The Central Valley is Looking Better and Better

WSJ illustration: blue dots show where Bay
Area ex-residents are resettling.

In April we commented on a Chronicle editorial that decried the migration from the coasts to Central California. The Chronicle declared the growth of the suburbs "unsustainable", which struck us as wishful thinking:

No, Progressives, your scare tactics won't work ("drought","fire country"), not to mention your sniffing at the plebes ("sprawl", "unsustainable"). And what's with the suburbs fostering climate change? Sacramento, which you control, has ordered us all into electric cars in a few years, so transportation won't be a source of bogeyman carbon.

It's your emptying cities which frighten us with homeless encampments, rampant burglary, drugs, usurious rents, filthy mass-transit, filthy streets, and labyrinthine regulations, which all come with extra taxes for the privilege of living and working in your precious highrises.

Six months later the trend shows no signs of abating. WSJ: Californians Flee the Coast to Inland Cities in a Mass Pandemic-Era Exodus

The pandemic boosted the flow of households from California’s coastal counties to other parts by nearly 50%, postal data show.

A net 97,000 households left the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and the San Francisco metro area lost about 67,000. The city of San Francisco lost a net of 44,000 households last year, about one-eighth of its total. Many from the city settled in the Sacramento metro area, about 90 miles northeast.

In Southern California, the center of the state’s shift, the Inland Empire had a net gain of 25,000 households last year, according to the postal data. That figure doesn’t count immigration, a longtime source of new Californians.

Roseville, near Sacramento, has some nice stores
but I doubt they'll be hit: too many guns and
Republicans, and the people support the police.

As if to put an exclamation point on the pay-more-get-less life by the Bay, organized smash-and-grab gangs attacked pricey stores in multiple cities the past weekend.

“It was a wild weekend,” (Alameda County Sergeant Ray] Kelly said, referring to sprees in Hayward, Walnut Creek, San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco, where roving bands of thieves swarmed into stores, grabbed as much merchandise as they could carry and escaped in getaway cars.

In Oakland the caravans grew particularly violent, as police encountered hundreds of drivers roaming the city on Friday, seeking out cannabis businesses for attempted theft, authorities said.

And why should the gangs worry? Property theft less than $950 is only a misdemeanor, so hardly any victim bothers reporting it. And if you're unlucky or stupid enough to get caught, San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin ended cash bail for all criminal cases, so criminals will be out in no time.

This weekend, for the first time in two years, I'll be visiting the Sacramento area, where life seems more civilized.

The Central Valley is looking better and better.

Surreal ID

For your mild amusement:

DMV Mistakenly Issues Driver’s License With Photo Of Woman Wearing Face Mask

Lesley Pilgrim received the ID in the mail with a greeting reading, “Congratulations, enclosed is your newly designed California driver license.”

“I knew the picture was not going to be good because license pictures are never good, but I did not expect the picture to be with my mask on,” Pilgrim said...

Lesley Pilgrim in real life

When it was her turn, the DMV employee took two photos, the first still wearing her mask, the second without it.

“I sign it and I then I go home, and unfortunately he had used my picture with my mask on, and that’s what showed up on my Real ID,” Pilgrim said.

Since the DMV took with- and without photos, one would think that they could just reissue her a correct Real ID, but they're making Ms. Pilgrim come in again.

Note 1: we drove to Roseville two years ago to get the Real ID because we anticipated doing a lot of traveling in late 2020 and beyond. Hah!

Note 2 - the DMV has more serious problems than using the wrong photo: Security breach at DMV contractor may have exposed personal information of millions of California drivers

How to Get Women to Look at You

Light your dish on fire.

The Flaming Dragon ($15.95) at Ninja Sushi consisted of

Crab salad, deep-fried shrimp, spicy tuna, topped with avocado, hamachi, red tuna, ebi shrimp, bake 5 sauces, masago, green onion and served on a flaming plate at your table.

Although not bad, it looked more spectacular than it tasted.

More Civilized

Having neglected to renew my passport, I had to get a REAL ID:

Look for the bear on CA REAL ID's 

You will need a REAL ID driver license or ID card if you want to continue using your driver license or ID card to do any of the following:

Board a domestic flight starting October 1, 2020.

Enter secure federal facilities or military bases starting October 1, 2020. (Note: Check with the federal facility/military base before your visit to verify their identification requirements.)

Purchase firearms or ammunition. (Note: Check with the firearms dealer you plan to visit to verify their identification requirements)

Roseville DMV (Yelp photo)

Because the nearest available times at Peninsula DMV offices were months away, we scheduled an appointment for today at the Roseville DMV, 20 miles northeast of Sacramento. The Roseville office was spacious--it's less than five years old--and there was no waiting in the appointment line (the other line had 20 people).

We had brought all the required documents (social security card, birth certificate, two proofs of California residency, e.g., property tax or utility bill or bank statement), so the whole process took 90 minutes.

On the Coast we like to think of ourselves as the California elite, but frankly, in many ways Valley life is more civilized.

Over the Hump

It had been a day of unrelated tasks: physical chores, bookkeeping, and a 2½-hour drive to Placer County.

My dinner companion yearned for the cheesy goodness of Romano's Macaroni Grill. Fortunately, RMG has other fare that isn't so lactose-intensive. Seared steak, roasted potatoes, grilled broccoli, and a glass of red were the perfect ending to this Hump Day.

I will sleep well tonight.

Going Full Carb

On the way back to the Bay Area I stopped for a jolt of caffeine. Next to Starbucks was a bake shop with the intriguing name BAD Bakers. Naturally, I had to check it out.

BAD (Bread and Doughnuts) Bakers offers discounts on orders of a half-dozen pastries or more. I ordered six of their $3 cronuts for $15, and five managed to survive on the trip to Foster City.

BAD Bakers does not cater to the health-food crowd. Unlike stores that offer sugar-free versions of their products, it provides syringes to add sugar to the cronuts. The cashier said that the frosting could be injected into the buns' hollow pockets, which I did later that night.

If you're going to carb, you may as well go full carb.