Colorado Earns the Nickname “East California”.
It has been known for a while that many Colorado natives tend to look down on transplants who came from California. Through the years, attitudes have changed to Coloradans blaming Californians for many of the issues Colorado has that it didn’t have in the past.
Even though so many people from California migrate to Colorado they sometimes unfairly get blamed for everything people see wrong in the Rocky Mountain state. People in Colorado often blame transplanted Californians for things like increased traffic/poor drivers, rising housing costs, and the passage of laws that were passed in California first. Many even blame California for turning the state blue as it is now controlled by Democrats in all three government branches.
Conservatives first coined the term “East California” to label Colorado in 2017 when the political makeup of the state started to drastically change. And now six years later, things haven’t changed and the process of Colorado morphing into California hasn’t slowed down.
Some have even noticed an influence in West Coast ideals showing up on proposed bills at the 2023 state legislative session. For example, a recently proposed bill that would ban assault weapons in the state was like a law just passed in California. A bill that would require wildfire evacuation and time-clearance modeling was also drafted like one implemented in California.
How Many People from California Move to Colorado or “East California” Every Year?
Colorado’s population has grown significantly in the past several years, Californians aren’t the only ones moving to the state. Several sources report that more Texans move to Colorado than Californians.
According to data gathered by Stacker.com, California ranks number two in most people moving to Colorado from another state. In 2019, 29,350 people moved from California to Colorado, which makes up 12.2 percent of the new residents that moved to Colorado from another state. More than 32,000 people moved to Colorado from Texas in 2019.
According to an article published by the Pagosa Daily Post, over 200,000 people moved from California to Colorado from 2009 to 2019. The article also reports that Colorado has turned blue in that period and last year Californians made up over 16 percent of the residents relocating to the state.
However, the article also points out that people from Texas have actually been moving to the Rocky Mountain State at a slightly higher rate as over 210,000 Texans have relocated to Colorado from 2009 to 2019. And, Texans moved to the state at a higher rate than Californians in 8 out of the 10 years.
Data Shows Californians Are to Blame for Increasing Housing Costs
According to an article published by Fox 31 Denver, Californians have indeed “made Colorado so unaffordable.” The article discusses data released by Redfin, a national real estate brokerage firm, that shows a national pattern of highly paid workers from major job hubs bringing their large salaries with them to more affordable locations.
Over the last five years, people moving to Colorado have had significantly higher housing budgets than people living in the state. Before the pandemic in 2019, transplants looking for homes in the Denver area had a housing budget that was a mere 3.8 percent higher than Colorado residents. But in 2020, the amount rose to 16.5 percent of transplants having a higher housing budget than Coloradans, which equals around $100,000 for the current median-priced home.
Redfin’s data also shows that shortly after the pandemic people came to Colorado from everywhere, but Californians made up the biggest chunk. “Almost 23.8% of Colorado move-likely housing searches were from California in the third quarter of 2020, according to Redfin migration data — several times more than any other state,” Fox 31 reported.
Republicans Blame Californians for Various New Laws
According to an article published by Colorado Public Radio in 2018, Republicans have used the term “Californication” to describe the way Colorado has been taken over by politically progressive ideals. The article brought up an attack ad against Gov, Jared Polis made by the Republican Governors Association that claims Polis has been making the state into “’Radicolorado,’ a clone of California.”
Jon Caldera, who leads the conservative Independence Institute, has blamed California for the growth of government in Colorado. “It’s not the numbers of people coming into Colorado, it’s the culture that they’re bringing in with them. We call that the Californian culture. It doesn’t mean you’re from California necessarily, but … instead of craving the freedom to make your own decisions, you demand the authority to make decisions for other people,” Caldara said.
In 2017, Caldera wrote a piece published by Complete Colorado claiming that Colorado had become “East California.”
“You feel it. You’re reminded of it every time you roll your eyes when you’re stuck behind a California license plate in traffic,” Caldera wrote. “You feel it with the growing ‘triggered’ society, ready to riot over a sign at a coffee shop. You feel it with every proposal to raise ‘fees’ on grocery bags or drinks with sugar, force green roofs, municipalize power companies, raise sin taxes on smoking, build city-owned internet, growth control, gun control, and healthcare control. Control, control, control. You feel it — we are becoming California. More than ever Coloradans want to make decisions for other people and engineer how others live. This is wildly antithetical to Colorado I grew up in.”
” A bill that would require wildfire evacuation and time-clearance modeling was also drafted like one implemented in California.” So, what’s wrong with that? Do believe the legislation was created from experience. When it takes 10 years since Waldo Canyon to come up with a “fire mitigation plan” why not plagiarize? And why did it take 10 years? Didn’t have the right people tasked to make a plan?
Republicans Blame Californians for Various New Laws: Re: John Caldera. Yes, the more people, the more demands for services, the more government growth. A natural progression. When people move, they take with them their culture and politics. It can’t be helped. Look at COS last mayoral election.
“….but … instead of craving the freedom to make your own decisions, you demand the authority to make decisions for other people,” Caldara said. Hate to tell you, that apparently enough people have had freedom to make California approach the 4th largest economy in the world. Don’t think state government had much to do with it other than encouragement.
” You feel it with every proposal to raise ‘fees’ on grocery bags or drinks with sugar, force green roofs, municipalize power companies, raise sin taxes on smoking, build city-owned internet, growth control, gun control, and healthcare control.” If private enterprise won’t make the necessary improvements, then the only thing left is government. In COS we have Colorado Springs Utilities–municipal. Some of the worst planning when it comes to growth. The former mayor had a chance to do something about gun control, but ” I don’t have the stomach for it.” If government doesn’t step in and control the out of control consolidation of the healthcare industry that is running rampant with Hedge Funds and Private Equity firms buying up your doctor’s practice and placing the call center in Honduras, where the culture is different and there’s a language barrier, all to save the Hedge Fund or Private Equity firm a few bucks on overhead.
When Comcast took over for Adelphia Communications in 2006, a commitment was made to finish wiring the city which wasn’t done. Here we are 17 years later, and the city is getting wired by private companies at the invitation of COS city government.
“This is wildly antithetical to Colorado I grew up in.” Colorado is trying to grow up and it’s painful for some factions of the political establishment. There are so many areas that Colorado needs to grow up in and, hate to tell you, it will take “outsiders” to make it happen.