45-minute drive reveals California’s growing inequality
California Highway 68 is a very short road, running just 24 miles from the coastal cities of Pacific Grove and Monterey to the inland city of Salinas. In today’s California, the path of inequality is rarely very long.
Californians often talk about the inequality between our regions — north and south, coast and inland. But the greatest inequality in our state lies within our regions, not between them. Just cross the bridge from San Francisco to Richmond. Or take the bus from Sherman Oaks to the northeast San Fernando Valley.
The canyons between such places are as dramatic as our landscapes — and define us as a state.