Harold Meyerson on Searching For The California Dream

Yeah, i tried to touch on this (0.00 / 0)

In the post about P3s the other day. We are failing the Pat Brown legacy in that we aren't planning for a brighter future. It's short-sighted and disappointing in a number of ways. And, given the constraints of the current system, I'm not sure we can change it right away.

Shouldn't 3 strikes apply to Arnold? Strike 1, Strike 2, Strike 3. Life Sentence!

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by: Brian Leubitz @ Wed Oct 31, 2007 at 18:32:13 PM CDT

That was the (5.00 / 1)

California I learned about as a kid growing up in PA.  My grandparents moved here after the war.  My grandfather went to UCLA through the GI Bill then went to work in the aerospace industry.  They had three kids, lived in an affordable planned community, where the colors of the houses changed, but not the layout.  They send two kids to UC schools and the other to Cal Tech.

Life for young adults is very different 50 years later.  It is next to impossible to find an affordable house.  People leaving school now have tens of thousands of dollars of debt.  The infrastructure is a mess. And the list goes on...

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by: Julia Rosen @ Wed Oct 31, 2007 at 18:36:52 PM CDT

Thanks for the link (0.00 / 0)

I've always enjoyed Meyerson's writing, and once again he nails it. I especially like how he is pushing back against the argument that the real estate bubble collapse is the fault of the borrowers of subprime loans - blaming the victim is not exactly a smart economic strategy.

I wrote about this subject over the summer - Redefining the California Dream for the 21st Century. There I argue, alongside calling for an urbanist vision for the state, that at the root of our current political crisis is the effort to artificially prolong the conditions of the 1950s California Dream. Not the Pat Brown aspect of that dream, but the suburban, conservative, sprawl version of the dream. Here's how I described it:

Just as important was the political revolution of 1958. Sick of Republican do-nothing rule, Californians turned en masse to liberal Democrats like Pat Brown and Jesse Unruh to manage and preserve their prosperity, to build the freeways and aqueducts that sustained their suburban dream, to build the schools and colleges that would allow their kids to live the dream as well.

But when this dream ran into trouble in the 1970s, Californians faced a crossroads. Would they redefine the terms of the dream, to be more inclusive, but less focused on freeways, cars, and the single family home? Or would they find ways to artificially prolong the 1950s for as long as possible by protecting the existing homeowners at the expense of those on the outside and those not yet born? As we know, the latter course was chosen. Prop 13 created a homeowners' veto over virtually all of state government, ensuring that California would never be able to do anything with its government that did not meet with the approval of a vocal minority of self-interested homeowners.

The 1978 system was about more than a tax revolt. It was about preserving the 1950s vision of white suburbia from any and all efforts to change it. Although Prop 13 wasn't responsible for NIMBY efforts to kill affordable housing, or new hospitals, or LA subway lines, or urban density, it was done at the same time and for the same reasons.

The consequences are clear to us all. Our health care system is collapsing. College is unaffordable. Our roads are gridlocked and alternatives are only sporadically available. Our climate is changing for the worse - and Republicans are working to prolong all of those problems, and delay their costs for a few decades. California life has become unaffordable - only 60% of Californians own a home, with only 47% of LA County residents being homeowners. Us younger folks don't ever expect to be able to afford a house.

To preserve the dream, we must redefine the dream.

You can check out any time you like but you can never leave

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by: Robert in Monterey @ Wed Oct 31, 2007 at 19:14:36 PM CDT

Great article! (0.00 / 0)

I want to do what I can to restore the dream of my home state.

My ramblings...

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by: cali_girl_in_texas @ Wed Oct 31, 2007 at 21:43:19 PM CDT