JFlorio wrote:
Very possible. I have no problem with that.
I don't either... it happens to all of us.
JFlorio wrote:
It caught my attention simply because of the mention of California. I was amazed that a state with so many natural resources and Silicon Valley could be considered in the high poverty category. I have friends in San Diego. Been there for years. They tell me L.A. and San Francisco once beautiful areas are the pits now. I guess they are misinformed also..
As you know it's a big state with lot's of people and a wide array of cultures. I'm not going to sit here and say there aren't any poor people in California. But when someone says something like California has the highest poverty rate in the union... well, that's when I verify the facts and as you can see, I responded with the facts as I found them and it turns out the poverty rate in California is lower than Florida, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Arizona, West Virginia, Georgia, Arkansas, Kentucky, Alabama, Louisiana, New Mexico and Mississippi... so not exactly the highest in the union.
I know that LA has the largest population of immigrants in California... there's a lot of business owners there that like to break the law by hiring undocumented workers so they can get away with paying them less than what is legally required. That would certainly have an impact on the poverty rate. It's quite possible that for that reason LA has the highest poverty rate in California and maybe that's what you misunderstood when listening to that radio program.
As for the changes... I really don't see it. I was raised in the LA area but specifically in the coastal cities. I was surrounded by immigrants there too but they were all legally brought over from Europe to work in the area's enormous aerospace industry. That's how my family immigrated. When I started competing in regional sports I discovered the east side of LA and it was a totally different scene... like scary bad. I really don't think much has changed, there have always been good and bad places for as long as I can remember.
I currently live closer to Oakland in a place where it's astoundingly beautiful.
Look, I know a lot of people have a hang up about California... I've spent a lot of my career traveling around the country and I've heard all kinds of grumbling about my state. Most of the claims are wildly erroneous but I'm sure accuracy really isn't the point. The point, so it seems, more often than not, is just to insult the state and it's people. I get that. Not sure exactly why California, but I would guess it has something to do with it's exposure in media and the fact that it's predominately liberal.