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Seems I struck a nerve with the "white flight" piece last week. The Web site was ringing with comments from, it appears, mostly Caucasians defending the fact that Nevada County is one of the whitest counties in the state.
"If you don't like it, Ackerman, go back to Carson City where you came from!" screamed one.
By way of heritage, I was born in Beautiful Downtown Burbank and raised in once-beautiful San Francisco (before the homeless started getting paid by city officials to roust residents and visitors).
"I'm insulted by the 'white flight' innuendo!" shouted another white Web user. "Why should I feel guilty about the fact that I've improved my life?"
He shouldn't. Most of us are not part of the "white flight" by design. It just happens that the cost of living here is so high that mostly only Caucasians can afford it. Don't feel guilty about that at all. Just go down to the coffee shop and share a cup of Fair Trade java with the mostly white crowd and engage in some deep and heartfelt discussions about the poor and oppressed.
"They (I think he means people of color) don't move here because they are afraid of rednecks," offered another white redneck with Web access.
He probably has a good point. We had a black reporter working for us who left because she got tired of being stared at by white children who seemed to have never seen a black woman before. The little rednecks.
"So, Jeff, do you think the growth in Reno is just dandy? Why not move back there?" offered another love-it-or-leave-it commentator.
I don't recall saying anything about Reno's growth. And ... for the record ... I never lived there. Too many Caucasian Californians.
I did suggest that western Nevada County (specifically Grass Valley) is not growing as fast as the mostly white guys would have us believe. You know who they are. Moved here a few years ago and have spent a great deal of energy since then bad-mouthing the "good ol' boys" (the ones who built this community they hate so much) they say are ruining this place for them and their other white pals. They suggest we stop all of this growth before we become less than 90-percent Caucasian and somebody gets hurt in a gray-haired traffic jam.
They tried that in Santa Barbara. According to a story this week, that particular slice of paradise is now paying a price for its no-growth management. Soaring housing prices (median priced home is now $1.1 million), "traffic congestion from people forced by housing prices to live far from where they work, an exodus of big employers, and almost every business and government agency that remains struggling to find and retain workers who can afford to live nearby."
Sound familiar?
Yet another white online commentator suggested that it's good to be an elite community and that nonwhites will eventually realize how cool it is here and join in the fun. Or something like that. He went on to say the Caucasians who are moving here know more about diversity than I will ever know.
Maybe they've seen the movie "Crash" twice. I got an e-mail from a woman who said she was a "person of color," and that it has been very difficult for her here. "I do tire of people asking me what country I come from, when, in fact, I am as American as they are," she wrote.
And ... for the record ... I acknowledged that I, too, am part of the white flight. Not by intent, mind you. Most of us move here to get away from crime, traffic and other urban woes and end up in mostly white communities by accident. One day we wake up and all of our neighbors look just ... like ... us. I went to the movies Saturday night with 200 other Caucasians to watch a black Denzel Washington try to catch a bank robber. How's that for racial diversity?
One astute fellow agreed that affordable housing was a larger issue than traffic (which was my point in the first place), but he stumbled by suggesting that the four large housing developments (Kenny Ranch, Loma Rica Ranch, NorthStar and SouthHill Village) being proposed for Grass Valley annexation are, "making their way to fruition," which they certainly are not. Not unless you consider sinking millions of dollars over several years into proposals that have yet to even go before the Planning Commission some sort of "fruition." Tell that to Sandy Sanderson, who has been trying to develop the NorthStar project for the past several years. And ask Phil Carville up at Loma Rica Ranch how much time and money his group has invested thus far.
Let's put that fear to bed once and for all. The city will never approve all four developments and, in fact, we will be lucky to see one of them approved. The sooner the city dispels that notion, the sooner the sky-is-falling-mostly-Caucasian-naysayers will have their arguments collapse.
If those naysayers have their way (stop all growth and destroy local commerce), our elite community will become a community of elitists, much like Santa Barbara. And perhaps that's the plan. Shut down that glass business! Get rid of the auto dealership! Just leave us one organic food store and 17 coffee shops and we'll be just dandy.
What we need is balance. If we want to be a diverse community (ethnic, racial, age, gender, etc.) we need to apply the economic, social and environmental issues equally across the board. Unfortunately, we only hear from the fringe groups whose self-interests generally only focus on one of the three.
<I>Jeff Ackerman is the publisher of The Union. His column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 477-4299, jeffa@theunion.com, or 464 Sutton Way, Grass Valley 95945.</I>
"If you don't like it, Ackerman, go back to Carson City where you came from!" screamed one.
By way of heritage, I was born in Beautiful Downtown Burbank and raised in once-beautiful San Francisco (before the homeless started getting paid by city officials to roust residents and visitors).
"I'm insulted by the 'white flight' innuendo!" shouted another white Web user. "Why should I feel guilty about the fact that I've improved my life?"
He shouldn't. Most of us are not part of the "white flight" by design. It just happens that the cost of living here is so high that mostly only Caucasians can afford it. Don't feel guilty about that at all. Just go down to the coffee shop and share a cup of Fair Trade java with the mostly white crowd and engage in some deep and heartfelt discussions about the poor and oppressed.
"They (I think he means people of color) don't move here because they are afraid of rednecks," offered another white redneck with Web access.
He probably has a good point. We had a black reporter working for us who left because she got tired of being stared at by white children who seemed to have never seen a black woman before. The little rednecks.
"So, Jeff, do you think the growth in Reno is just dandy? Why not move back there?" offered another love-it-or-leave-it commentator.
I don't recall saying anything about Reno's growth. And ... for the record ... I never lived there. Too many Caucasian Californians.
I did suggest that western Nevada County (specifically Grass Valley) is not growing as fast as the mostly white guys would have us believe. You know who they are. Moved here a few years ago and have spent a great deal of energy since then bad-mouthing the "good ol' boys" (the ones who built this community they hate so much) they say are ruining this place for them and their other white pals. They suggest we stop all of this growth before we become less than 90-percent Caucasian and somebody gets hurt in a gray-haired traffic jam.
They tried that in Santa Barbara. According to a story this week, that particular slice of paradise is now paying a price for its no-growth management. Soaring housing prices (median priced home is now $1.1 million), "traffic congestion from people forced by housing prices to live far from where they work, an exodus of big employers, and almost every business and government agency that remains struggling to find and retain workers who can afford to live nearby."
Sound familiar?
Yet another white online commentator suggested that it's good to be an elite community and that nonwhites will eventually realize how cool it is here and join in the fun. Or something like that. He went on to say the Caucasians who are moving here know more about diversity than I will ever know.
Maybe they've seen the movie "Crash" twice. I got an e-mail from a woman who said she was a "person of color," and that it has been very difficult for her here. "I do tire of people asking me what country I come from, when, in fact, I am as American as they are," she wrote.
And ... for the record ... I acknowledged that I, too, am part of the white flight. Not by intent, mind you. Most of us move here to get away from crime, traffic and other urban woes and end up in mostly white communities by accident. One day we wake up and all of our neighbors look just ... like ... us. I went to the movies Saturday night with 200 other Caucasians to watch a black Denzel Washington try to catch a bank robber. How's that for racial diversity?
One astute fellow agreed that affordable housing was a larger issue than traffic (which was my point in the first place), but he stumbled by suggesting that the four large housing developments (Kenny Ranch, Loma Rica Ranch, NorthStar and SouthHill Village) being proposed for Grass Valley annexation are, "making their way to fruition," which they certainly are not. Not unless you consider sinking millions of dollars over several years into proposals that have yet to even go before the Planning Commission some sort of "fruition." Tell that to Sandy Sanderson, who has been trying to develop the NorthStar project for the past several years. And ask Phil Carville up at Loma Rica Ranch how much time and money his group has invested thus far.
Let's put that fear to bed once and for all. The city will never approve all four developments and, in fact, we will be lucky to see one of them approved. The sooner the city dispels that notion, the sooner the sky-is-falling-mostly-Caucasian-naysayers will have their arguments collapse.
If those naysayers have their way (stop all growth and destroy local commerce), our elite community will become a community of elitists, much like Santa Barbara. And perhaps that's the plan. Shut down that glass business! Get rid of the auto dealership! Just leave us one organic food store and 17 coffee shops and we'll be just dandy.
What we need is balance. If we want to be a diverse community (ethnic, racial, age, gender, etc.) we need to apply the economic, social and environmental issues equally across the board. Unfortunately, we only hear from the fringe groups whose self-interests generally only focus on one of the three.
<I>Jeff Ackerman is the publisher of The Union. His column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 477-4299, jeffa@theunion.com, or 464 Sutton Way, Grass Valley 95945.</I>
