NorCal Mer Pod

[Mermaid Clara]

Do we have a pod page for the NorCal mer or is it just mixed into the regular pod of cali?
How does one go about creating a pod?


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[Khaleesi Daenerys]

It's all California. People have talked about getting a north pod and a south pod for Cali but it never goes through because it's just one state. :/

[Ashe]

I find that so silly though, California is LONG. Lots of people refer to the state as either North and South when talking about California anyway, because the two regions are just so diverse in geography and culture. Most Northern mers I see seem to live around the San Francisco and Sacramento region and the Southern mers seem to live between Los Angeles and San Diego. It's extremely rare for one group to be able to visit the other unless it is for a big meetup trip.

I'd say it would be right to at least make two sub-pods within Pod of California so we are still represented as both a whole and the main subdivisions between.

[mersheep]

it would be nice to have separate local discussions. Even some informal meetups. Last time this subject came up, I think the northern mers tend to use other social media, which I will have nothing to do with due to produtising its users.

It is hard for those outside the state to realize how each subculture detests the other. I personally find it an insult to call the state Cali. Just as Frisco is a small town in Texas. We just call it "The City." I visit the southern part of the state perhaps every 5 to 10 years. It is more of a foreign culture shock than say visiting France or Switzerland.

Then there is the state of Jefferson...

[Lorelei Edelweiss]

I am sad to hear that "each subculture detests the other". :(
I've never heard that before, even though I've been in southern California for 19 years.

[Khaleesi Daenerys]

I've lived all over California and to be honest I don't see any major differences. Just minor ones like type of restaurants widely available, housing, traffic, ect. I personally find it ridiculous to compare one half of the state, about 500 miles away, to a completely different country about 6k miles away, which you would have to fly to. Maybe if you visited the other half of the state more often it wouldn't be so, "shocking," to you. Btw how often have you visited France or Switzerland?
As far as saying one half of the state detests the other, you don't speak for everyone just yourself, it's offensive to make such a claim as I have friends in north and south.

[mersheep]

I am sad to hear that "each subculture detests the other". :(
I've never heard that before, even though I've been in southern California for 19 years.

Some of what I wrote was sarcasm, although there are some real political and environmental divides. N. California has the wealth and resources, Southern California has the population. California is the size of France, with a comparable stand alone economy. It is hard to comprehend that it is not a city state, like the states on the east coast. It is a a self sufficient country of it's own. Our counties are the size of some states. Texans exaggerate, Californians do not need to.

The cultrral divide may be more of a Northern California thing. And quite possibly a multi generational thing. LA did not exist before the 1930s and did not get built out till the 1940s and 1950s. Before WWII LA even got it's power from Mexico and used 50Hz. This was converted for the War effort and So Cal Edison had to buy all the electronic clocks and replace them. (Note that the northern CA grid was built by flowers of Tesla and Westinghouse. There is even a Tesla ghost town.) It is pump storage and is based on keeping the water on the mountain top and using the excess power at night to pump it back up.

I am third generation native northern California, and was born in SF. While we are a state of immigrants, mine just happened to by luck have come over 100 years ago.

There is a film, "Chinatown,." which is loosely based on the Owens valley water wars. This is still a sore spot in the states history. Southern California is dependent on the water from the north. It is pure desert. I do not think there are any orange grove there anymore. BTW: the film Who framed Roger Rabbit is a sequel to Chinatown. That freeway idea is so looney, that it lost all seriousness.

As for real history SF claimed the Water from Tahoe and Yosemite. The San Juaquine river. The Sierra club was founded 100 years ago over this, and the reason National parks exist, Thanks to John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt.

Southern Ca gets it's water from north of Sacramento (Sacramento river). The two rivers meet in the bay area and flow to the ocean from the golden gate. There is a 500 mile long canal that delivers the water from Tracy (below) the bay area. This canal is one of the engineering marvels of the modern world. It is also kept somewhat secret. Do to politics and state security concerns. The pumps at Tracy are so large they can reverse the flow at the golden gate and suck in salt water. They are powered by a volcano (Clear Lake county. Geysers geothermal, the worlds largest geothermal plant.) Giant siphons use gravity to send this water thousands of feet over the mountain range. You can see these driving along HW5 if one knows where to look. A true engineering marvel. The state DWR makes national government politics look transparent. And they like it that way.

These pumps also destroy fish (a sardine called the delta smelt.) The dams like Oroville North of Sacramento also have caused the collapse of the Salmon fishing industry. There is however a missing piece of this puzzle. This was called the Peripheral canal. Which is designed to take all the water from N. of Sacramento and divert it around the delta and send it south. Currently this is called the Twin Tunnel project.

Pat Brown (Jerry's father) was behind this. The idea in the 1950s was to let SF bay silt up and pave it over. The use the river as a sewer for the chemical and Military industrial industry that Eisenhower warned against that took over this country.. The bulk of the water sent to fill S. Cali swimming pools and water lawns. As it is the canal that sucks salt water into the delta destroyed the SF fishing industry. (think Steinbeck and the cannery row.) Jerry made a promise to his dad to complete this atrocity. (on most other things I agree with dictator moombeem.)

Due to the drought, some of the farming islands came up for sale in the Delta last year. Southern California water (Like they did in the Owens) valley just purchased some of the delta islands. The claim is to restore the marshes and make it so that more water can be sent to the Giant fish killing pumps of Tracy. Problem is that these are not salt marshes. They are freshwater marshes and need to have the flows from the Sacramento river to keep the local and the Ocean fish population healthy.

[Mermaid Wesley]

There is a norcal group on FB I think. There are large cultural divides, sure, but the point of the MN pods was to have a few pods as possible, hopefully with everyone within driving distance. Pod of cali actually includes Nevada too! There is no reason not to have sub-groups, but for MN purposes, they are not really going to change.

[Mermaid Bree]

YAY! Points for Tesla! My patron saint of electricity... Was a fan of his since High School. (Don't ask... LOL) I had fun building Tesla Coils for many years...! And more on-topic, I'm on the Central Coast, so both Santa Cruz AND Ventura are pretty much equidistant to me... And will be getting a tail very, very soon and it would be nice to learn how to swim this way from at least a few more 'seasoned' elders... (Or teachers.)


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[Mermaid_Calla]

I kind of feel like Norcal/Socal should get their own pods too. Not because of cultural differences, but because I definitely think people (especially foreigners) do not understand exactly how large and populous California is. There are a lot of us, and it's not easy for Norcal and Socal merfolk to visit each other at meetups on their own turf. It can require an expensive plane or train ride. It is very much like living in France and crossing over to Germany. Though, there IS a large cultural divide tbh; north and south are constantly at odds with each other socially and politically, and even the laws change depending on which county you're in. Basically only those of us living closer to the middle (like me, I'm smack dab in the middle of the coast just north of SF) get to see each other without planning months in advance and saving up a lot of money.

I also think there ought to be more pods in general, but for that there also ought to be more mermaids in general. We need to recruit and expand, that's what will drive further categorization lol

[Astrid_the_Mermaid]

I have been born and raised for the first 18 years of my life in Southern Cali in Los Angeles but at 18 I moved to Humboldt County which is really Northern Cali. 5 hours north of San Fran. The differences between the two areas is pretty different because I grew up in the city and where I am now is very farm-like and full of forests and nature. The different environments brings out different things from people but since living in both spectrums never felt a harsh divide. It was a culture shock for sure when I first moved north but never anything unwelcoming competitive or rude. Driving wise its around 12 hours to get from where I am to LA and that is NOT an easy trip. Takes basically the whole day and is very exhausting. Sometimes its less driving to go to another state versus Southern Cali. So time and money and planning is very needed to go from one end to the other and honestly having the sub groups of Southern and Northern Cali would be very nice. Just speaking from experience.