Huffpo is info-smack for me. I really should dry out from it, but. . . well, what can you say? Maybe the smack example is a little much, so perhaps it’s like Pop-Tarts, tasty and somewhat filling, if completely un-nutritious. . . .
But sometimes, I get something mildly usable from it, at least enough to keep up the blogging rate. Today’s example is a post in Huffpo about the city in the nation with the highest home foreclosure rate, along with 16% unemployment: Stockton, CA.
I remember Stockton. Thirty years ago, I lived in Sacramento just about an hour north of Stockton, first working for the State of California regulating pesticides, then working for a couple of environmental consulting firms. I passed through Stockton more times than I can remember, on the way to the Bay Area – taking I-5 to I-205 and through the Altamont Pass was longer than I-80, but I would gladly drive the extra 70 miles, if I could go 80 mph all the way and avoid being stuck in traffic. Stockton was also a waypoint when driving south to the San Joaquin Valley, to work sites where I could observe and monitor workers using pesticides, measuring their exposure and collecting data to figure out methods for reducing those exposures.
I was just starting to see the growth in the Valley towns when we left California – tens of thousands of people who bought homes in places such as Stockton, Modesto, Merced, Patterson, and commuted two-plus hours per day one way to jobs in the Bay Area. I don’t think I have to read further to figure out what’s happened – the jobs in the Bay Area are starting to dry up, and there’s nothing locally to replace them. . . .
I’ve managed to miss all of this. We left California in 1995 for opportunities elsewhere, and it feels as if we dodged a bullet. It’s difficult for me to imagine what would be so desirable in a job that would make it worth driving 60 miles, one way in heavy traffic, while living in a garden spot such as Stockton. Don’t get me wrong, I could live there, if I had a job in town. Driving to Hayward to work every day? No way. But that’s me. In the end, I’m relieved that we got out when we did. California – forty million people can be wrong.