Got problems? Blame the Californians

Shirley Vanderstelt, 34, is an ex-Californian who moved to Bozeman, Mont., four years ago. Mostly, she has felt welcome, but “there is definitely an underlying feeling of dislike for most Californians.

“I generally tell people where I grew up, then immediately follow that with ‘I’m not one of THOSE Californians’ because it usually starts with rolling of the eyes, a sigh and shaking of the head.”

When John Wilker and his wife moved from Riverside, Calif., to Highlands Ranch, Colo., in 2005, they were told to change their license plates quickly or they would be run off the road.

A joke?

Very real tensions
Maybe, but that resentment and clash of cultures are very real.

For many Westerners, California is seen as a state of excess and an example of how things shouldn’t be done. (These also are the people who elected a movie star as their governor.)

Combine that with the frontier West, where residents aren’t so interested in a lot of government control over how they behave, and therein lies the problem.

Yes, Californians drive up housing costs, and some can even be blamed for falling prices because of the many investors who snapped up cheap houses, then wanted to sell, creating too much inventory in cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix. Many believe those cities are becoming suburbs of Los Angeles.

“Home prices go up and we all blame Californians,” said Jay Butler, director of Realty Studies at Arizona State University Polytechnic. “They are sort of like the West Coast version of the New Yorkers. They have the attitude.”

But what about politics? Are Californians starting to turn the West more blue?

“I think the Democratic Party is counting on it,” said Frey, the population expert. “If they shifted just a little bit in the last election, (they) could have elected a Democratic president.”

Colorado has gone from red to blue in the last four years, something ex-Californians may have had a hand in, said independent pollster Floyd Ciruli. But really the change just indicates what is happening in the rest of the country, he said.

Now, about that smoking ban. Nevada, where gambling and smoking are almost one in the same, previously had one of the nation’s least restrictive smoking laws. Now there’s no smoking in restaurants, bars that serve food or around slot machines in grocery stores or gas stations.

Connie Feulner is a bartender at Jake’s Bar in Las Vegas. When customers get to talking about the smoking ban that passed last November, she keeps mum. Don’t tell the customers, but she used to live in California.

“Damn Californians,” she said, repeating a familiar complaint. “All their fault, all the time.”

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