Canvasback - there has been talk of dividing California into North and South or urban and rural forever, but it never goes anywhere. There is also a longstanding movement to join rural northern CA and southern Oregon as the State of Jefferson that actually has a lot of support in those counties. They are politically overwhelmed and neglected by the big cities, which are home to the great majority of the state's population. One of the biggest issues is water - so much of NoCal's water is piped south that the Sacramento River Delta and San Francisco Bay are dying, while farmers chafe at regulations which attempt to save some water to keep that very large estuary alive. Because of poor water quality and volume in the Delta, and the fish-grinding pumps which feed the huge aqueducts, we have nearly lost our salmon and some other fish species. However, the cities of SoCal and the farmers have a lot more clout than sport and commercial fishermen. Fear of losing control of the water means that the cities would never cede political control to rural counties.