The Cosm of the Central Valley
The Central Valley of California is an interesting place. Influenced heavily by agricultural practices and urban sprawl — it is anything but a walkable and livable community in the heat of summer. The valley is a car-centric mecca of Capitalism and personal individualism. Many people spend a large percentage of their lives inside of their vehicle, waiting in well-established drive through lines for iced coffees to beat the heat, yet refusing to go inside to beat the line as even a few minutes without air conditioning could spell disaster when returning to a parked vehicle inhospitable from insatiable heat. Many people choose to live in the valley as the cost of living is lower and migrate elsewhere for work such as the bay area, willingly entering traffic jams and contributing to snails pace roadways as single occupant vehicles are the majority of the blockages. Cars become dehumanized and a lane merge to cut off another vehicle can mean being somewhere a few seconds faster, disregarding everyone else on the road in a journey to shave down their hours long commute. Ironically, public transportation projects are scorned upon by many which would help take cars off of the road and make transportation faster and safer for all. In a way, a hivemind develops of irregardless behavior as everyone is out for themselves.
Coincidentally, the valley is a fasthold of conservative logic and behavior, as farm owners continue to practice outdated techniques such as flood irrigation, only considering the maximum yield and profit margins for the next harvest, rather than seeing into the future of resource conservation and less water-dependent crops. As you drive along the interstates, many farmers blast signs on their land next to the highway to convince you that the drought is brought to you by sinners, or that every drop of water in a river belongs to man and their fields, rather than the habitats and species that rely on riversheds to provide life. Logic is replaced with confirmation bias, repeatable factual information is dismissed entirely, and Biden this, or Newsom that is the front runner in the reason why wells are going dry, or that man-made climate change may spell for longer periods of no rain. Before you know it, many of the occupants of the valley subjectively come to believe through these billboards and wordsmithing that the state is letting 78% of the water running through the rivers just run out into the ocean instead of evaporating in farmers fields.
Conversely, the valley can be respected in some facets. The valley is an economic and food powerhouse in its own ways. As you drive down the interstates and highways, there is an arterial network of rail and trucking transport. Every now and then along the highway you see massive grain silos commanding notice as they rise above everything else in the flatlands of the valley, towering over roadways and repeating stands of fruit and nut trees. These silos and railway distributions feed countless millions of people and provide substantial economic productivity to the area. Through humanity’s industrial and agricultural revolutions humanity has figured ways to feed the masses and transport crops around the planet — for better or for worse as you may feel fit. Without these hubs, no volume of food could be distributed or enjoyed by so many. Ostensibly, the valley also becomes a place that is unlivable to many without the automobile. Due to the sprawl of agriculture and the massive distances of lands dedicated to agriculture, there has also been a large encouragement of urban sprawl as well. Single family homes are the primary zoning regulations and the distance between everything increases, contributing to larger footprints of land necessary to habitate people.
Nowadays, through tradition of expansion of single family homes, population growth and interdependence to the automobile, the people of the valley commonly enter gridlock through the arterial pathways of their area. People spend much of their time trying to get from point A to point B, slowly losing out on some qualities of life that are enjoyed by other areas with better walkability and livability in exchange for a lower cost of living, jobs, and personal domains as everyone slices out a piece of life for them in the sweltering summer heat. Instead of living in a higher density condo or townhouse, many people choose to acquire the largest house available to their income and live in the valley. For many, the rat race continues and on the road a podcast may be the only fleeting comfort for a driver as their foot dashes between the accelerator and brake pedal on their daily multi-hour journeys.
To some proud residents of the valley my portrayal and representation may seem unfair, but sometimes there is a bitterness that is looked past by the locals as a way of justification. I grew up in the Central Valley. It provided me an education, friendships, family and for a white person, a little culture. I have no lasting qualms about existing in the valley but as an outsider I can’t help notice what has gone wrong with the chase of urban sprawl and agricultural practices that has led the valley to where it is today. As the planet continues to grow and change, the Cosm of the Central Valley seems to just tread in a slowly and foreseeable shrinking pool of water.
