California’s Far North Deplores ‘Tyranny’ of the Urban Majority

REDDING, Calif. — The deer heads mounted on the walls of Eric Johnson’s church office are testament to his passion for hunting, a lifestyle enjoyed by many in the northernmost reaches of California but one that Mr. Johnson says surprises people he meets on his travels around America and abroad.

“When people see you’re from California, they instantly think of ‘Baywatch,’” said Mr. Johnson, the associate pastor of Bethel Redding, a megachurch in this small city a three-and-a-half-hour drive north of San Francisco. “It’s very different here from the rest of California.”

Mr. Johnson lives in what might be described as California’s Great Red North, a bloc of 13 counties that voted for President Trump in November and that make up more than a fifth of the state’s land mass but only 3 percent of its population.
From Hollywood to Silicon Valley, California projects an image as an economically thriving, politically liberal, sun-kissed El Dorado. It is a multiethnic experiment with a rising population, where the percentage of whites has fallen to 38 percent.


California’s Great Red North is the opposite, a vast, rural, mountainous tract of pine forests with a political ethos that bears more resemblance to Texas than to Los Angeles. Two-thirds of the north is white, the population is shrinking and the region struggles economically, with median household incomes at $45,000, less than half that of San Francisco.


Jim Cook, former supervisor of Siskiyou County, which includes cattle ranches and the majestic slopes of Mount Shasta, calls it “the forgotten part of California.”

In the same state that is developing self-driving cars, there’s the rugged landscape of Trinity County, where a large share of residents heat their homes with wood, plaques commemorate stagecoach routes and the county seat, Weaverville, is an old gold-mining town with a lone blinking stop-and-go traffic light.


Northern California is predominantly white, conservative and rural.
JIM WILSON / THE NEW YORK TIMES
The residents of this region argue that their political voice is drowned out in a system that has only one state senator for every million residents.

This sentiment resonates in other traditionally conservative parts of California, including large swaths of the Central Valley, which runs down the state, and it mirrors red and blue tensions felt in areas across the country. But perhaps nowhere else in California is the alienation felt more keenly than in the far north, an arresting panorama of fields filled with wildflowers and depopulated one-street towns that have never recovered from the gold rush.

“People up here for a very long time have felt a sense that we don’t matter,” said James Gallagher, a state assemblyman for the Third District, which is a shorter drive from the forests of Mount Hood in Oregon than from the beaches of San Diego. “We run this state like it’s one size fits all. You can’t do that.”

Many liberals in California describe themselves as the resistance to Mr. Trump. Residents of the north say they are the resistance to the resistance, politically invisible to the Democratic governor and Legislature. California’s strict regulations on the environment, gun control and hunting impinge on a rural lifestyle, they say, that urban politicians do not understand.


The state’s stringent air quality and climate change regulations may be appropriate for technology workers, Mr. Gallagher said, but they are onerous for people living in rural areas.


“In the rural parts of the state we drive more miles, we drive older cars, our economy is an agriculture- and resource-based economy that relies on tractors and trucks,” Mr. Gallagher said. “You can’t move an 80,000-pound load in an electric truck.”

A recently passed gas tax, pushed through by the Democratic majority, will disproportionately hurt rural voters, he said.


Mount Shasta in Siskiyou County, Calif.
JIM WILSON / THE NEW YORK TIMES
Taxation and hunting are two issues northerners are quick to seize upon when criticizing laws they feel are unfairly imposed by the state. But there are also more fundamental issues related to incomes and job opportunities that split California into a two-speed economy.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, unemployment rates hover around 3 percent. In the far north, where many timber mills have shut down in recent years, unemployment is as high as 6 percent in Shasta County and 16.2 percent in Colusa County.

Despite a go-it-alone ethos, residents of the 13 counties in the northern bloc are much more likely to receive government medical assistance than those in the Bay Area. In the north, 31 percent take part in Medi-Cal, the California Medicaid program, while the Bay Area rate is 19 percent, and California’s overall figure 28 percent.


United States Representative Doug LaMalfa, a Republican representing Northern California’s First District, blames regulations that have shut down industries for the economic disparities. https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/07/02/us/california-far-north-identity-conservative.html?referer= The urban coastal areas of California have been running roughshod over inland rural far Northern California for far too long. The time for the State of Jefferson is now. We have been overwhelmed by the city people with regulations, gas taxes, limits on farming, mining, ranching, fishing, hunting, recreation tourism. They ignore our grievances and try to turn our region into a private park for the rich and famous city folk to play in. We would have a fewer regulations, low tax, right to work state that would produce growth and jobs as well as taking care of the environment that makes our beautiful region Gods country. The time has come to make Jefferson America's 51st state.

 

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Resentment toward the rest of California has a long history here — there have been numerous efforts to split the state since its founding in 1850. After the presidential election, a proposal to secede from the union, driven by liberals and known as Calexit, gained attention.


Mark Baird displayed a State of Jefferson flag at his ranch in Fort Jones, Calif. Flags promoting the notion of a California secession can be seen around the north.
JIM WILSON / THE NEW YORK TIMES
Residents here have long backed a different proposal for a separate state, one that would be carved out of Northern California and the southern reaches of Oregon. Flags of the so-called State of Jefferson, which was first proposed in the 19th century, fly on farms and ranches around the region."

 

Yeah, I see how this works. "Don't tax us, even though we are more likely to receive government assistance. " Jefferson would become just another Mississippi or Tennessee.

 

And how would they sustained themselves once they split?

 

Um, I would say, food for $500 Alex....

 

I'm an old school Democrat. Nice try with the label though.

 

LOL.....sure because you didn't label people leftists. You spoke from a position of ignorant. One of many California's north industry is tourism. You can't make money from it and then b***h about it.

 

You know diddly squat about CA. The bigger cattle ranches are in the central valley. They wouldn't be able sell any to us in the rest of the state.

 

Did you even read it all? They're complaining that regulations are restricting their ability to make money.

 

Since they're not jamb packed with millions of needy liberals in small spaces like the other parts of CA I'm sure they'll do just fine with their sparse population.

And my bro-in-law lives in San Diego. And I've been to his former place in Azusa. He's pretty much trapped in a liberal infested shithole. The stereotype is real.

 

No they are not, which is why they are whining. Their economy is stagnant and unemployment rate is high. That is part of rural living. You can't be wanting to live in a beautiful, low population city but at the same time expecting to make the big bucks. Not going to happen.

And he is free to move.

 

Lol...... you wish California had the state books of TN. Tennessee is killing it, but please, keep using federal household income as a measure without considering cost of living to determine quality of life.

 

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Tourism is one thing. We welcome it. Locking up lands where the locals can't use them the way we do so that granola munching hippies from Berkeley or LA can back pack through it and we can't four wheel drive there is pathetic. The article mentioned 13 counties. The Jefferson area included as many as 25. The state would be the same population as Nebraska and would be between 1/4 and 1/3 of the state of Ca. While our income level is not the same as the rest of Ca. our living costs are much less. The bottom line is that we would be better off if we were free from Californication even if we lost some revenue. Being separate from SF and LA is worth having a little less money.

 

Tennessee is a great state. You hit it with measuring both income and cost of living being used to measure quality of life. Another quality of life matter is life style, slower pace, better to raise kids, outdoors, nice parks, better public schools. My house is appraised at 160k. The same 3/2 home with 1050 sq ft and a one car attached garage in the Bay Area or LA area would be 500k and theirs wouldn't have much of a back yard.

 

Here's a glimpse of what the northern part of Jefferson is like. http://visitredding.com/mobile/

 

Off topic but how are your mountain biking trails? I want to ride in Montana (was in Essex and Whitefish last year) but I'm not in the mood to get mauled by a bear any time soon.

 

If they have the votes to become their own state more power to them. If not suck it up buttercup or move. It'd be cool to see the process take place.

 

I feel your frustration. I live in Lassen county and feel the same. One of my biggest issues is the laws on crime that Jerry Brown is passing. In the last 10 years our small towns crime is out of control. Recently a guy robbed a gun store and he was caught with the guns. Some how he got off the hook and set free. Then he turned around and caught the courthouse café and a few attorneys offices on fire. Few days later attempted to burglarize another gun store. Caught on camera and arrested again. No tellin if the D.A. can keep him in jail. She tries but she's fighting against Sacramento. The criminals are getting very bold, lots of residential burglaries. They know they have more rights than us. Mark my word if this continues a local is going to shoot some one of them. The whole town is talking about it. You can't go to the DMV without overhearing someone say "Eventually someone's going to get shot. I'm already pissed both of my sons have been victims. No arrest in spite of overwhelming evidence. If I had the means or was younger I'd leave this state. Wish I never came back but I love this area.

 

Another Utopian BS thread.

If only "they" would leave us alone, everything would be perfect, because "we" all think the same way and would never have any disagreements about what our new government would do.

New state. New government that would cost hundreds of millions to set up and operate with all the usual disagreements over authority and regulations. Utopian BS.

Note. I spent the first 40 years of my life in Northern California.

 

No it would never be perfect and it never was but it was a hell of a lot better just 10 years ago. It's getting much worse and we all know why. Many of us left **** holes like the bay area for a reason. Just 10 years ago I would not fear my daughters safety to walk in any neighborhood in our town. Can you say that? Still our murder rate is only abought 1 a year we just see a change for the worse so tell me are we wrong for wanting a safe place to live? We want to stop it before it's to late.

 

I've visited North Cal more than once, one of my favorite area's of the country and absolutely yes, the people there are more of what I'd consider consistent with the types that I know down here in my part of FL ie: normal. I have no idea why they continue to vote for those politicians, but maybe its just because I think Pelosi is so terrible that I lump it all together.

I voted no against a split, but if CA splits into two states that's their choice, I have no problem with it. Frankly, as long as I stay away from L.A., I really enjoy visiting California.

 

Still utopian crap.

Bad things happen everywhere.

 

Love Tennessee, love NC as well, love the slow pace, everyone speaks English too! (a weird English, but still English)

 

Yes bad things happen everywhere but much less here than in many other places and we want to keep it that way. Sounds like your OK with things getting worse, well that's on you and your family. My family deserves more and we are willing to fight for it. Your the one talking crap as if the city is a better place these days. Do you live in California? I know how it use to be in the state and now it is much worse all over the whole state including here and we up here have no say so in the matter our votes don't count. How about we dictate to you how you should live? Sound good?