Public Space 5

California Wealth Gap

Outlined by bright lights, near-perfect weather, mountains, oceans, tech giants, and the Hollywood dream, California seems like paradise to many. It is here where many believe the American dream still lies, and thousands from around America still emigrate to find it. Constantly drawing new talent, California has a booming economy of nearly 3 trillion annually, hypothetically making the state of California the fifth-largest world economy. However, there is a darker underbelly hidden in the state not immediately noticeable to those tranced within its paradise and perfection. California suffers from massive wealth inequality up and down the state, with seven of the top 15 most unequal cities in the USA located in California. Within this sharp inequality also lies a massive homeless crisis, with nearly half of all documented unhoused Americans living on the street in California. Furthermore, California's vastness, geographical variations, and multiple economies further exacerbate the problems and render certain areas of the state dissimilar.

The overwhelming majority of California's wealth is concentrated along its coastal border with the Pacific Ocean capitalizing on industries of innovation, entertainment, and tourism. However economic opportunities for inland regions of California are predominantly built around farming. While lucrative in its own right, historic drought conditions have served a blow to California farmers and further exacerbated poverty in the area. These farming and inland regions on average have the poorest populations in the state. Research shows a family in the Bay Area's bottom 10% makes more than half as much as a family in the Central Valley bottom 10% averaging an income of just about $10,000 or less yearly. As climate change continues to impact the heartland of California and wildfires destroy the surrounding mountains more and more pressures will mount on this already at-risk economy leading to further wealth gaps.

While the majority of California's wealth is concentrated along its coastline, it is not concentrated evenly. Research found that nearly 20% of California's net worth is concentrated in just 30 zip codes, and these zip codes represent just 2% of the Californian population. This is illustrated plainly to any California native and is so normalized in many communities this figure often dosnt bat an eye. However these pockets of wealth in turn spark pockets of poverty, seen in almost every major city in California and increasingly growing. Wealthy elites boost high living costs, which in turn skyrocket housing and gentrify many historic neighborhoods. San Francisco is a perfect example of these changes in pay and wealth, as economic prosperity linked to global technological industries is not evenly distributed. San Francisco was ranked as just the 128th most unequal city in 1980 but has since jumped to eighth in America by 2015. These disparities are only continuing to grow, as top-income families make nearly 11 times more than bottom-income families, and continue to push the disparity and differentiation between the two classes. Families in California's 10th percentile income distribution reached $291,000, while the bottom 90th percent took home around $26,000 and low-income families accounted for the highest in the nation. Inequality in California can be felt on the street, in the hills, and by all those who call it home. As the rich in California get richer and the poor get poorer, many including myself worry for multi-generational communities up and down the California state that already have or will soon be pushed out of these neighborhoods and dragged from pockets of wealth to pockets of poverty.