THEY SAY
California’s Half-Full Glass
Joel Kotkin, in the Aug. 26 New Republic:
The California-bashing emanating from the East Coast media establishment has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks Likewise, the state’s Republican partisans have taken to talking about its problems in apocalyptic terms, with Arnold fretting that California had ceased to be the land of opportunity he discovered as a young immigrant and local businessmen, like Jack Stewart of the California Manufacturers Association, complaining that “the California dream has turned into a nightmare.” But this anti-California onslaught is easy to refute for one simple reason: It’s not true. Although the state economy is not doing extraordinarily well, its overall performance,a 2% decline in jobs since 2000,roughly tracks with the anemic norms of the rest of the country. And California’s economy is positively sparkling compared to that of, say, New York, which has suffered a 4% loss of employment during the same period.
David Friedman, in the Aug. 25 Los Angeles Downtown News:
Spurred by the recall, California’s industrial demise is everywhere declared but never seriously examined. The state’s economy is said to be in a “nosedive.” Everyone is leaving for someplace else. Pundits speculate that Sacramento politicians are trying to force a federal bailout by deliberately making things as bad as possible. None of this is true. Despite a well-deserved reputation for tax and regulatory excess, most of California is far outperforming the U.S. economy. The state’s real problem is that its two largest urban centers, Los Angeles County and the Bay Area, are increasingly unable to sustain job growth and create opportunities for all but the most privileged citizens. Its biggest challenge is figuring out how to cure, or at least contain, their political and economic pathologies before they inhibit the remarkable expansion of the rest of the state.
TWO PAPER TOWN
Register, Sept. 9, front section, pages 1 and 3:
Gov. Gray Davis remains in deep trouble with voters less than a month before the Oct. 7 recall election Democrat Cruz Bustamante holds a narrow lead over Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger in a new poll,a lead that would evaporate if Republican Tom McClintock dropped out of the governor’s race.
Times, Sept. 9, front section, page 1:
an independent poll showed Gov. Gray Davis gaining some ground in his bid to remain in office, and Schwarzenegger straining in his attempt to overtake Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante
