Visions of the future in the North Valley of California

The turnaround migration of people from urban areas to rural settings that started about 1970 has been well documented in the literature. What has not been fully examined is the attitude of these new arrivals toward the future growth and development of their new home region. Early surveys seemed to show that newcomers wanted to pull up the gangplank by opposing future growth. More recent research, however, reports a progrowth attitude among both newcomers and oldtimers. This study surveyed 400 people in the North Valley of California to evaluate their attitudes on three issues: quality of life, natural resources and general economic development. Differences between newcomers and oldtimers were minor. These differences supported certain types of development but opposed the involvement of outsiders in developing resources for export. Both sought to preserve the high quality of life that makes rural living attractive in the first place.