Moving east

The following is part of a package on the 70th anniversary of "The Grapes of Wrath" that is scheduled to run in Tuesday's edition of The Sun

By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer
If John Steinbeck were alive today and had yet to pen "The Grapes of Wrath," it's not too hard to imagine the novelist telling the story of the a family making its departure from California.

Released 70 years ago, Steinbeck's novel of the Great Depression was imagined the hardships endured by the Joads, an Oklahoma family that braved Route 66 in an ultimately fruitless search for prosperity in the Central Valley.

Steinbeck's novel isn't the only story of those who have moved to California:

Elementary school students learn of the Spanish missions and the Gold Rush. The nostalgia of Route 66 is woven into the civic fiber of communities like San Bernardino. Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant cq sang how he "made up his mind to make a new start/going to California with an aching in my heart" in words that became classic rock staple.

California's population continues to grow through births and foreign immigration, but in recent years, more Californians leave the state than move in.

What remains to be seen is whether California has reached a point financial opportunity itself has fled eastward or whether the state is experiencing a short-term trend.

Stater Bros. chief executive Jack Brown said he's not willing to give up California. He said Golden State businesses face many regulations, but also serve the country's most populous state.

"I've had supermarkets in 11 states and I've never been in a state that offers more opportunity than California," he said.

One way modern reality differs from the world of "The Grapes of Wrath" is that today's economic slump could be hindering Californians' eastward migration.

"We have been getting a lot of Californians moving here for the past 10 years. That has slowed down considerably," said Paul Hiller, executive director of the Boise Valley Economic Partnership in Idaho.

Hiller is the former head of the Riverside-based Inland Empire Economic Partnership. He's not the only ex-Californian in his current workplace -- senior receptionist Kathi Jones is an Idaho native who returned to the state after living in Southern California.

Jones lived a West Covina that she said was "becoming gang infested territory" 16 years ago when she returned to Idaho, bringing along her husband and two teenage children.

She was happy to leave Southern California's crime and traffic behind, but said it took her husband about five years to consider Boise as his home.

California Department of Finance statistics, released in December, show that California recorded domestic outmigration of about 135,000 people. It was the fourth consecutive year that more Americans left the state than moved in.

Each person who leaves the state has a different story. Bertha at Base Line U-Haul in San Bernardino declined to give her last name but said she has noticed people who recently moved to California are moving back east again.

One woman who made the trip from Florida, didn't find what she was looking for and rented a trailer for the return trip. Several families have returned to Colorado recently, she said.

Alaina Harris, cq now of Oklahoma City, said she grew up in Vacaville and went to college at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa before leaving California.

She said she moved to Oklahoma City to take a public relations job after earning a Master's Degree from Georgetown University in 2007.

"I was able to purchase a home out here, which is something I would not be able to do at my age in California," said Harris, 26, who purchased the home with her fiancee, who she said is a U.S. Air Force flight trainer.

The prospect of affordable real estate and an escape from onerous taxation and business regulations are commonly heard reasons for people to leave California.

"In comparison to California, we tend to have fewer regulations and license fees," said Cara Roberts, director of public relations for the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce.

But Bill Carney current chief executive of the Inland Empire Economic Partnership believes that stories of an exodus from California have been greatly exaggerated.

"Everytime we have a recession, we go through that," he said. "It was in the early 90s. The hype is always much greater than reality."

Staff writer Wes Hughes contributed to this report.