It is the incubator for technology. Carries the rest of the country on its' coat tails.
Same for food, wine, etc...
Unfortunately, it's also the incubator for weirdness and nanny-statism, with New York running a close second.
I think it has something to do with weirdos and idealists wandering about looking for perfect places to settle, reaching one coast or the other, and being forced to stop when they reach the water and can't go any farther. It starts in the cities and then spreads to the surrounding rural communities when still-restless weirdos move to the country and bring the weirdness with them.
The singular aspect of weirdness that makes these people annoying to others is the very aspect that also causes airport closings, which is why it is relevant to this thread, as distasteful as it may be to Californians. That aspect is the inability of some people to accept anything in their lives that is not to their liking. That inability propels them to pursue perfection, as they define it, without regard to whether the things that they happen to dislike and are trying to do away with may be useful to others.
Ironically, nearly all of these people also consider themselves more community-minded than others, despite the fact that their entire outlooks are built on self-centeredness. They're basically spoiled brats who can't help but pout, stamp their feet, and whine if any aspect of their worlds does not perfectly conform to their own definitions of utopia -- regardless of whether or not that thing that they don't happen to like is useful to others, and without regard to whether that thing has any actual effect on themselves. All that matters is that they don't happen to like it, so therefore it must be done away with.
It's truly bizarre. In fact, it's probably pathological. They're so self-absorbed and self-centered that they honestly can't even see it.
We have them up here, too. One of the natural gas companies has been trying to lay a pipeline along a stretch of road for quite a long time -- probably close to a decade -- but has been stalled by a small but vocal group of opponents who use every possible tactic to stop it from happening, despite the fact that it be the trunk of a system that would eventually provide a cleaner and cheaper energy alternative to well over ten thousand people.
Mind you, we're talking about a four-inch or six-inch diameter pipe, not something huge. But it would provide a natural gas alternative to homeowners and businesses whose only options at present are oil and propane, both of which are dirtier and more expensive than natural gas and have to be delivered by diesel-guzzling trucks.
Ironically, the people who oppose the pipeline consider themselves environmentalists. Their opposition to the pipeline is based on a bizarre convolution of logic that concedes that the pipeline would reduce emissions and be of enormous economic benefit to the community. They don't deny those facts at all. But they oppose it anyway because they don't want to "encourage the fossil fuel industry."
See how that works? They don't like fossil fuel companies, so therefore they oppose burying a pipe -- even though they admit that it would be cleaner and cheaper than the current options, would be of economic benefit to the community at large, and would reduce "greenhouse gas" emissions. They don't like it because it would benefit an industry that they hate; and therefore it simply can't happen.
In the interest of nothing in their universes ever being not perfectly to their own liking, they basically tell those around them to go **** themselves -- and then pat themselves on the back for being so community-minded. These people's lives are a bizarre and infuriating blend of arrogance, self-centeredness, self-absorption, disdain for others, and cluelessness that normal people can't even fathom, much less relate to.
And there are lot more of those people in California (and New York) than in most other places.
These are also the people behind the vast majority of airport closings. Even if they're not in the flight paths and are in no way affected by an airport's operation, if they don't happen to like airplanes or airports, then the airport must go. No further justification is needed, in their minds. They don't like it, and that's that. They will whine, pout, and stamp their feet until they annoy enough people in positions of power to make it go away.
That's the connection between this particular airport's uncertain future and its being in California. You have altogether too high a percentage of these pathological whiners and crybabies, and your government actually pays attention to them. I'm frankly surprised that you have any G.A. airports left at all.
New York isn't much better. There are some backwoods airports up here, used mainly by ultralights and ag pilots, whose futures have become questionable because of this sort of thing. What usually happens is that some crybaby moves up here from the city, stumbles across the airfield, is horrified to learn that it even exists, and mounts a campaign to close it.
They don't like it, so therefore it must go.
Rich
The reality is we do not have the technology at this point to make it practical. It will require something like large quadcopters that you don't fly, but rather guide, the technology exists now, it just needs refinements. It needs one that takes you from your domicile directly to the store or work. We'll have them eventually, it just takes the efficiency of electric rim drive to make it work, and that means we need compact, light weight, portable electricity first.
