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California Today
Raha Naddaf, one of the magazine’s story editors, explains the decision to zoom in on the Golden State.
The New York Times Magazine is doing something this week that it has never done before: dedicate an entire issue to California, where many of its readers live.
When conceiving of the issue, I was thrilled to think more deeply about what’s next for a state that has always seemed to be at the frontier of so much transformation. A state whose entire mythology is wrapped up in the notion of dreaming, of starting fresh, of reinvention.
I’m one of the magazine’s story editors, and I am currently based in San Leandro. But I’ve lived in California many times, and witnessed its rebirths firsthand.
In the 1980s, I spent my elementary school years living in the Oakland hills, when such a thing was more affordable. I remember never being able to plant flowers in our backyard because the deer would devour them immediately.
I spent my college years at U.C. Berkeley and got my first job in the heart of San Francisco, before the electric scooters and delivery robots descended. I eventually moved to New York, seeing California only in short spurts during the holidays, watching the hills roll by on my way to and from the airport. I’ve been back now for about six years, watching my kids develop their own personal relationships with this state.
With every re-entry into California, I’ve encountered a new version of the state. I’ve watched it become drier and more expensive. I’ve marveled at its natural beauty, my eyes never quite adjusting. I’ve watched neighborhoods crop up, spreading deeper into the suburbs, while cities have struggled to build. So much seems to have changed in such a short time: We have been reshaped by fire and drought and tech and money and politics. As someone who lives here, and has lived here before, and before that, I wonder how the state will continue to transform. What Californias will my kids discover as they grow?
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The New York Times Magazine Devotes an Issue to California – The New York Times
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