I grew up in a place where grass was green without any sprinklers, there were oaks and birches, and my family had a big garden with everything from strawberries to currants to potatoes and eggplants. I think that a big green back yard is an integral part of the house and if I have to pay $100/month or $200/month to keep it green, so be it. It’s a small price to pay compared with $2000/month rent. Barren desert landscape is the biggest thing I don’t like about San Diego. If I could live anywhere I want and I didn’t have to work for a living, I’d probably move somewhere further north, maybe to Oregon.
Judging by lot sizes I see in San Diego, I’m in the minority here.
Today they ask as to cut down on watering our lawns and to replace real grass with artificial grass, because there’s not enough water in the state to keep green lawns and gardens. Tomorrow they will ask us to shower twice a week, because they want to fit 50 million people in California and there won’t be not enough water for everyone to shower every day. Or maybe we should set our A/C’s to 85 during the day and light our houses by burning dry brush in fireplaces during the night because United States don’t have enough power plants.
Southern California is an oasis and we should strive to keep it an oasis rather than try to turn it into thousands of square miles of gray dusty houses populated by gray dusty people.
If we’re running out of water in Colorado River, maybe we shouldn’t build more houses, and maybe we should build a desalination plant or two next to San Onofre. I’ll even put some solar panels on the roof to help with desalination energy costs, if that is necessary.
