In Reply to: Anyone living in Huntington Beach? posted by DSCBruin on November 26, 2024 at 18:14:46
This city has almost always been politically backward.
HB has long been the low-cost option for living at the beach. Rents were cheap in those little cottages, located not far from the beach. The scene has long been dominated by youth culture: tattoo parlors, MMA gyms, surfing, skateboarding, and all forms of wheeled transport (in my neighborhood, it's not unusual to see a guy on a motorized skateboard in the middle of the street, even in the left turn lane on a four-lane boulevard for Chrisakes!).
And for some reason, HB has always seemed to attract political troglodytes.
A few years ago, during COVID, an MMA guy was elected to the city council, but was unable to attend meetings because he refused to wear a mask.
Several years ago, a house on my block had a huge confederate flag painted on its roof. That property was sold and a mini-mansion replaced it.
The city has been experiencing gentrification, as the small old cottages are being replaced by mini-mansions squeezed into small, narrow lots. I keep expecting the new residents will change the city's political direction, but so far no luck.
The new city council is composed of MAGA supporters. All the good candidates were defeated in the last election. The new council is attempting to privatize the library. The library is in a beautiful building, it includes a small theatre, and it is constantly hosting public events. I suspect that like many good things in life, we won't even miss it until it is gone...
And yes, I agree with the theory that stupid people resent the things that they don't understand, and that's why they want to tear apart our academic institutions and our libraries, etc.
The morons are beginning to run the country a la the movie "Idiocracy" (which btw owes its central premise to a short story by CM Kornbluth called "The Marching Morons"). We are living in interesting times....