Has southern california change over the past three years?

Question

I use live there three years ago mainly in the Torrance, Gardena, Hawthorne, Carson area, i havent been back in three years, I am wondering if things have changed. From school to new buildings to new laws, to the amount of people, or even the types of people.

Answer 1

Hi! I'm from the Valley, so my perspective on this is going to be a little bit different, but I'll try my best to address the question.

Things have, of course, changed, although not terribly drastically. It was about three years ago that former Governor Gray Davis was recalled and Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected on a strange surge of popularity. That has dwindled over the years, but the next election is still his to lose. Speaking of charismatic elected officials, former mayor James Hahn was replaced by the significantly more effervescent (and ubiquitous) Antonio Villaraigosa after a hard-fought campaign.

The population here continues to grow at a fairly alarming rate, even though the housing boom is beginning to slow down. Traffic, accordingly, is becoming progessively worse. The ethnicity of the population has also probably shifted to more Latino, due to the amount of immigrants.

A lot of new schools are being built to relieve the pressure on the ones we already have. A new exit exam for high schoolers has been instituted, challenged, and upheld. UC tuitions (CSUs as well, I believe) are continuing to climb.

The only major new building I can think of is the Disney Concert Hall, which again was probably built about the time you left. In other building-related news, the Getty Villa, which was closed, has been re-opened, and the Griffith Observatory is set to re-open shortly as well. The Magic Mountain theme park is probably going to be shut down.

As for new laws... well, the state passed a major stem-cell research bill a while ago. I can't think of anything else particularly significant.

I hope all this was somewhat along the lines of what you were looking for.