brent · fresh since '82

That was the headline of a recent CNN.com article I’ve been sitting on for days… thinking about how I wanted to respond to it.

Do people still move to California to follow their dreams? It seems as though that era started with the Gold Rush and ended somewhere in the middle of the 20th century. What is the California Dream anyways? Moving out West to escape your past and experience a fresh start with new and exciting opportunities, perhaps?

To get an idea of the “fizzling” out of the California Dream we’re talking about here, the last 10 years have seen the biggest slump in population growth since 1850 – yes, you read that right. The largest slump in 161 years.

The Gold Rush, land ownership, Hollywood, jobs, the tech boom, weather, the ocean… At one time or another, all of these things were valid reasons for schlepping west. It seems, however, these reasons have by and large disappeared.

Obviously, there is no more gold to be found. Land is so scarce that if, “growth continued at the pace it did from 1960 to 2000, there would be one person per square foot in the state within 300 years. People would have to ‘stand on each others shoulders’ in order to fit,” according to Hans Johnson, a demographer at the Public Policy Institute of California. Johnson is being a little hyperbolic, as he’s comparing a 40 year growth spurt to a period almost 8 times that.

Although California’s economy is still the 8th largest in the world in terms of GDP, the unemployment rate as of June 17, 2011, is 11.7%, or 2.6% higher than the U.S. unemployment rate. Not to mention, businesses are leaving the state in droves: 193 businesses left California in 2010, nearly 4X the 2009 number of 51. This has mostly to do with the state’s corporate tax rate amongst the highest in the nation. With California’s continued budget deficits, it’s not likey to decrease any time soon.

The dot com bubble no doubt caused an influx of jobs and  money into the California economy. Since the bubble burst and the survivors have emerged from the ashes in the last decade, the tech industry is largely stable and isn’t contributing nearly as much growth to the state’s economy.

So what’s left to move to California for? Not gold, not land, not jobs. Hollywood? Do people still move to Hollywood to pursue their dreams? You hear hundreds of stories about thespians following their Hollywood dreams, but that was primarily concentrated during the “Golden Age” of Hollywood; the studio system responsible for the production and distribution of film from the 1920s to the 1950s. However, the fact that the joke about asking your waiter or waitress why they came to California (“I’m an actor”) is still relevant, maybe they do.

One of the few things Southern California still has going for it these days is, according to John D. Sutter of CNN.com, “the natural setting: always sunny; always 70-something degrees outside; mountains in one direction; ocean in the other. Palm trees peer out from the hills like long-necked, shaggy-haired giraffes. Soil in the valleys supports all kind of exotic and lucrative plants, from avocados to lima beans.” So, besides the smog, the weather may be the sole legitimate reason for still pursuing that “California Dream.” Is that even a dream?

Why did I move to California? Besides the weather, it wasn’t for any of the reasons mentioned above. However, despite the “fizzle” of the California Dream suggested by the CNN.com article that inspired this post, I still had an idea of what that “dream” meant for me. Independence, endless opportunities, an unrivaled melting pot of cultures, being a tourist whenever I want to be… I decided I wanted to live in California, so I got a job upon graduating college and just moved.

In my mind, I suppose I do idealize a lot of what I perceive draws me to California. But it’s okay. I’m surviving. I’m thriving. The cost of living, the endless traffic, the overcrowding, it all comes with the territory; it might be why the state’s population growth has slowed, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.