I Love You, California

I really do. I grew up there, I saw most of the state, which has incredible natural beauty and resources. But Stacy McCain is right. Good-Bye, California

If you listen to The Other Podcast (every Saturday night at 7 p.m. ET), you have come to know and love the voice and laughter of the lovely Dianna Deeley. She’s a native Californian who worked for years in San Francisco, but now lives in Valdosta, Georgia. My other podcast partner, John Hoge, is a native Tennessean, but for years he also lived in California. So whenever the subject of California comes up on the podcast, I have to sit there and shut up while these two bemoan the tarnished condition of the erstwhile Golden State. John frequently congratulates himself on getting out early — before the L.A. riots — while Dianna gloats of her good fortune in selling a home for hyperinflated Bay-Area prices which gave her enough money to buy a historic Victorian home beneath live oaks draped in Spanish moss at the intersection of Toombs and Gordon.

The tide of refugees from California has increased steadily over the past decade, to such an extent that after the latest census, the state will lose a seat in Congress for the first time in history:

Slow-growing California is losing a House seat for the first time, setting off an unprecedented political reshuffle that will ripple through every level of government.
California’s elected officials and prospective challengers have spent months in a campaign holding pattern, waiting to see how U.S. Census Bureau data would reshape the state legislature and congressional seats. The announcement Monday was expected after trickling growth in a state with a severe housing shortage and high costs. . . .
While California remains America’s most populous state, its growth has steadily slowed as more people move elsewhere. One critical factor is the high cost of living — particularly exorbitant housing costs, which adults consistently cite as a major problem. Many Californians have shifted to lower-cost areas within the state, but some have chosen to depart: a third of adults told a recent Public Policy Institute of California that housing costs had prompted them to consider relocating beyond state borders.
“It’s largely a story of domestic outmigration, with some slight decline in immigration as well,” said PPIC Senior Fellow Eric McGhee. . . .
The state has undergone dramatic demographic change in recent decades. The shares of Latino and Asian American residents have grown as its white population has declined, reshaping the electorate and yielding an evermore diverse body of elected officials.

Read the rest. And the title? Well, it's California's State Song, which I've never heard of before: