What does California look like without Hollywood or Silicon Valley?

[1940LaSalle]

Southern California's climate will likely attract motion pictures, and with it the visual entertainment industry, given what David T said: it's conducive to outdoor filming year round, plenty of sun, and a variety of topography. It's not inevitable that there will be total relocation there from New York and environs, but a substantial base will be established: perhaps New York will be a hub for more serious, arty motion pictures, drawing talent from Broadway, while California productions are lighter and more fun. It's tough to imagine something like W. C. Fields' "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break" shot much of anywhere besides 1941 LA, while it's easy to imagine any of Orson Welles' earlier cinematic ventures coming from NYC.

Assuming that's true, where LA gets fun movies, there'll still be ample opportunities for growth from aeronautics/aerospace, defense industries, agriculture, and oil in southern California. The Bay area will be a more no-nonsense industrial area, focusing on shipping, shipbuilding, and similar heavy industries--with a sizable intellectual overlay from Stanford and Berkeley. One side effect: northern CA wouldn't be as far to the left politically as it seems to be today. Come to think of it, the same could be said about the LA area.

 

[Thisisnotausername]

The fact that that particular user I quoted has recently taken delight in provoking me along this path has me irritable. Last time they did it I just stopped arguing, and I should probably do that again. It’s bullying tactics, but I’m not sure how else to respond. Maybe I’ll PM them when I feel I can be civil.

If they're harrassing you, you should report them--the mods are there for a reason.

What’s California like in such a timeline? Farming powerhouse? Aerospace? Western backwater? The favorable climate leads me to believe the population explosion is going to happen. But with no Hollywood in LA and no Silicon Valley in the Bay Area, what draws people out there?

Oil, agriculture, defence and associated industries like aerospace, and plain old sunlight. And that last factor goes a long way, honestly--if simply having a warm and sunny climate can draw millions of people to the fetid swamps of Florida and the scorching deserts of Arizona, it can certainly draw millions of people to California's Mediterranean shores.

Maybe if someone in Washington thinks the economy of the Golden State needs a lift, the UN gets placed in San Francisco, and/or the Center For Disease Control in LA, plus a few other pork-barrel goodies head their way.

I could see the CDC there, but it's hard to imagine the UN ending up on the west coast--too inconvenient for the Europeans.

That said, without the film-industry as a liberalizing influence, SoCal probably just becomes Oklahoma West, with some less-prosperous version of OTL's Orange County being the rest of the world's idea of the place. Not sure how well the state's much-esteemed university system does with a reduced tax base.

I think you overstate the extent to which Hollywood tilts things to the left. Either way though, a red California--with its multiple major port cities, oil industry, and large Hispanic minority--would be more Texas than Oklahoma.