[PRCo] Re: living in PA

[Fred Schneider]

Pittsburgh has had lots of changes and so has California.   I guess  
we just don't see them when they happen while we live there.    
Pittsburgh lost people at about the same rate as California gained.

Not sure where you are in that Krazy Quilt called California but I've  
also watched in amazement as your state population almost doubled  
just in those few years since BART opened in the East Bay.  ..  from  
19.7 million to 35 million since 1970.

I can remember driving on an empty freeway along the coast from Los  
Angeles to San Diego, and watching it become more and more congested  
over the years until it looked like the Long Island Expressway at 2  
AM.   The last time I drove from LA to San Diego, I went down the  
east side of the mountain and found that had become no better ... the  
sprawl had overtaken Riverside.

And my mind was perplexed when I heard about commuter trains from San  
Jose to Stockton until I drove from San Jose to Stockton to  
Sacramento one afternoon last summer and found that you could not  
make time on the freeways and getting off on the back roads was far  
worse.   That was the day I found myself sitting still on the San  
Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge at 10 a.m. in a line of traffic.

Your comment "where English is occasionally heard" underscores the  
problems the old timers have.   I have a close friend in the  
Southland who has lived there since about 1930; his  grandparents  
moved to Hollywood in the twenties.   He is a pure Anglophile and  
when I asked him if he met a certain railfan with a Mexican name he  
went into orbit.   I rather angrily said, "____ was your family born  
here or something?"  He said, "We've been here since the twenties."   
I commented, "Well this other man's ancestors could remember when the  
Mexican flag was taken down and the U. S. flag was run up the flag  
pole.   They were the initial citizens ... they were here when Fr.  
Junipero Serra was here."   At that point my friend decided it was OK  
to socialize with that Mexican.   But he has a very difficult time  
with the new generations because he remembers Los Angeles when Watts  
was an all white community: before World War II and the ship yards  
and defense plants created a demand for farm labor from the  
southeastern states.   He used to have a favorite Chinese  
restaurant.   The last time I suggested going there he said it was no  
good any longer because they now cook for Chinese people and not for  
Americans.  Sounded like a perfectly good reason for me to go.

Did you see the population projections for California for 2050:    
59.507 million people of which 15.712 million will be white, 31.028  
million will be Hispanic; 7.889 million will be Asian, 2.682 million  
will be black, 1,414 million will be mixed racial.   Of course this  
is all based on a continuation of present observable trends ...  
California stays where we grow things I guess.   But it does suggest  
our kids will need to speak Spanish.

What I would like to know is how many rail passengers San Clara  
County Transportation District is hauling today compared with two  
years ago.  San Jose, in my vision, is one large suburb with a  
downtown designed for a city of about 75,000 in 1940.

On Jun 15, 2008, at 1:51 AM, robert simpson wrote:

> Fred;
>
> Thanks for your thoughts on the labor economics.  I have been away  
> for too many
> years and the information you offer is most welcome.  Your insight has
> clarified much confusion about unemployment rates.
>
> Visited the 'Burgh two weeks ago.  Wow!  Lots of changes.  Some  
> good, some bad.
>
> Bob
> from Krazy Kalifornia
> where English is occasionally heard
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>