15◼ REMARKS Bloomberg Businessweek November 11, 2019PHOTO
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● Thestate’sstruggleswithnatural
disastersandinequalityamplify
America’sownanxietiesandhopes● ByEsméE.Deprez
Morenation-statethanU.S.state,Californiais a landofsuper-
latives:themostpopulous,themostprosperous,hometothe
mostcompaniesintheS&P500,thefifth-largesteconomyin
theworld.Itsscalealsomakesit oneofthemostpowerful,
muchtotheannoyanceofDonaldTrump’sWashington.Lately,
however,thestateis alsothemostincendiaryintheunion—not
justbecauseofitswildfiresandaccompanyingblackouts,but
alsobecausethey’vesparkedheateddebateoverwhetherits
futureremainsgoldenoris inexorablyineclipse.
Justpastnoonundertheclear,blueskyofHalloween
day,KurtMikellreturnedtosurveywhatremainedofhis
mulchandcompostdepotdownhilloftheRonaldReagan
PresidentialLibraryinSimiValley,Calif.TheEasyFirehad
tornthroughMikell’s5 acres,aboutanhour’sdrivenorthwest
ofLosAngeles,leavingthegreenandbrownhillssplotched
withblackandstripedinfire-retardantred.It wasthesec-
ondtimeinMikell’s 20 yearstherethatwildfirehaddestroyed
whathe’dworkedhardtobuild.Buthe’sundeterred.“Iseea
dirtycanvasthatI’mgoingtocleanupandrepaint,”hesays,
“andit’lllooknicerthanit didbefore.”
Anhourlater,ontheothersideofthehillfromMikell’s
property,MaryLouSchakouripulledintothedrivewayof
herfour-bedroomtracthomewhereshe’slivedsince2013,
afterfleeingthepriormorningwithhertwocryingyoung
daughters.It wasthefamily’sfirstevacuation;theyreturned
tofinda lingeringsmellofsmoke,butthepropertywas
otherwise unscathed. “I don’t feel safe here anymore,” she
says. “I’m more scared of fires than earthquakes. I don’t
want to stay.” She’s thinking of North Carolina.
The fire season that provoked those conflicting reactions
also inspired think pieces, Twitter threads, and TV talking-
head commentary predicting widespread financial ruin, voter
rebellion, environmental catastrophe, political upheaval,
and mass emigration. “It’s the end of California as we know
it,” self-proclaimed “California nationalist” Farhad Manjoo
wrote in the New York Times. On Fox News, Tucker Carlson
declared California a “disaster” and “not civilized.” There
was pushback, of course. “California has a hell of a lot more
going for it than you’ll ever hear from our jealous critics and
gasbag pundits,” wrote Los Angeles Times columnist Steve
Lopez. “The state has worked for over 40 years to success-
fully reduce emissions—but that never gets mentioned when
hillsides burn,” wrote Alissa Walker, the urbanism editor of
the blog network Curbed.
The state has long lent itself to caricature despite its
incredible diversity of geography, population, and culture.California amplifies America’s own anxieties about setbacks—
anditshopesandresiliency.A lotofthecountryis conflicted
aboutthepositionsCaliforniaholdsonmanyissues:thepol-
iticsofTrumpandresistancetoTrump;incomeinequality;
and,ofcourse,climatechange.Trumphasstirredopposition,
tweetingcriticismofGovernorGavinNewsom’shandling of
thefiresandresurrectinga vaguethreattowithholdfederal
fundingtohelpaidrecovery.Thechaosofwildfiresandblack-
outscomesamidthebackdropofa housingaffordability crisis
fueling one of homelessness, with cities across the state see-
ing double-digit increases in the numbers of indigents sleep-
ing in cars and on sidewalks, in parks and doorways, and
under bridges and highway overpasses.
William Deverell, a historian of the American West who
teaches at the University of Southern California-Dornsife
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, has
watched many times as the national zeitgeist tests the health
of the American Dream through an examination of the for-
tunes and misfortunes of the Golden State. This time feels
different: the impact more personal, those affected more
helpless. “I used to roll my eyes,” he says about criticism of
the state. Now, “the sheer difficulty, if not intractability, of
these challenges seem of a scale that frightens me.”Beyondnaturaldisasters,Californianshaveenduredone
self-inflicted mess after another throughout the past two
decades: the dot-com bust, an electricity crisis, a divisive
gubernatorial recall election, a budget debacle amid the
Great Recession. In the early 2000s, the state’s electric-
ity industry almost collapsed amid shortages and rampant
market manipulation that triggered widespread black-
outs, tripled consumers’ energy bills, and forced power
companies into bankruptcy. The crisis helped bring down
then-Governor Gray Davis and led to a recall election fea-
turinga pornstar,a rocksinger,a formerchildactor,and
evensmutpeddlerLarryFlyntontheballot.Intheend,
amega-celebrity-cum-political-neophyte named Arnold
Schwarzenegger claimed victory. It was a time when
California was not just a basket case but a political joke.
More than most states, and even the federal government,
California has built into its fiscal framework a progressive tax
structure that relies heavily on those with the most money
to help care for those with less. That leaves it overly depen-
dent on its wealthy residents: The top 1% of taxpayers pro-
vide about half the personal income tax revenue. That means
that recessions and bear markets can cause massive defi-
cits. The state budget had barely recovered from the gap-
ingholesleftbythedot-combustwhentheGreatRecession
andhousingmarketcollapseleftit broke.Californiafaceda
$40billion shortfall in 2009 alone, bigger than some states’
entire budgets. Some 30,000 teachers received pink slips
during the recession. Lawmakers blew through budget dead-
lines while debating tax hikes vs. spending cuts, forcing the
state comptroller to pay bills literally with IOUs. Pundits
called California the next Greece.