers and environmentalists. “I’m not an absolutist. I’m a problem solver.”
For Democrats, ‘I don’t think there’s any option’
On the other side of the aisle, North State Democrats are gearing up to support Prop. 50, even as parts of it make them uneasy.
Nancy Richardson, an office manager at the free weekly paper in Modoc County (coverage of high school sports remains steady, along with a police blotter announcing a woman’s booking for eavesdropping), said she doesn’t like that it will cost the state as much as $280 million to run the statewide election on redistricting.
But she thinks it has to be done.
“I don’t like that Texas is causing this problem,” she said.
In Siskiyou County’s liberal enclave of Mt. Shasta, Greg Dinger said he supports the redistricting plan because he wants to fight back against the Trump administration’s targeting of immigrants, erosion of democratic norms and a federal budget that is estimated to cut $28 billion from health care in California over the next 10 years.
The effects are expected to be particularly acute in struggling rural hospitals, which disproportionately rely on Medicare and Medicaid funding. LaMalfa voted for the budget bill.
Dinger, who owns a web development company, said normally he would only support bipartisan redistricting. But he was swayed by the fact that Trump had called for Republicans to draw more GOP seats in Texas.
“Under the circumstances, I don’t think there’s any option,” he said. “There’s the phrase that came from Michelle Obama, ‘When they go low, we go high.’ Well, that doesn’t work anymore.”
In an interview, LaMalfa said the impacts to rural hospitals were exaggerated. He blamed impending Medicaid cuts instead on California’s health care system being billions of dollars over budget this year, in part because of rising pharmaceutical costs and higher-than-expected enrollment of undocumented immigrants who recently became eligible. (California doesn’t use federal dollars to pay for undocumented immigrants’ coverage.)
“Basically what it boils down to is they want illegal immigrants to be getting these benefits,” he said in response to criticism of the spending bill. “Are the other 49 states supposed to pay for that?”
LaMalfa has criticized Prop. 50 and said no state should engage in partisan redistricting in the middle of the decade. But he stopped short of endorsing his Republican colleague Rep. Kevin Kiley’s bill in Congress to ban it nationwide, saying states should still retain their rights to run their own elections systems.
The proposed new maps would make Kiley’s Republican-leaning district blue. They would turn LaMalfa’s 1st District into a dramatically more liberal one that stretches into Santa Rosa.
But LaMalfa said he’s leaning toward running for re-election even if the maps pass, though he’s focused for now on campaigning against the proposition.
“I intend to give it my all no matter what the district is,” he said.
He would likely face Audrey Denney, a Chico State professor and two-time prior Democratic challenger who has already said she’d run again if the maps pass. Outgoing state Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, a Healdsburg Democrat who was instrumental in coming up with the proposed new maps, is also reportedly interested in the seat; McGuire’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
In her renovated Queen Anne cottage in downtown Chico, Denney buzzed with excitement describing how the proposition has galvanized rural Democrats.
She emphasized her own family’s roots as ranchers in the Central Coast region, and said she has bipartisan relationships across the North State.
“I have credibility in those spaces, growing up in rural America and spending my career advocating for rural America and real, actual, practical solutions for people,” she said.
Denney’s former campaign staffer Rylee Pedotti, a Democrat in Modoc County, shares her optimism — to an extent. A communications professional whose family also owns a ranch, she said she’s not worried Huffman couldn’t represent Modoc.
“More often than not we actually do experience some of the same issues,” Pedotti said: water and irrigation concerns, the loss of home insurance, the rising costs of health care.
Yet she’s deeply conflicted about the proposal: on the one hand cheering Democrats for being “finally ready to play hardball as the Republicans have done so well for decades in consolidating power;” on the other fearful of the escalating partisan rancor and the disenfranchisement of her neighbors. She’s considering sitting out the election.
“We’ll still be heard,” she said, if the new maps pass. “But I understand the concerns of folks who are on the other side of the aisle. It feels like their voice is being taken away.”
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
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These rural types should put the blame where it belongs- the orange moron and his fawning acolytes in Texas, Missouri, and other red states who started the gerrymandering wars.
It doesn’t matter what other states are doing. We should not be taking away Californians representation because you don’t like who is in the oval office.
Cool assessment bean, now do Texas.
I don’t live in Texas. I care about my fellow Californians.
You also don’t live in a county affected by this, we can go back and forth on this all day. I care about my fellow Americans.
Oh but it really does matter what other states are doing. I mean this wouldn’t even be happening if it weren’t for what Texas is doing, so your comment doesn’t really make sense here. And did you notice that Prop 50’s redistricting is **temporary**? It’s written into the actual law.
These secessionists are selfish kooks, in my opinion. They appear to be a majority, but that’s only if you take the polarized view that a Trump vote = a State of Jefferson vote, which is simplistic and completely ignores the will of anyone else in those counties. They are not a monolith, is my point, but they want to act like it. They are just angry little chihuahuas who think they’re big dogs.They could leave if they thought it was so horrible, but they’d rather make noise because they know it’d be worse anywhere else.
ABEAN – This is giving BACK representation to the Democrat voters of the country, not just states, after Texas stole them. What this does is counters the forced redistricting happening in Texas and now other red states at the command of Trump so that the House and Senate remain Republican led so he can carry out his objectively fascist (at this point) policies.
At least Newsom is giving us a choice, unlike Texas.
I don’t live in Texas. Do you?
ABEAN, nope. But you seem to forget that even though we live in California, we do live in the United States. What Texas and/or CA does, has a huge impact on all of us. Heck, it even impacts people in places like Florida, Montana, even little ol’ Vermont.
You see, when one state does something that affects the NATIONAL elections, it affects EVERYONE who lives in the nation, regardless what state they are residents of.
Kinda the point here.
Yes, it matters. Get your head out of your sandbox.
As much Trump would like the credit I’m not sure he deserves credit for everything. The State of Jefferson movement has been a thing since the 40’s.
That’s not what he’s being blamed for in that comment, person who can’t read.
I’m sure nobody is surprised that there were ignorant and stupid people back in the 40s.
Bingo
Good article. It’s nice for people to see that not all of CA is ultra-liberal, driving Teslas, doing yoga classes, and shopping at Whole Foods everyday. The folks in Modoc County will have to decide whether they feel voting is even worthwhile if Newscums bill goes through.
Instant delete.
BASIC – you are totally obsessed with Teslas. Why is that?
If you don’t think MAGA folks do yoga, you are in for a surprise. Have you ever actually met another MAGA person or a liberal person? I feel like you might be stuck in a stereotype so you think everyone else is.
The funny thing is after Elon went all Adderall hyped on MAGA,Republican men were the biggest buyers of the cyber truck, and started buying Tesla cars (mainly since Elon trashed the company and the vehicles went on fire sale). Republicans will sell out their beliefs to save a few dollars.
They’d sell there mother and snitch on their neighbor to make a few bucks.
I agree, it is a good article. Jeanne Kuang deserves a thumbs up!
(But for the record, the remainder of your comment is just hackneyed stereotype. I wish I could delete it, instantly.)
Hold your nose and Vote Yes on 50.
I’ll hold my head high and vote NO on this!
I hope you’ll hold your head high while your social security and Medicare are defunded and you burn through your retirement just trying to make ends meet.
That’s a nasty remark there, Surfy. Let’s keep it civil.
Here’s a tip – hardworking, smart folks don’t rely just on social security during retirement. It’s called retirement planning for a reason. Social security uncertainty goes way way back beyong our current administration. It’s been flailing predictability for decades. We all have seen that. Don’t blame our current president for that. TDS is strong in you. Yoga may help.
Basicdummy – You really are a piece of work. SS uncertainty has everything to do with the Republicans and the filthy rich trying to cripple and privatize it for the last 50 years. Can you tell me why Social Security was even created? Just because you aren’t living in the 1920s-1930s doesn’t mean you can’t read a history book. Heck, just go as your favorite AI engine. There are plenty of people that work 80 hours a week that still don’t make ends meet. I’d say that’s working hard? You are low IQ, you are so low IQ. Trump double-jerk is strong in you.
Nice. Well, guess what the ratio of Republican to Democrat presidents has been in our country for the said past 50 years? It’s 50:50, guy. What’s your next excuse?
The rethuglican of today bears no resemblance to the Republicans of the past.
Basicdummy – I don’t need excuses. You’re wrong about the actual 50:50 thing – well technically. There are many states (red) that have implemented voter suppression and disenfranchisement campaigns over the last 50 years that the country really isn’t 50:50 as you state. In reality there are way more Ds, but the Rs are led by billionaires and followed by brainwormed zombies and without integrity work endlessly and spend without concern to “win at all costs” to corrupt the whole process of voting just about everywhere. The followers are told they’ll win but they never will. They just need someone to tell them they’re winning and they’ll come back for seconds. But you’ll have that last cup of koolaid before accepting any facts. Low IQ, very, very low IQ.
https://reclaimdemocracy.org/voter-suppression-tactics/
Obstructing Citizen Initiatives Through Onerous Rules
District Gerrymandering
Prison Gerrymandering
Judicial Gerrymandering
Purging Voter Rolls
Oppressive Requirements for Voter Registration
Voter Pre-Registration
Denying Registrations or Ballots
Barring Ex-Convicts from Voting
Denying Citizenship to People Born in US Territories
Restricting Access to Voter Registration Materials
Burdensome Voter ID Requirements
Veiled Poll Taxes and Requiring ID to Vote by Mail
Burdensome Address Requirements
Disinformation
Inadequate Early Voting Options
Delaying Implementation of Voter Access Laws
Forcing Citizens to Choose Between Safety or Voting
Age Discrimination
Requiring Witnesses or Notarization for Absentee Ballots
Obstructing (or Banning) Ballot Drop-off
Signature Challenges on Mail-in Ballots
Partisan Scrutiny of Voter Registrations
Manipulating Timing of Elections
Insufficient Number of Polling Places
Insufficient Voting Equipment
Blocking Free Voter Shuttles
Ban Mobile Voting
Voter Intimidation
Intimidating Poll Workers & Election Officials
Banning Democracy-enhancing Voting Systems
Leaving No Time for Error
Making Citizens Doubt Our Votes Will Count
Impeding Students from Voting
Impeding GOTV Drives
Banning Ballot Collection
Denying Voters an Opportunity to Fix Errors
Inadequate Ballot Security
Sabotaging The US Postal Service
Strip Voters’ Choice of Power When the Opposition Wins
Enable Partisan State Officials to Take Over Local Elections
Challenge Electoral College Votes
Allocate Electoral Votes by Congressional District
The Duopoly Restricting Competition
Suffocate Funding for Elections Operations
Manipulating the Census
Basically-very-low-IQ – Oh, and if it weren’t for the D presidents you likely wouldn’t be where you are today and no amount of your “hard work” would’ve gotten you there. We’d have been a S***hole country long ago. Unfortunately we’re on the e-train for that right now.
Ah yes, D is great and R is bad. Get rid of the R guys. You want a one party system in the U.S. Garbage. You sound very anti-American.
Elitist bs. Talk about low IQ.
BASIC – Are you actually saying in the past 50 years (since 1975):
1) We’ve been under the same number of years with a Republican as president as a Democrat one? If yes, you’re WRONG. We’ve had about just under 28 years under Repubs and only 24 under Dems. FAIL.
2) We’ve had the same number of Repub presidents as Dem presidents? If yes, you’re WRONG. We’ve had 5 different Repub presidents (Ford, Reagan, Daddy Bush, Baby Bush, and Trump 2x) and only 4 Dems (Carter, Clinton, Obama, and Biden). And that’s me being generous and giving you 2 Trumps for 1. Once again, FAIL.
So, guy, I’ll ask again. Are you really this stupid or just a liar? What’s YOUR excuse?
Hey, did you and DAN ALDRICH have the same math class? You know, where 49% is “a majority” and 28 and 24 or 5 (6 really) and 4 are “50:50?”
You guys are hilarious with your “math” LOL!
Oh wow, HUGE differences there! 50:50 vs what 47:53? lol.
You DID get picked last everytime, nitpicky. You didn’t get the point of the comments or topic at hand, and NEVER will. I’m fine with that. Dems and Repubs have both had plenty of time in power in the federal government to manage social security.
Remember? That’s what Prelim was talking about – s/he wants a one party system. So do you.
No thanks.
If it were a choice between Dems and MAGA, then you are absolutely correct. You can substitute MAGA with any other Cult of Low IQ and I would agree there too. Now, if you had a couple of parties that could believe in at least a basic level of facts – greed is bad; science is good; we are all Americans; the richest society in the history of the world is able to offer every one of it’s citizens health care (common man, how much does it really cost? Who want’s to go to the Dr.? People would only go if they really needed to and if we took the cap off the number of Dr.s allowed to graduate each year they’rd be a whole lot more), then ya, the more parties the merrier. I’d like to have multiple parties and some form of rank choice voting. So, you’re half correct about me I guess.
BASIC – The point is, you’re a liar. You just spew out made up “facts” as if you have any clue what you’re talking about.
And no, I never said I want a one party system. See? There you go again making stuff up because you have ZERO foundation for any of your arguments.
Stop with the insults (again, where did you play college sports?) and work on using actual facts to create your arguments.
You are ALWAYS wrong. I enjoy pointing that out.
BASIC – nothing SURFER said was “nasty,” just wishing them the best as they deal with the consequences of their actions. Far less nasty than the things you say about immigrants, hikers, non-white people and everyone else you crap on here 24/7
BASIC – “no job?” Nah, dude, I have a great job. One with the flexibility and low stress due to years of working my a%% off to be able to spend a few minutes each hour shutting your nonsense down.
Wait, aren’t you the guy who just yesterday said: “That’s a nasty remark there, Surfy. Let’s keep it civil.”
“No job” coming from a failed tech like you is hilarious.
Just like you did when you voted for the destruction of the United States. Low IQ.
Did you read the recent article here about the rural CA hospital that is going to close because Trump cut funds to healthcare? Is that the kind of stuff you like? You hold your head high about people dying because they can’t get to a hospital in time? Farmers (white ones) going bankrupt? Kids (white Christian ones too) dying from measles and polio again? Going broke after paying all these tariffs (remember, WE are paying them)? Preventing victims of child rape by white billionaires from getting justice?
I dunno… doesn’t seem like much to hold your head high about.
From electricity to rent, monthly bills are tipping the inflation scale – Housing, health care, food and utility prices are outpacing inflation and taking an outsized share of Americans’ paychecks.
“Key monthly costs for most Americans — shelter, food, health care, electricity — are outpacing inflation. Rents are up 3.8 percent — the largest increase since 2011 — the Census Bureau reported last week, and roughly half of all renters spend more than the recommended 30 percent of their incomes to cover the cost. Utility prices have spiked, according to the consumer price index, with natural gas and electricity bills rising 13.8 and 6.2 percent, respectively, since last year. And though President Donald Trump promised to lower food costs during the presidential campaign, grocery prices just posted their biggest increase since 2022, due in large part to his tariffs.”
Are we great yet??? MAGA controls the Supreme Court, White House, Senate and House of Reps… why aren’t they fixing this like they said they would?
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/09/21/inflation-utilities-housing-healthcare
You’re asking the pretzels to untie! That ain’t gonna happen. They will defend to the death of democracy that they never made any mistakes by ignoring all of the facts that were screaming in their faces about how it was gonna all play out. A cult member is almost never able to see the truth – they’d rather drink the koolaid, even if it’s just once more for the last time.
How do you think housing prices in CA got so high?
Los Angeles is spending $600,000 to $1 million per unit on affordable housing — an unsustainable level and far from their $400/unit goal. Two main drivers are prevailing wage rules and CEQA delays.
Prevailing wage: Requiring union-scale wages adds about $94,000 per unit, roughly 15% of total costs.
CEQA: Reviews and lawsuits often delay projects by a year or more, adding tens of thousands per unit in escalation and financing.
Governor Newsom tried to fix both. He succeeded in part with CEQA reform, eliminating review for urban infill projects. But his effort to replace full prevailing wage with a “minimum-plus” standard was blocked by powerful unions and the legislators that count on union donations.
Unfortunately we face the same issues in Santa Barbara.
Hard to tell what Newsom really believes and what he will do if he wins the presidency but he has been trying to make some good moves in CA.
Nice of you to fantasize, and show your lack of knowledge about real estate economics, but the reason prices here are high, and have remained high, is that California is a very desirable place to live, largely due to the quality of life here. Government is a big part of that.
Redirection is not your strong suit.
I have stated the cost of building on property already owned by the city of Los Angeles. Not dissimilar to Santa Barbara building “affordable” housing on land they own.
Nothing to do with CA being a desirable place to live.
Yes, and then there’s that.
If I may – desirability is numero uno! Now, that said, the fact that corporations, uber-rich, and foreigners are able to buy our land and housing is numero dos. When you have so much money and have to actually spend time looking for places to spend it because you have so much to spend but you just don’t have the time to spend it, then you just buy everything. If there were [still] rules in place to protect the average American then things might be different. Those protections are all but gone now. A corp or rich foreigner can buy all of Santa Barbara, Goleta, or Los Angeles if they can afford to offer whatever someone is asking – and they kinda are doing that already. Then it’s a matter of profit and IRS gains and losses to them, nothing else. For every structure they purchase, that’s another family that might have been able to live the American dream but now will have their paycheck and savings sucked dry because they have to rent from either the Corp that has newly purchased or from the plentiful geriatric property hoarders that will reap windfall rewards from the rental floor pricing from the corps. All hope is lost.
Dang. That’s a depressing way to think prelim. I feel sorry for you.
Hollow comment. You are incapable of true human feelings.
BI – I feel sorry for those who twist the cross to push their radicalized extreme right agenda – like yourself.
TRUMP has turned his back on the farmers. FARMAGEDDON is a thing and you aren’t reading about if is FOX “News” is in your algorithm. They will be good little liberals in the next 6 months. The last time something like this happened Ronald Reagan torched the farmers – so many family farms were lost or the patriarch committed suicide. WILLIE NELSON had to start a GOFUNDME called “FARM AID”. But, these great geniuses voted for Don the Con – so they are getting what they voted for. Since Charlie Kirk died – the MAGA MINDSHEEP are planning to replace DONALD with CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM. Good luck with Couch VANCE and his new work wife, Erika Kirk leading the END OF DAYS.
RONALD REAGAN PERMANENTLY DAMAGED CALIFORNIA and it will still take years to hopefully recovery. Republicans can’t govern – another pure example.
His policies regarding mental health, higher education, and aggressive handling of student protests as having negative and lasting consequences.
Ronny’s most controversial and long-lasting action was signing the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act in 1967, which significantly changed California’s mental healthcare system and created the homeless crisis we have today. Reagan approved the largest tax increase in the state’s history. His darling Proposition 13 restricted the state’s ability to fund public services for DECADES to come. He imposed tuition at the University of California and California State University systems, ending decades of tuition-free public higher education in the state. Reagan was responsible for attacking students (and killing one) because he thought everyone in college was a communist. He made it harder for people to obtain welfare benefits even for the most needy. The list goes on and on. Republicans are incapable of governing a Dairy Queen let a lone a state or an entire country.