I am from California, originally from up North in San Francisco (Fillmore District, Noe Valley, & Outer Mission) and ended up here in Los Angeles (Hollywood). The reason there is so much knowledge about Texas available in California is because Texas seems to have a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to California; California is always in the top ten of the world; according to the most recent report I could find, if CA were a separate nation, it would rank number 6, overall:
http://www.sacbee.com/news/business/...e83780667.html
The rankings are subject to interpretation, so your mileage may vary...
Texas, the last I saw was ranked 12th overall, but it used to be right behind CA in the rankings. Part of the decline is due to the fall in oil prices and the resulting 'depressed' economy of TX...
Texans has long been tinkering and interfering with CA politics and state/local governments. CA has huge oil deposits and TX companies had a wide rein over exploiting the oil early in the 20th century, but, by the mid 60s, the citizens and voters had had enough of the pollution and destruction caused by oil drilling; strict laws were passed imposing strict limitations on the oil industry's impact on the environment. It should be noted the oil companies were drilling everywhere and anywhere. I spent two years at a high school in downtown Los Angeles, and there were oil rigs in a field just opposite the school; there is a very ritzy, high end shopping mall on the border of Beverly Hills and, when it was being built, a slice of the land had to be walled off and disguised because of a couple of active wells that the oil company responsible would not give up; it should also be noted that prior to the construction of the shopping mall, the site was the location of a children's amusement park, but the oil company drilled anyway...
Because of the strict laws, TX companies and individuals have spent huge amounts of money trying to either get the laws reversed or amended, or trying to get candidates sympathetic to oil interests elected to office; so far, the effort has not been successful; new and stricter laws have been enacted, and the candidates, almost totally from the GOP, have either failed to win, or, if they did win, have be ineffective...
The sums of money expended by TX interests is staggering; we, here in CA, don't really mind: if they want to add strength to our economy, who are we to deny them the chance to 'spend, baby, spend' within our borders; TX dollars are just as good as anyone else's. I mentioned the 2006 election project I worked on; here is a link describing the initiative and the facts of the election:
https://ballotpedia.org/California_P..._Oil_Tax_(2006)
If you look carefully at the list of opponents, you will note there is no mention of any oil industry individuals or organizations; however if you look at the list of contributors in opposition, the list is all oil interests, many of them either directly based in TX or allied to TX oil interests...
Additionally, TX has been making very aggressive efforts to poach businesses from CA, even to the point of then-Governor Rick Perry making trips to CA to wine and dine CA business executives to lure them to TX. He has some little success, but the critical businesses have remained here in CA and many have expanded. I recall seeing a TV news report where the reporter asked a CA tech executive if he would ever entertain a move to TX; he said, given his sector, tech, was headquartered in the North in the SF Bay Area and in the South in the Santa Monica/Playa Del Rey seaside area, he really didn't think his employees would relish a move to what he referred to as a 'bit of a desert'...
So, we here in CA tend to have a bit of knowledge of TX just because they just won't leave us alone. Oh, by the way, don't be so hard on Long Beach: they really have come a long way from the days when I first saw it in the 60s, although I do kinda miss the old funky Pike...
09-13-16, 01:24 PM
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