Californication (portmanteau)

"Californication" is a portmanteau of California and fornication, written about in "Time" on August 211972 and seen on bumper stickers in the U.S. states of Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, [cite web
url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DD1E3FF933A05756C0A965958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=4
title = Eastward, Ho! The Great Move Reverses
author = Timothy Egan
publisher = The New York Times
date = 1993-05-30
accessdate = 2007-11-22] and Washington. [cite web
url = http://www.slate.com/id/2133
title = Kiss My Tan Line: How Californians saved Seattle.
author = Robert Ferrigno
publisher = Slate
date = Posted Friday, Nov. 1, 1996, at 3:30 AM ET
accessdate = 2007-11-22] It refers primarily to a "haphazard, mindless development that has already gobbled up most of Southern California",cite web
url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,877985,00.html
title = The Great Wild Californicated West
publisher = Time
author = Sandra Burton
date = August 211972
accessdate = 2007-08-27] which some attribute to an influx of Californians to other states in the Western U.S.

Oregon

"Californication" as a pejorative was a culmination of sentiments known in the 1940s, typified by Stewart Holbrook, author and "The Oregonian" columnist, who campaigned through the fictitious "James G. Blaine Society" against development and unchecked population growth. [cite web
url = http://www.ochcom.org/holbrook
title = Stewart Holbrook
author = Brian Booth
publisher = Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission
date = 2000
accessdate = 2007-08-27] cite web
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=3C6zhhd4GBMC&pg=PA53&lpg=PA53&dq=%22james+g+elaine+society%22&source=web&ots=uze_3FCTyo&sig=aGowfyaV0BIRs7-kPTWUP10fcJ0#PPP1,M1
title = Eugene, 1945-2000: Decisions that made a community
author = City Club of Eugene, Karen Seidel
publisher = Xlibris Corporation
editor = Cheri Brooks, Kathleen Holt
date = 2001
id = ISBN 9780738845814
pages = 51-53] Similar groups—such as The Miller Society—jokingly promoted measures like building a convert|16|ft|m|sing=on high fence all along Interstate 5 to prevent exiting between California and Washington, expelling non-native Oregon born residents, and instituting a $5000 immigration fee.

In 1965, Eugene, Oregon's first planning commission began to question decades of promotion by chambers of commerce and developers. They referred to a 1959 pro-growth development plan and rampant road building as "All the way to San Jose" —an allusion to freeways decreasing neighborhood livability. Interstate 5 from California was completed the year before. Previously, the main route into Oregon from California was through twisty, two-lane Oregon Route 99.

Governor Tom McCall was interviewed by Terry Drinkwater and appeared on national television January 121971 for his acclaimed conservation experience. Extemporaneously he said, "Come visit us again and again. But for heaven's sake, don't come here to live."cite web
url = http://olive.live.advance.net/century/1970_intro.html
title = Blazing Trails in the 1970s
author = Brent Walth
publisher = Oregonian
work = An Oregon Century—100 years of Oregon in words and pictures
accessdate = 2007-08-27] Almost overnight, bumper stickers that discouraged Oregon immigration were widely seen: "The famous radioactive vapors of the Columbia River will get you!", and "Oregonians don't tan; they rust". The banner "Don't Californicate Oregon" became the symbol of James Cloutier's line of "Oregon Ungreeting Cards", which carried sentiments such as "Tom Lawson McCall, governor, on behalf of the citizens of the great state of Oregon, cordially invites you to visit... Washington or California or Idaho or Nevada or Afghanistan".

Colorado

On November 71972, in a statewide referendum, Colorado voters rejected a bond issue to fund the hosting of the 1976 Winter Olympics. The venue for the games would have been spread over convert|150|mi|km, and was widely viewed as license for unbridled development. As part of the opposition to the bond, the slogan "Don't Californicate Colorado" was coined, appearing on bumper stickers and placards across the state. This rejection by Colorado voters followed a trend in the western states to blame the arrival of Californians for the urban growth problems experienced in states like Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Oregon.

ee also

*Masshole

References