European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 14, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                More than 60 people died on this Oakland freeway in the 1989 earthquake. California a vast artificial environment California dreaming in the 1990 s creating a 51st state More than 2,700 Homes were destroyed in the mils above Oakland in the october fire and Winter Rains almost certainly will bring severe mudslides. By Robert Reinhold the new York times in a grim Way in is symbolic that the deadly fire that swept Oakland and Berkeley two months ago should have started near the Caldecott Tunnel the Tunnel opened in 1937, was one of those daring and defiant acts of engineering that californians have Long used to tame a harsh environment that has proved to be As dangerous As it is Beautiful. The Tunnel punched  mile Long Hole through the Berkeley Hills opening the Way to vast suburbanization of the arid and geologically unstable Hills East of san Francisco Bay. The newcomers built their California dream landscaping Barren neighbourhoods with eucalyptus and Monterey Pines Trees never intended to grow in such an and place and planted shrubs near their Homes a All Tine fuel for wildfires they built a natural environment that was not at All natural. It was As Beautiful As it was artificial fragile and dangerous. Quot the fire underscores the fact that ail of California is a vast artificial environment said Kevin Starr a historian at the University of Southern California. Quot we Are a constantly being reminded what an artificially engineered construct the built environment of the entire state is a and consequently How  is like Quot the skin of an enormous egg with infinite curve but no thickness so fingers of Shock reach up Quot to quote the poem Jeremy Larner a screenwriter and poet wrote after the 1989 earthquake this time it reached up and burned Down his Home on grand View drive in Oakland allowing him to escape with Little More than his life and his computer. It is no Small irony that the land Early adventurers pronounced unsuitable for human settlement As Well As Tor much agriculture is now both the most populous state and the leading farm state in the country this was achieved with a massive rearrangement of the environment that snubbed nature. Huge dams and aqueducts were built to Channel water from the Sierra Nevada mountains to the cities of Northern and Southern California Bridges and huge freeways knitted together far Flung towns into huge metropolises. And houses were propped up against Canyon Walls. Thera have been ample signs that All this was vulnerable like the earthquakes that levelled san Francisco in 1906, Long Beach in 1933, Santa Barbara in 1925, not to mention the deadly Loma Prieta quake that jolted the Bay area just two years ago then there have been floods and tires like the one that destroyed 500 Homes near Santa Barbara just last year repeated droughts a Winter freeze last year that killed millions of Trees adding to the fire danger. And the Oakland fire which denuded about 1,800 acres of Steep terrain will almost certainly be followed by another California Hazard mudslides when Winter Rains erode the Bare land. Yet Little of this seems to have dulled the allure of California. There were the predictable recriminations in Oakland Over who was to blame and promises of new legislation to outlaw wooden shake roofs and other fire hazards. But even As Rescue workers searched for More bodies in the scorched rubble Here residents were already planning to rebuild and replant As have hundreds of property owners wiped out by the Santa Barbara lire the author James d. Houston marvels at this disdain for nature s forces in his 1982 Book californians searching for the Golden state. In it he describes a visit to Malibu on the parched mountainous coast Northwest of los Angeles after a wildfire ravaged expensive Homes in 1978. Quot you wonder How Many houses it is Wise to build at the bases of these dry and fire prone mountains Quot he wrote. Quot but you done task. New and expensive houses Are already rising from the ruins and right next to the ruins ii is like asking about the smog. It is like asking about the  he added Quot the question belongs in a science fiction Story or a disaster novel suppose 10 million people were living in a sem desert where there was not one adequate source of water closer than 200 Miles Quot today 15 million people live in that sem desert the greater los Angeles metropolitan area. Overall the state grew by a staggering 6.1 million people in the 1980s, to nearly 30 million people. While a stagnant Economy May have slowed migration a bit the population continues to grow at a rate of More than 10,000 a week some estimate the population could double by the year 2025. The nature conservancy in san Francisco a not for profit group that attempts to buy and preserve wild lands calculates that every six months an area the size of the City of san Francisco is converted from Farmland or natural vegetation to residential and commercial use further endangering numerous animal and Plant species increasingly the California dream Means living on a Brushy Hillside amid the smell of eucalyptus and Pines already about even million people nearly a Quarter of the population live in what that the local officials Call the Quot Urban Intermix Quot zone where development has pushed into what was Only recently desert or Forest. State officials Are warning of Quot the fires of the future Quot that these developments Promise. On the night of the Oakland fire Herb Gold a novelist gazed at the eerie red glow Over Berkeley from his apartment on russian Hill in san Francisco and pitied his poor colleagues who had left the City for the relative country of the Hills. Quot these Are people who looked for a peaceful enveloping hospitable Mother Earth environment Quot he said. Quot i Don t know what conclusion i can draw except that we live at  much of me fragile coast including Malibu is overdeveloped. A by Katherine Bishop the new York times Many residents of the Northern third of California have a vision for Amenea it is a vision of a now state with vast Redwood forests Groves of peach and Almond Orchards Majos tic Snow capped mountains and crystalline lakes it is populated by people who like Large spaces Between themselves and then neighbors who Are used to hard work outdoors and who seek to preserve an environment tree from Urban gangs traffic jams and gourmet pizza they Are however currently living in California a slate they View As so dominated by the needs of vast Urban centers that the needs of Rural areas arc constantly Given Short shrill having decided Thal life in the Golden state has become hopelessly tarnished residents of the 27 northernmost counties Are hoping to secede and turn their portion of the nation s 31st state into its 51st the plan will be introduced in the stale legislature in january by the Man who devised it assemblyman Stan Statham a Republican from Redding in Rural Shasta county. The rest of the stale has been taken by Surprise by the proposal which has been treated with scepticism by the lower 31 counties since Stratham announced it in october Hie proposal would create a new state roughly the size of Iowa stretching from the Oregon Border to just North of san Francisco and including some of California s most dramatic scenery and most precious natural resources. Among these Are the historic Gold country of the sierras in the East Snow capped mount a Shasta in the North the line wineries of Napa and Sonoma counties to the South and the rugged North coast Home to California s Redwood Trees domestically grown marijuana and practising macrame artisans. In several informal surveys taken by local television and radio stations from Chico to Yreka hundreds of callers expressed overwhelming approval of secession. Quot i m just tickled Pink we re getting so much support Quot Latham said. Quot we re getting up to Warp Speed we be even had to install a phone  the heart of the problem Here is the ant tax measure passed by the voters in 1978, proposition 13, which limited properly taxes and thus hobbled the counties abilities to raise Revenue today a variety of services required but not financed by the state from welfare to criminal courts have left the sparsely populated Rural counties on the verge of bankruptcy. Officials in such counties Are convinced they could do belter on their own. While there have been 25 other attempts to split California since it became a state in 1850, it has Long been an article of Faith that the dividing line would be Midway Between san Francisco and los Angeles with that dividing line the state of Northern California with its capital in san Francisco would include big sur the Hearst Castle and Yosemite. Southern California with its Capitol in los Angeles would retain the Best surfing Sites Disneyland and the libraries of Richard m. Nixon and Ronald Reagan. In deciding where he would would put a Superior California Nevada a amps Petor Jaeger new Border Statham said that Tor simplicity a Sake to Diew a More or less straight line just above san Francisco lion the Pacific Ocean to Nevada. On More careful inspection however cold calculation can be seen at work a Small curve on the West coast excludes the Headquarters of hedonism known As Marin county while a similar Squiggle in the Easl deftly claims Lor the North one of California s Crown jewels Lake Tahoe a big bump in the Middle shuns the capital of Sacramento northerners Are undaunted by the fact Thal establishment of a new slate would require approval from both the state legislature and Congress. A ii the russians can do it. What makes you think we can t do it Quot said Jim Chapman a member of the Board of supervisors for Lassen county which is so financially strapped in has threatened to dissolve Itsell if the statehood measure fails. Since the secession plan came to Light Many people Here have suggested hat it is a barely disguised Ellort by the politically conservative nearly All White Rural counties to disassociate themselves from cities known for celebrating their ethnic and cultural diversity Chapman denied Thal should the plan succeed southerners would be forced to Cross slate Linos Lor uniquely California events like driving the family car through a Hole Cul in a Redwood Iree or picnicking to the throb of helicopters in search of marijuana gardens. Meanwhile their Rural neighbors to the North would have to enter the new state of Southern California for liposuction and sushi or to meditate in a sensory deprivation chamber one Issue yet to be decided is a name for the new state. Some favor the name Jefferson in acknowledgement of the Man who wrote a document about the Powers of government being derived from the consent of the governed san franciscans miffed at being excluded from the proposed Northern California suggest their neighbors to the North might adopt the name Baja Oregon not wishing to fight Over the Issue northerners acknowledge the feelings of san franciscans by saying that they May simply Call their new state Superior Californi saturday december 14, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 15