After much heated debate in today’s state senate, California has declared that it is no longer unified, making Northern California and Southern California the 50^th and 51^st states in our nation. The capital of Northern California is to remain Sacramento. The capital of Southern California will be Anaheim. There will be an election in both states to determine the new political teams. Former governor Mark Wahlberg said, “It’s not like we couldn’t see it coming.”

Wahlberg is correct. The state has had problems with droughts causing much friction between Northern and Southern California. North California spokesperson Wayne Gardner said “I’m glad we’re separate states now. Maybe we can keep our water up here for ourselves, and they’ll have to pay interstate usage taxes to us.”

Wahlberg, who intends to run for governor of South California, declined to comment on Gardner’s statement but offered the following sentiments, “For years, Northern California and Southern California have been hostile towards one another. They have hosted different economical structures, different cultural values, and different climates. It only makes sense that the split occur.”

While the elections for the governors, assemblies, and other important positions are a month away, and the bidding for the title in the election is almost as diverse as the California Recall Election of 2003, there are still many other things to consider including the impact of the loss of the biggest center of entertainment production – Hollywood – for North California. This multi-million dollar industry generates much of the tax revenue social programs depend upon. When we asked Wayne Gardner what he thought of this, he responded “We’ve got agriculture, we’ve got San Francisco. I’m not worried that North California will face an economic crisis.”

While both states feel pretty heated about the events, some citizens are less worried and more apathetic to the situation. Michael Oates, a twenty-year-old student at the University of North California, Berkeley said “It’s like we’re a completely different planet up here. It doesn’t surprise me that the two states split off. It really doesn’t affect me all that much.”

James Enivel, a forty-year old artist residing in Humboldt County agrees. “As long as I don’t have to pay more taxes up here and they just let me and my family be it really doesn’t matter to me what the government does.”

However, many student activist groups, and professors are concerned that the division of the state into two will be a negative thing. Arguments include a statement from Dr. Joshua Leonard, a professor of psychology at North California State University, Chico. “We were paid a salary that was based upon the median cost of living for the state. Since it is very expensive to live in Southern California and relatively inexpensive to live up here, I hope that our young tenure-track professors will not be hurt by this move. One of the recruiting points we put in front of recent Ph.D.’s is the fact that the annual salary goes much further up here than it does in other places.”

Professors in South California also expressed concerns. “Because it is already so expensive to live here, we are worried that the cost of living will continue to go up, and that the community we had with our North Californian brethren will be severed due to these decisions by government officials who only think about their own bottom line,” Carl Sanchos a professor of sociology at the University of South California Los Angeles.

Whatever personal feelings individuals living in the two new states have, each state will be holding its own separation festival. South California will sponsor various festivities in cities April 3-5. Festivities and celebrations for North California will be sponsored in cities and towns the following weekend April 10-12.

For individuals concerned about which state they belong to due to the drawing of boundaries, www.northorsouthca.org can provide you with the assistance you require. This website will be fully functional by March 23 and will feature a zip code plug in that will tell you who your officials are.

The elections of both states will be held on March 31.