Leaving California Because of Its Unsustainable Population Growth

By Joe Guzzardi
September 15, 2010

Two years ago, with my heart heavy, I made the decision I had known for years was inevitable. I left California and moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Too many people, driving too many cars and building too many box stores that paved over too much precious, irreplaceable land drove me away from my once beloved state.

I’m a native Californian, born and raised in the 1950s on the Santa Monica 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 mid-western and eastern states. The Beach Boys unwittingly took the California message across the country. Better highways and ease of 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 the state. Why should immigrants start their new lives in the Rust Belt when they can 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.

I’ve had two California tours. After college and a New York banking career, I returned in 1986, this time to Lodi in the San Joaquin Valley.

Once unspoiled farm country that ranged from Bakersfield to Redding, the Valley is still America’s bread basket. But it is fighting a losing battle against developers.

Although its crop yields remain abundant, the Valley is increasingly a exurb for commuters priced out of Bay Area housing. That translates into more home construction and the loss of more than more than 20,000 acres of farmland annually to sprawl.

When I drove into my new Lodi home 25 years ago, I read the sign on the city’s outskirts: “Welcome to Lodi, Population 50,000.” Now, its population is 70,000. Let that be a warning to people who are comforted when they read that their city’s population increase is “only” 1.5 percent per annum. Over a quarter of a century, that builds to 40 percent.

The 1965 IRCA bill effected Lodi in its population growth and the corresponding demand on the city to provide additional services. According to the 2007 U.S. Census, Lodi’s Hispanic population nearly doubled from 1986 total to 35 percent today. The Lodi Unified School District’s Hispanic enrollment is nearly 40 percent, up from 15 percent two decades ago.

Lodi advertises itself as “lovable and livable.” When I left it was neither. With its Wal-Marts, fast food joints and huge discount groceries that lined the main drag, I barely recognized it.

The question I’m most frequently asked is why I chose to relocate in Pittsburgh. My simple answer is that Pittsburgh has a steady population base and therefore a better quality of life.

Recently, Pittsburgh has twice been voted America’s “Most Livable City” 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.

Museums, the downtown cultural center and professional sports teams provide Pittsburgh residents with all the entertainment any one could wish for.

Because of its population stability, Pittsburgh can maintains its high standard of living. If it had the growth rate of, for example, Los Angeles, living conditions would rapidly deteriorate as they always do when population pressures build.

To California then, I say thanks for the memories. I’m glad I knew you back in the days when you were the greatest state in the union. I only wish you had planned for a more sustainable future that would have made it impossible for me to stray.

Joe Guzzardi has written editorial columns—mostly about immigration and related social issues – since 1990. 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. He can be reached at [email protected].