Posted on 12/02/2018 8:13:11 AM PST by Allen In Texas Hill Country
GOODBYE TO CALIFORNIA Written by Dr. Ron Martinelli (Dr. Martinelli is a renowned forensic criminologist and retired police detective with the San Jose Police Department).
As I sit in the LAX terminal after concluding business in downtown Los Angeles for the past two days, I cannot help but reflect upon my journey from a once California native to a new resident of the Great State of Texas and why. You see, in my personal and professional opinion, the once great State of California has in essence become a third world country.
“The concept of the “third world” has evolved to describe countries that suffer from low economic development, high levels of poverty and little to no ability to utilize natural or economic resources.” French demographer Alfred Sauvey, 1952.
While the reasons for California’s ever-spiraling downwards status from 1st World economic prominence and prosperity to near 3rd World malaise are many; I will assert that when you combine uber-liberal politicians, with rich elitist Hollywood Celebrities, dotcom CEO billionaires, disengaged millennials and illegal aliens; you in effect create the circumstances where your city or state becomes a 3rd World environment.
The process of California’s demise from the “Golden State” to 3rd World status has been slow but steady; supported and enabled by the aforementioned actors. While much of the legislated changes for the worse have been designed and voted in by politicians in Sacramento; municipal politicians and a complicit uninformed, naïve and entitled voting public must also share blame. After all, when 51% of those on some type of government subsidy out-vote the 49% of the money earning and tax paying citizenry, any state is doomed to failure. With California now a “Sanctuary State” and their liberal Democratic state legislature pushing for voting rights for illegal aliens, the state will never recover.
My observations during my short visit to Los Angeles underscored many of the problems Californians are facing as they follow lemming-like their Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown, their Democratic legislators and urban mayors like Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles off the economic cliff.
Literally nothing substantive is good about L.A. anymore. An ever-growing homeless subculture populates the downtown area. The intoxicated, drug influenced, mentally impaired and criminals are everywhere. They literally surround Civic Center, federal buildings and courts – the so-called foundations and protectors of the Rule of Law and society. How ironic to be surrounded by the failures these very systems, liberal politicians and judges have created. Isn’t karma interesting to watch in real time?
The homeless, numbering in the thousands, sleep in the shadows of immense, gleaming edifices owned by multi-billion dollar international conglomerates and dotcom corporations. Business executives in Brioni suits and workers quickly pass by the unwashed masses, while holding their noses to screen out the stench of urine and feces. The obvious health and safety hazards to the public are too many to count.
Interconnecting Los Angeles city roadways and state highways designed to transport the commuting, tax paying public to their job sites are a debacle. The ribbons of roadways are a mess of potholed, weed infested, trash laden, graffiti vandalized passages filled with vehicles lined up bumper-to-bumper going nowhere fast. These are your tax dollars at work. While California voters grumble and groan, in the end they just seem to accept their fate as one of the prices to pay for living the California dream.
You see, the working public has no time to get out and protest the outrageous and constant increases in taxes on gas, municipal services, vehicle registrations, rapid transit and a bullet train going to nowhere. Only the unemployed, government subsidized masses have time to demonstrate in the streets to ensure that their subsidies continue. Since the liberal politicians in Sacramento know this dynamic and their power base all too well, the taxation without representation continues.
I was staying at a hotel near LAX and my mileage commute to downtown L.A. was a mere twelve miles. However, it took me every bit of one hour and twenty minutes to arrive at my destination. I then paid $20 for the privilege of parking my car in a public lot. Of course, this was after I paid $30 a day to park my rental car at my hotel. Nice. I’m seriously considering Uber next time.
Since I frequently travel throughout California on business, I will tell you that Los Angeles is a mirror image of all of the other large urban cities in the state. I have observed similar and even worse depressed and dysfunctional urban environments in the San Francisco Bay Area, Orange County, San Diego and a number of other cities
California is rapidly becoming a two-tiered society of the very rich and the very poor, similar to the 2nd and 3rd World countries I regularly visit. The middle class, small business owners and the retired are either being pushed out of state and/or escaping in droves to such tax free, business friendly and less crime ridden states such as Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Florida. Lame duck Gov. Moonbeam and the state’s liberal Democratic legislature know this. They just don’t care because their power base is now assured Just ask any of their castrated, powerless Republican colleagues.
There will never again be a Republican administration in California. The days of Ronald Reagan have long passed. The candidates lining up for the governor’s race in 2018 are Open Borders and Sanctuary State advocates Anthony Villaraigosa and Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom. Governor Brown and his Democratic legislature are pulling out all the stops creating legislation that will allow illegal aliens in the state to vote in state and local elections. Republicans, conservatives and moderates don’t stand a chance.
Here are just some of things Californian’s have done in recent years to turn their state into a 3rd World mess:
1. Passed Proposition 47 which has since freed tens of thousands of felons from state prisons and county jails back into communities.
2. Prop. 47 also eviscerated the parole enforcement agency and created a system where police on the streets can’t even enforce outstanding felony and misdemeanor warrants anymore.
3. Police no longer arrest people for being under the influence of dangerous drugs. What would be the point; it’s just a misdemeanor.
4. They have reduced the crime of auto theft to a citable misdemeanor. Steal a car; get caught and get a ticket. Commit non-violent crimes, get arrested and you are out the same day with a promise to appear in court that will not ever be enforced. No warrant enforcement, remember? Amazing!
California’s new “Sanctuary State” status supports and enables its Open Borders mentality. Police in a number of cities such as San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles are ordered not to assist ICE with border enforcement. Remember the Kate Steinle murder case where her five-time convicted criminal and deported illegal alien was acquitted? Well, that’s the political mentality that created that circumstance. This is also an excellent example that liberal politicians in California are willing to sacrifice the innocent to demonstrate that they support violent illegal alien criminals.
What happens in California’s larger cities filters down to its medium and small sized cities as well. I recently wrote about the city of Salinas, CA. that experienced an incredible 150% increase in its homicide rate from 2014 – 2015 which rated Salinas as one of the nation’s 30 most violent cities. Fifty percent of all of their murders were gang and drug related, with the predominate population of gang members being illegal aliens. I can only wonder how Silicon Valley dot-commers’ who are paying over half a million bucks for a home and commute over four hours a day to San Jose like living in that violent environment?
Which brings me back to why my successful business owner wife and I escaped to Texas. The state loves us. No commute problems, no state taxes and we live in an area where there is little to no crime. Our area just outside of San Antonio some of the best school districts in the U.S.; high employment, great people and lots of fun things to do.
My wife and I live a great life on a ranch with a river in our backyard where we can fish, swim, kayak and BBQ with family and neighbors anytime we want. The price? Less than you would pay for a one bedroom studio condo in any of the cities in California I’ve mentioned. New home buyers only need three percent down to purchase a home and veterans make no down payments. If you are a younger middle-class person, a small business owner or retired, you’d be nuts to remain in California.
With California over a trillion dollars in debt and 30% of their budget going to subsidizing illegal aliens at the expense of hard-working, taxpayers who have little to no voice on how their state is run, the state and the majority of their citizens are doomed That’s what a two-tiered society eventually creates.
One heck of a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY!
The truth is blatantly obvious... and yet the left STILL turns a blind eye. I say let this Titanic sink.
Anyway, its goodbye America, not Calif.
And: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1377367/posts
Bookmark from L.A.
He is correct about everything but I don’t like his attitude. With that kinda mentality, his state or wherever he is moving to is next.
Kudos to whoever is willing to remake conservatism in California, perhaps even running as independents in future elections without the GOP moniker —as many Californians are registered with neither party.
Kudos to those who recognize the strides made in the area of the California pro-life movement and the growth of powerful L.A. and San Diego churches preaching the Gospel and serving whole swaths of the demographic.
Sounds juuust like Victor Davis Hansen.
Ah Texas? Yes Texas is definitely next. So many Californiana are moving there including liberals. Can’t just keep picking up and leaving. Someone has to stay the course and fight eek.
Thank goodness for CA or else my state would have the highest voting percentage for hillary!!
That 38 percent of NYers are still sane actually shocks me.
58 went to hillary.
So a 10 percent change is needed for Trump to in NY in 2020.
Difficult, but not impossible.
OK. Impossible :(
That 4 out of 10 of us still love the country very much makes me at least DREAM of the day an R can carry NY again.
CA at 32 percent for Trump.
61 for hillary.
A 15 percent swing is almost out of the question.
YUP..!
Ping
“...perhaps even running as independents in future elections without the GOP moniker...”
Yes. ‘Republican’ is neither conservative, patriotic, Godly nor Constitutional.
If ever there was a time for a new party to represent us, it is now. It’s not the loosely defined and questionable T.E.A. party. Another thread asked what a new conservative party should be named.
Otherwise the insanity simply spreads to the U.S. as a whole and the entire country goes down the crapper.
California is depending on Uncle Sugar bailing them out.
San Francisco is the sewer since their streets are used as.
California is already a colony of Mexico.
Their officials refuse to protect American citizens from fraudulently documented foreigners and protect Mexicans from US laws.
If Democrats keep moving to Arizona, Texas and Florida those will be the next ruins. They are like locusts, they destroy everything in their path. I used to pray we could all get along together, now I just want them all to move to California and we can Wall them off to keep them from polluting the rest of the country.
Progressives are a socialist disease to States.
Californians are ruining Texas. It’s nuts, but they start voting for people who represent what they left. I’ll never understand it but I think they basically think California has it right, but that the wrong people came to be in charge.
My big hope/fantasy is that every filthy politician responsible for this debacle meets justice at the end of a rope.
Yes, let’s suggest more Californians move to Texas, where they are continuing the vote the same way they did back home, as evidenced by the shift in the last several election cycles.
While explaining the deficiencies and downfall of California is a useful introspection to attempt to avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future, the suggested solutions to the problem will only exacerbate and speed the downfall of the entire country.
Recently I wrote Abbott with a plea to stop inviting every business in the country to move to Texas, that Perry initiated destruction of the state, that we should make it more painful for liberals to live here, and to do something to educate our population (PSAs or otherwise) on what it means to be Texan. If you’re a true Texan, I suggest strongly that you do the same. Educate your neighbors and friends. Ceaselessly point out the failures of the California model. Point out why handing money to beggars on every corner only serves to ensure they remain there.
Sadly, the writer is correct. When we moved to California, it had a Republican Senator and a Republican Governor. Motor-voter killed California. You haven’t had to show ID to vote in two decades. I loved living there for the activities and the beauty, but with two good incomes we were still counting our pennies. Having left for a more sensible state, I still love visiting there, but am glad I don’t have to anymore deal with the stress of daily life. I used to tell people that life is cheap in California. The crime was terrible when we lived there and it has gotten exponentially worse. I was aquaintenced with 3 people who were murdered, over our 20 year stay. So sad, but California sets it’s own path. More’s the pity.
California’s GDP is $2.7 trillion.
The California GDP Is greater than the United Kingdom’s GDP and a trillion dollars greater than the Texas GDP.
California is not Third World.
It’s pretty inaccurate. We shouldn’t fool ourselves into believing that California is a “Third World” country because of the traffic and thousands of homeless people encamped around its various cities. No, California is still an incredibly wealthy place, offering a very high quality of life for the select few that can actually afford it. With respect to the traffic, I challenge the author to drive from the international airport to the downtown center of any major (10M+) city in the world, and get there in less than an hour and park their car for less than $30.
There are a few square miles of urban real estate such as Skid Row and the Tenderloin, where there are thousands of homeless people, and it’s absolutely disgusting, but there are thousands of square miles of pleasant suburban, rustic rural and gentrified urban real estate all over the state where you wouldn’t ever see any of that. You just have to pay a pretty penny for it!
I’m not in any way downplaying the stupidity and depravity of the people who currently run this state, nor am I making any kind of statement of how things are in California relative to other parts of the country. I’m just saying that anyone who thinks that people who live in Brentwood, or Pasadena, or Pacific Heights, or Palo Alto, or any of a thousand other places are living in “Third World” conditions needs to have their head examined.
ping
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