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Old 03-09-2011, 12:23 PM
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Jeanfromfillmore Jeanfromfillmore is offline
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Default Inland area saw explosive growth CENSUS 2010

CENSUS: In the face of recession, the Inland area saw explosive growth
CENSUS 2010
By BEN GOAD, JIM MILLER, DAVID OLSON and DUG BEGLEY
The Press-Enterprise
Inland Southern California witnessed spectacular growth in the past 10 years, with the region's burgeoning Latino population helping to offset the effects of a crippling recession and bring the two-county area ever closer to majority Hispanic status.
Riverside County grew by nearly 42 percent in the rollercoaster 2000s, outpacing every other California county, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday as part of the 2010 national count. San Bernardino County grew by more than 19 percent. Combined, the two-county area's population surpassed 4.2 million, making it more populous than 25 of the nation's 50 states.
The new figures tell the story of a region that furthered its decades-long transition from relative obscurity in the shadows of Los Angeles and Orange counties to one of the most ethnically diverse and fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the nation.
The transition has been a difficult one, made harder by an economy staggered by a recession that kept the region from meeting the lofty growth expectations of the boom years that came before.
The new figures will boost the region's ability to compete, both with other parts of the state and on a national stage. They will be used to recalibrate the amount of federal funding the region gets for schools, workforce development and transportation projects. But it's unclear whether the increased population will translate to more dollars in an era when California is broke and Washington is getting more tight-fisted.
Perhaps even more important, the new population count will be used to reshape -- and strengthen -- the region's political representation in Congress and the state Legislature.
Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley, who was with a contingent of officials from the two counties in Washington when the new figures were unveiled, said Inland leaders are eager to "exercise that new political muscle."
"We are a desirable place to live. That's one of the reasons we are growing," Ashley said. "We will -- and we have to -- make positive use of that new clout."
Latino surge
At the heart of the region's growth is an upswing in its Hispanic population, which accounted for two-thirds of the growth in Riverside County and just about all of the growth in San Bernardino County.
Riverside County is now 45.5 percent Latino according to the new data. At 49.2 percent, San Bernardino County surpassed Los Angeles County -- 47.7 percent -- and is on the verge of becoming mostly Hispanic, a milestone that experts have long expected.

Emilio Amaya, executive director of the San Bernardino Community Service Center, an immigrant-assistance agency, said he noticed an uptick in Latinos moving from the Los Angeles area in recent months as the economic signs improve and people take advantage of much lower housing costs in the Inland area.
"As long as people are able to find employment and affordable housing, people will still come here," he said.
Luz Gallegos, community programs director at TODEC Legal Center in Perris, an immigrant-assistance group, said some of those newcomers are from Arizona, which they see as hostile to Latin American immigrants. Some had previously left the Inland area to find cheaper housing in Arizona and are now returning, she said.
Gallegos said the Latino population is snowballing and will continue to grow because extended Latino families tend to settle in the same area.
"The way our culture works is that one family moves out and everybody follows," she said.

Gallegos recalled how, as a girl in the late 1970s, it was difficult to find Mexican products in much of the Inland area.
"I remember when we would have to drive to East LA to buy things like a piñata," she said. "Now you can buy all those things here."
As Latino numbers swelled, the white, non-Hispanic population in San Bernardino County continued to fall, as it did between 1990 and 2000. In 1990, there were 862,000 whites in San Bernardino County, in 2000 there were just over 750,000 and in 2010 there were 677,598.
Riverside County's white population grew by about 80,000 between 2000 and 2010, although the growth was at a much slower rate than for Latinos.
Hans Johnson, a senior fellow at the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California, said part of the reason for the drop in the white population in San Bernardino County amid huge gains in the Latino and Asian populations is that whites are on average older and a higher percentage died.
Johnson said it's unclear why so many whites are leaving San Bernardino County, but he said that in other parts of the country, white flight occurs when whites become uncomfortable with a growing minority presence in their communities.
"As one group moves into a neighborhood, it sometimes causes another group to move out," he said.
unbalanced growth
The region's largest growth came outside of the urban centers of Riverside and San Bernardino. Southwestern Riverside County saw huge gains in people, with Murrieta growing by 134 percent from 2000 totals.
Growth in the San Gorgonio Pass was even more explosive, with Beaumont's population spiking by an astounding 224 percent. Ten years ago, the area didn't even have a Starbucks.
"When the one opened in Banning, I thought we were on the map," said Roberta Evans, 51, of Beaumont.
Now there are four of the national coffee shops in the Pass. City officials focused on adding stores and shops without stripping Beaumont of its small-town feel, she said.
Evans said growth has brought some added traffic congestion, but those new neighbors and the accompanying property and sales taxes have built parks, widened roads and added much-needed shopping options.
But growth hasn't always gone as planners and businesses anticipated.
Dave Allard, co-owner of a body shop in the Moreno Valley Auto Mall, said he's still waiting for the boom to come his way to eastern Moreno Valley.
"This was supposed to be the center of town," Allard said.
Instead, the city, which grew by nearly 36 percent, developed heavily on its western border near Riverside, and to the south along Perris Boulevard.
Allard's father, Don, said although Moreno Valley didn't grow as planned, the population explosion has been tremendous, and led to homes and new businesses sprouting up along Highway 60.
"None of this was around," Don Allard said, pointing toward the homes south of the auto mall.
Other cities didn't grow at all. Big Bear Lake saw its population shrink by 7.7 percent -- or 419 people. The High Desert town of Needles grew only slightly, adding 14 people in the course of the decade.
Tuesday's numbers also underscore the region's growing racial and ethnic diversity.
Hemet, for example, is much more of a melting pot now than it was only a decade ago.
growing pains
The most explosive growth took place in the first half of the 2000s, when the region's economy was booming. Affordable housing lured people in droves, spurring the manufacturing and construction industries. Large new housing developments shot up in places like Fontana and Norco, creating thousands of new jobs and demand for new schools, churches and big-box retail chains across the region.
When the nation's housing bubble burst in the latter part of the decade, the fallout hit Riverside and San Bernardino counties as hard as anywhere in the nation and stunted the region's growth in the middle of a major spurt.
The region, now at 4,224,851, was once expected to surpass 4.6 million people by 2010, but economists and state officials ratcheted back their population forecasts in light of the recession.
"The Inland Empire is large -- and it would have been larger if it were not for this recession," said Dowell Myers, a professor of demography and director of the Population Dynamics Research Group at USC.
Dowell said the region could have seen as much as 5 percent more growth, absent the effects of the downturn.
With the Inland area's unemployment rate remaining among the highest in the country for major metropolitan areas, and signs pointing to a slow recovery, predictions about future population trends are difficult to make, said Johnson of the Public Policy Institute.
Johnson was lead author of the 2008 report, "The Inland Empire in 2015," which projected an Inland population of 4.9 million by 2015. That number should be revised downward because of the economy, although there's little doubt that the Inland area one day will again be the locus of Southern California population growth, he said.
"Historically the Inland Empire has been in the forefront of booms and busts," he said. "The Inland region will have another boom. The question is when and how fast."
increased clout
In the face of California's lingering fiscal woes and the soaring costs of coastal life, the Inland area is crucial in the ailing Golden State's drive to retain its citizenry, said William Frey, a senior fellow and demographer from the Brookings Institution in Washington.
"It will never have the glamour or panache of Hollywood, but it's still California," Frey said. "It's still possible to live a middle-class lifestyle on a middle-class salary."
Experts and officials have differing opinions about whether increases in the region's size and statewide importance will translate into additional money.
Census figures are the basis for how federal and state dollars flow to the area, but with officials in Washington and Sacramento slashing spending, the area's population gain might not lead to more money.
"I don't think the increase in population is going to offset that loss in spending," said Kevin Viera, program manager of the Western Riverside Council of Governments.
San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Josie Gonzales was more optimistic, pointing to federal Housing and Urban Development funding as just one example of the economic opportunities that come with the region's increased stature.
"We become more competitive in the world of big-sized counties," Gonzales said "We move up the rungs on the ladder."
Staff writer Duane Gang contributed to this report.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/...09.4b0f74.html

Inland Southern California in store for political gains
By JIM MILLER and BEN GOAD
The Press-Enterprise
California's political landscape lurched to the east Tuesday as new census numbers point to a major increase in representation for Inland Southern California over the next decade.
The region is home to some of the most overpopulated congressional and legislative districts in the state. It stands to gain several additional congressional, Assembly and state Senate seats at the expense of the state's coastal areas, which grew at a much slower rate.
The changes won't be known until the Citizens Redistricting Commission redraws the state's political map this summer to reflect population changes since the 2000 census. Under any scenario, however, the region's past decade of exceptional growth will be felt from Congress to the state Legislature.
Veteran incumbents of both parties can only watch and wait as the independent panel begins to crunch Tuesday's data.
"It will continue the trend of having the Inland Empire play a larger role in state politics," former Inland lawmaker Jim Brulte said.
State districts
In 2001, lawmakers crafted congressional and legislative lines that maximized political parties' advantages on Election Day. Out of roughly 780 elections since 2002, there have been only eight upsets of that partisan order.
The next maps, however, will be drawn based solely on population, preserving communities of interest and ensuring compliance with voting-rights laws. Commissioners can't tailor districts for a particular party or candidate.
There are multiple potential legislative remapping scenarios in the Inland Empire.
In the state Senate, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, is likely to lose Riverside. The city hangs off the bottom of Dutton's San Bernardino-centric seat.
The city could become part of the Senate district of Bill Emmerson, R-Hemet, which extends all the way to Blythe. The county's population growth means there could be room for a whole new Senate seat in the county's eastern half.
In the state Assembly, the barbell-shaped Upland-to-Yucaipa district of Assemblyman-elect Mike Morrell, R-Rancho Cucamonga, is virtually certain to disappear.
The same goes for the wandering Riverside-to-Palm Desert district of Assemblyman Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert.
There also is the possibility that next year's redraw will produce more competitive districts.
Democratic voter registration has inched upward in both counties in recent years. As of November, Democrats held a small registration lead in San Bernardino County and trailed Republicans by five percentage points in Riverside County.
Yet the current legislative and congressional delegations include just a handful of Democrats, none of whom represent western Riverside County.
In addition, the huge growth in the region's Hispanic population -- 78 percent in Riverside County alone -- could help Democrats' chances in the historically GOP-leaning area. Political experts view Hispanics as leaning toward Democrats, although their voting rates trail other racial and ethnic groups.
Tuesday's data shows that Latinos are now 40 percent of the voting-age population in Riverside County, up from 31.1 percent in 2000. In San Bernardino County, Latinos are 44 percent of the voting-age population, up from 34.6 percent in 2000. An unknown percentage is ineligible to vote because they are not citizens.
Hans Johnson, a senior fellow at the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California, was lead author of a report that predicted a rise in Latino registered voters in the Inland area from 24 percent in 2005 to 33 percent in 2015.
"Latinos tend to be more liberal than white residents in the region," he said. "That could change the politics of the region, but it's a very slow process."
Karthick Ramakrishnan, an associate professor of political science at UC Riverside and an expert on immigration, said that many of the Latinos newly eligible to vote will be young, and young people are less likely to vote than older people and don't pay as much attention to state and local races.
"They're not as connected with local politics," he said. "It will take awhile for their political impact to be felt."
Federal seats
The region's five-member House delegation, which has remained unchanged for the last decade, is likely to be thrown into upheaval.
Some members might have their districts move out from under them. Political consultant Matt Rexroad expects some members to retire and others to follow their districts.
"If Darrell Issa's new seat doesn't include any of San Diego County, do you think he's just going to go home?" said Rexroad. The current district of Issa, R-Vista, also includes part of Riverside County.
"These districts are going to slide to the east, no question about it," Rexroad added. "But no member of Congress is going to say, 'I'm not going to move 50 miles to the east to run.' "
While it is uncertain how the commission will redraw the map, most scenarios bode well for Democrats.
"It's not going to be lopsided the way it is now," Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, said of the new map, which will be used in the 2012 elections. "If I was a Republican, I'd be running scared."
Baca, whose district is heavily Democratic, is expected to be safe in most redistricting scenarios.
Reps. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, Ken Calvert, R-Corona, and Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, each could find themselves in more vulnerable positions, depending on where the commission chooses to trim their districts.
Bono Mack's district, which includes Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Hemet and Riverside County's desert communities, is the most overpopulated in the state. Its Coachella Valley base is increasingly Hispanic. And it has the single most Latino-heavy California district now represented by a Republican.
"It all depends on the lines," said Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College. "One could see a district where she ends up with a relatively white, Republican district -- or she could end up smack dab in the middle of a Hispanic district, and that would make re-election very difficult."
The same uncertainty also exists for Calvert's district -- which includes Riverside, Corona, Norco and part of Orange County -- and Lewis' district -- which contains Redlands, Yucaipa, Highland and parts of the Pass, the San Bernardino Mountains and the High Desert.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/...9.25e16c2.html
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Old 03-09-2011, 07:24 PM
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ilbegone ilbegone is offline
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Why the media obsession with race regarding politics?
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Old 03-09-2011, 09:36 PM
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Jeanfromfillmore Jeanfromfillmore is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ilbegone View Post
Why the media obsession with race regarding politics?
Looks like it validates what many have been saying, which is the Dem's have a plan to promote Hispanics, who in turn promote Dems. This story was all over the local tv news.
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Old 03-12-2011, 07:22 AM
Patriotic Army Mom Patriotic Army Mom is offline
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It's insane. Do you know that you are classified as being Hispanic because of your last name? It was great when we were just Americans.
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Old 03-12-2011, 07:37 AM
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ilbegone ilbegone is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Patriotic Army Mom View Post
It's insane. Do you know that you are classified as being Hispanic because of your last name? It was great when we were just Americans.
I suppose a nom de guerre of Dirk Winston does conjure a different image than perhaps Senor Vicente Aranga y Zapata de Obregon.

I once saw a pasty white guy with freckles and red hair cutting meat in a Mexican meat market, and he didn't speak a bit of English.

I wonder what his last name was? Lots of Normans went to Spain once upon a time, but it's probably Spanish.

I believe Cortes' lunatic sidekick Alvarado had red hair.
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RAP IS TO MUSIC WHAT ETCH-A-SKETCH IS TO ART

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"A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat." - Old New York Yiddish Saying

"You can observe a lot just by watching." Yogi Berra

Old journeyman commenting on young apprentices - "Think about it, these are their old days"

SOMETIMES IT JUST DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.

Never, ever, wear a bright colored shirt to a stand up comedy show.

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