How California’s Overpopulation Drove Me From My Native State

by Joe Guzzardi
April 20, 2011

On Earth Day, 2011, I’m revisiting my life’s toughest decision. Three years ago, with my heart heavy, I left California and moved to Pittsburgh. Too many people, driving too many cars and building too many box stores that paved over too much precious, irreplaceable agricultural land forced me out of my beloved state.

I’m a native Californian, born and raised in the early 1950s on the then-unspoiled Malibu beaches. I have albums full of pictures of my parents, sisters and me picnicking on the sand without another person in sight.

By the mid-1960s California, the Golden State, became the most popular destination for the disaffected who lived in various less appealing midwestern and eastern states. The Beach Boys sent the California lifestyle message across the country. Suddenly, better highways, bigger cars and jet travel made California accessible to everyone.

Then, ominously, in 1965 Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act that brought millions of immigrants to America; most settled in California. Why would newcomers start their lives in the Rust Belt when they could just as easily live in sunny California?

High levels of immigration into California and new births among immigrants created the need for more hospitals, roads, schools, and housing that eventually led to intolerable levels of urban sprawl. With an average 500,000 new residents every year over the last decade, California was forced to build to accommodate them. Once unspoiled farm country that ranged from Bakersfield to Redding, the Valley is still America’s breadbasket. But it’s fought a losing battle against developers who gobble up 20,000 acres annually to convert farmland into Bay Area exurbs.

Statewide, years of unchecked growth have contributed to California’s $25 billion budget deficit and 12.0 percent unemployment. In the San Joaquin Country, where I lived, the rate stands at 18.4 percent. California’s tax base can only fund so many welfare and education bills before the well runs dry. K-12 public schools have nearly 1.5 million non-English speakers enrolled, a number that’s about five times Pittsburgh’s total population. More than 40 percent of all California households converse in a foreign language.

As I make friends, the question I’m most frequently asked is why I moved to Pittsburgh. My simple answer: Pittsburgh offers a better quality of life and a higher living standard than California. If Pittsburgh had growth similar to, for example, Los Angeles, conditions would rapidly deteriorate as they inevitably do when population pressures build. Instead, Pittsburgh’s population base is flat and unemployment is significantly lower than the national average.

Because of its affordable housing, low crime rate, world class health care facilities and universities, stunningly beautiful city scape as well as its rivers and mountains, Pittsburgh is often voted as the nation’s best city to live in.

What’s most refreshing to me is that in Pittsburgh, everyone is proud of their local roots. In California, everybody is from somewhere else. I’m glad for my experiences back in the good old days when the Golden State was the greatest in the union. I only wish it had planned for a more sustainable future that would have made it impossible for me or anyone else to leave.

Pittsburgh should be an example to demographers of how historically mixed ethnic ancestries can blend into a cultural congruity that’s best achieved through slow growth.

Joe Guzzardi has written editorial columns—mostly about immigration and related social issues – since 1986. He is a senior writing fellow for Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) and his columns have frequently been syndicated in various U.S. newspapers and websites. Reach him at [email protected].