The Near-Term in Wichita: The View from The Roasterie

One of Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's standard applause lines is that he wants Kansas: "to be less like California, and more like Texas!" The problem is that Texas has:

mild winters,
a culture that is very welcoming to hispanics, and
lots of oil.

Kansas as a whole has none of these--although Wichita has the third...

Now that the price of oil has crashed in half, having lots of oil--which Wichita has and the rest of Kansas does not--is not a near-term plus. It is, rather, a cause of painful structural adjustment.

And a Texas with the hostility to hispanics we see in today's Kansas Republican Party, plus harsh Kansas-quality winters, does not seem to be an attractive place...

By contrast, the big thing not to like about California right now seems to be its rampant NIMBY-ism--and the fact that that makes real estate fortunes for so many influential current Californians, and so makes them happy