Monday, October 17, 2022

Miller v. Dep't of Real Estate (Cal. Ct. App. - Oct. 17, 2022)

Today's opinion from the Court of Appeal involves a mobile home park in Oildale, California.

I've never heard of Oildale before, though once I looked it up, I recall driving through it at some point. The name doesn't make the place sound very attractive. Accurately so. 

Here's the picture of Oildale that's most easily accessible on the web. That also jibes with my memory of driving through the place. Not exactly the most desirable place in the universe to reside.

Doing so in a mobile home park probably makes it even less intriguing.

When you ask Mr. Google what Oildale is most known for, here's what it tells you:

"Oildale, with a population of about 32,000, is famous for being the birthplace of Merle Haggard and for the massive oil patch that drew Dust Bowl migrants west. It is also known for its intractable poverty, drug problems and a legacy of racism against blacks."

Not exactly the most positive advertisement for the place.

I'm loathe to be dismissive of places others live. Often, they have no choice. Sometimes they even grow to love the place, notwithstanding its faults.

But this particular area looks rough. At a minimum, it's proof positive that California is not uniformly the land of milk and honey.

Sometimes it's just miles and miles of ugly, stripped bare oilfields.