Coronavirus in rural America (Part XXVI): the rural-coastal divide in California

Politico reported yesterday from the state's Central Valley under the headline, "How California’s coastal-rural divide could provide lessons for the nation."  Interesting that journalist Mackenzie Mays highlights the coastal-rural divide, rather than the urban-rural divide, though the two are largely synonymous, well excepting Sacramento and Fresno, which are the fourth and fifth largest cities in the state and both inland, and also excepting some far northern and central California coastal communities.  Now that I think about all the exceptions to the coastal-rural divide, I'm not sure it's a good proxy for rural-urban divide--not sure it's an accurate description of California geography.

In any event, Mays' report is datelined Sacramento and focuses on the heart of the Great Central Valley, the nation's most important agricultural region.  Here's an excerpt:

When California emerges from its coronavirus lockdown, the state's often overlooked rural counties could be the first to open up rather than the nationally trendsetting San Francisco Bay Area. 

Rural counties house roughly one-tenth of California's nearly 40 million residents but comprise more than half its land mass. A greater share of inland residents have continued to work in essential sectors under social isolation orders, and many think their thinly populated communities are less vulnerable to Covid-19 spread and shouldn't be held back by coastal cities. A distrust of Sacramento directives and a government helmed by liberal Gov. Gavin Newsom are also at play.

California's divide could become a harbinger for how rural and coastal states ease their restrictions in different ways with less populated areas lifting closures sooner than denser cities. Escalating frustration among conservatives over stay-at-home-orders’ impacts on the economy has led to protests across the country, and similar demonstrations have been organized in pockets of California.

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If rural counties open before densely populated coastal cities, health officials will watch closely to see whether different social distancing rules can coexist in the same state — and what health effects an isolated reopening would have locally and beyond.
Despite growing pressure to reopen, health officials worry about a lack of sufficient testing in rural communities — and the potential for disproportionate suffering due to socioeconomic barriers and health care shortages they faced pre-pandemic. 

In rural Tulare County, one of California's last Republican bastions, Supervisor Pete Vander Poel expects a “strong push” from the agricultural center to reopen as soon as possible. 

Mays quotes Vander Poel: 

We are not a highly concentrated urban area.  I believe that our businesses feel like they can accommodate social distancing and increase hygiene and sanitation much quicker and on a much more open basis.

But Tulare County, with a population of nearly half a million, is hardly rural.  So far, it's seen more than 300 cases, mostly from nursing homes.  Mays quotes Governor Gavin Newsom: 

For those that think this is just an urban construct, or densified in certain parts of the state, it exists and persists, Covid-19, throughout the state, including rural California.  None of us are immune from this disease, and if we stop taking it seriously, we will have serious consequences.

Here's a story out of Stanislaus County, also in the Central Valley, and here's a story of protests out of Del Norte County, in far northern California.  Contrary to Mays' construct, Del Norte County is coastal but very rural.  An earlier post about Del Norte County is here. 

And here's a comment from Governor Newsom's press conference today on the issue of some local governments moving to open before he gives the go-ahead:

I imagine there’ll be some examples of people just getting ahead of that collaborative spirit. And we may have to dial a little bit of that back.