To the editor: Northern California (by which I imply the counties north of Sacramento, not San Francisco) is our residence. Studying employees author Jessica Garrison’s article on redistricting, nonetheless, it appears to be like extra like a set of stereotypes (“Why many citizens in deep-red Northern California are fuming about Newsom’s maps,” Aug. 20).
Sure, our counties are largely rural. Agriculture types the spine of many native economies. A few of the stereotypes do maintain true, and it’s no secret that our area tends to vote extra conservatively. However that’s not the entire story. We’re additionally residence to universities, hospitals, cultural occasions, museums and rising cities like Chico and Redding. And like each different a part of California, we share the identical basic wants: secure communities, entry to healthcare, good faculties, reasonably priced housing and alternatives for our youngsters.
What the article missed most is the frustration we really feel at being left behind. The challenges going through our area — healthcare shortages, excessive most cancers and opioid abuse charges, suicide, underperforming faculties, rising housing prices and restricted job alternatives — mirror these in California’s city facilities. But our communities are routinely ignored by Sacramento.
It’s simpler to dismiss folks by labeling their beliefs as unpopular or out of contact than it’s to have interaction with the actual points. The reality is that we’re not so totally different from our fellow Californians within the south. We wish good jobs, properties for our households and higher futures for our youngsters.
If certainly the energy of our state is range, then we have to additionally think about that we’re far more comparable than this story made us seem. Maybe then we will begin addressing the actual points we face and shutting the political divide between the far proper and much left in each our state and nation. Maybe there will likely be a realization that limiting our voices by way of redistricting on account of nationwide upheaval has the unintended consequence of letting extra Californians fall into the abyss of getting their wants being ignored.
Andrew Coolidge, Chico
This author is the previous mayor of Chico.
