Wealth, class and remote work reshape California's new boomtowns - chasing out the repubs

[Demovictory9]

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-07-02/el-dorado-migration-bay-area

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Among the new booming counties is El Dorado, the birthplace of the California Gold Rush, which has absorbed an influx of Bay Area transplants who, in search of affordable homes, well-rated schools and access to the outdoors, have packed up their U-Hauls and headed northeast.

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The Lukes joined the flow after nearly a dozen of Brian’s fellow firefighters moved to El Dorado Hills in the last few years. His friends described a neighborhood with a sense of community, filled with young families.

Intrigued after looking at homes online, the couple spent their first wedding anniversary driving through the area and gazing at the manicured homes.

Brian, 38, who once thought it “crazy” that his co-workers would live more than two hours from their jobs at the Santa Clara County Fire Department and wake up at 3:30 a.m. to commute, suddenly saw the draw.

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Though he hasn’t experienced animosity, Roby has heard some locals say that they want to maintain their region’s more conservative, underdeveloped aura, and fear that newcomers are changing that character. Some 41% of active voters in El Dorado County are Republicans, according to 2020 data from the county’s election department, while 31% are Democrats. About 21% are registered with no party preference.

“Out of my three neighbors, two have moved because they felt the county was becoming too liberal,” Roby said.

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Commuting 2 hr daily ... burning more fuel ... producing more CO2 ... raising temps ...

causing more fires.

Way to go, firemen.

[Hekate]

2. There are plenty of very essential workers who cannot afford to live where they work...

I get the impression from a lot of DUers that they are completely unfamiliar with that phenomenon in most of the country. Must be nice to have affordable housing in pleasant locations.

However, among the workers who often find themselves commuting an hour or more are: police, firefighters, nurses, teachers, and those employed by the County. When I still lived in Santa Barbara County, the city of SB had to wrangle with the necessity of a subsidy for a house if they wanted the new Chief of Police to actually live in the city itself and not in the next county over.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Interesting point. Still -- TWO HOURS ?

The long commuters I've known or have known of through mutual acquaintances have just *preferred* living away from "the crowd", almost to the point of obsession.

It's like everyone wanting to move out to the wilderness, but after everyone moves there, it's not wilderness anymore. Humans seem oddly prone to self-defeating behavior. Taking a "big picture" approach is left up to everyone in general, so no one in particularly has either responsibility or authority to deal with slowly-trending problems like these.

[cally]

6. He's a firefighter

They don’t work 8 hour shifts typically. More common to work 24 hour shifts so less commute

[hunter]

4. Aggressively opposing road expansions and parking lots in urban areas would solve that problem.

Car culture is highly subsidized, as is the fossil fuel industry itself.

In the short term we'd probably end up with cities built like Disneyland in Southern California, or Venice Italy, with huge parking structures outside, and no little or no public parking inside. Unlike Disneyland or Venice there could be plenty of attractive affordable housing where people work, much of it built on land reclaimed from automobiles.

Eventually these parking nodes would become hubs for high speed interurban public transportation systems.

Someone living in El Dorado county would probably be working in El Dorado county.

If someone living in El Dorado county worked in Santa Clara county they'd be possibly be getting there on a narrow BART extension, not a wide ten lane highway with toll lanes.

Personally I love to drive, but not in 15 mph stop-and-go traffic. By some planning and good fortune my wife and I have managed to live close to our work for most of our adult lives.

My worst automobile commute was over California's Sepulvada Pass, which can see 330,000 vehicles a day. That was hell on earth.

One doctor I used to work for commuted from his ranch in Utah to Southern California in his private plane. He worked three days on, four days off. He had a private landing strip on his ranch, and a small apartment in the city.

These long commutes are representative of the carbon dioxide debts future generations will suffer long after the people who burned fossil fuels are gone.

[Demovictory9]

5. I made the sepulveda pass commute - SFV to west LA - for 10 years

had grown mentally accustomed to it... listened to radio shows