The proposal to divide California, the third largest and most populated state in the United States, into six smaller regions is inching closer towards the ballot box as it has already garnered about a million signatures.
Timothy Draper, a Silicon Valley investor who proposed the plan and is pushing ardently for it said that he already has the 808,000 signatures required to push the bill into the 2016 statewide elections.
"California needs a reboot. Six Californias is our opportunity to solve the many problems we face today. ... Six states that are more representative and accountable. Six states that embrace innovation and strive to improve the lives of residents," Draper said at a press conference, according to Fox News.
The proposal to divide the state received a green signal in February this year. Draper first proposed the idea in December 2013, saying the state was too big and diverse to govern easily, resulting in problems with state-run infrastructure and other issues.
Draper suggests the six new states be divided as:
- Jefferson (encompassing far north of the current state, Redding and Eureka areas)
- North California (to include current capital Sacramento)
- Central California (farmlands of Bakersfield, Stockton and Fresno)
- Silicon Valley (San Jose, San Francisco and the corridor between the cities)
- West California (Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and beyond)
- South California (San Diego, Orange County)
However, many have ridiculed the plan of spitting the huge state into pieces claiming that it would be impossible to handle six Californias.
"This is a colossal and divisive waste of time, energy and money that will hurt the California brand. It has zero chance of passage. But what it does is scare investment away... at a time when the governor is leading us to an economic comeback," Steven Maviglio, a Democratic political strategist who formed the group OneCalifornia told Newsweek.
"The proposal, backed by the venture capitalist Tim Draper, is an extreme long shot. Even if it makes the ballot, and even if voters support it, the proposal will need to win the support of the state legislature and a majority of the members in Congress," Nate Cohn, a columnist for the New York Times writes.
Other experts believe that dividing the state would create a massive wealth inequality with some parts ending up with the most wealth and other in dire poverty. Los Angeles Times columnist and cartoonist David Horsey drew up a tongue-in-cheek map of the divided Californian sates:
Columnist @DavidHorsey asks, can America deal with six Californias? https://t.co/ogjkUc8WD5 pic.twitter.com/UcIjw1PFuU
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) July 16, 2014
Despite all the censure, Draper is confident that his bill would go through.
"At first there is always a resistance to change, and then slowly it moves forward. I've been through that many times with startups. Believe it or not, nobody wanted to have an electric car about two years ago, and now they're the greatest thing, and we all get out in front of them. And this is the same kind of thing," he told Newsweek.
