Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

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Here’s a small-town scoop: After 32 years, the Magic Carpet is closing its gallery at the New York Hotel on Broad Street and moving to a web-based operation. They will, however, continue wash and repair service.

Owner Paul Jorgensen confirmed the decision this morning. “It’s happening,” he said.

Word began leaking out after the Magic Carpet began distributing a brochure to its customers: “Closing our doors after 32 years; 30 percent off everything! Starts March 1 2012″

Other businesses, such as Jordan Wood in Grass Valley, have gone to web-only operations.

Magic Carpet has high-quality products and can handle the delicate art of hand-knotted rug repair and cleaning. We will continue to patronize them and wish them the best.

(click for larger image)

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Editor’s note: Steve Frisch has posted a report titled “California’s Political Geography” on his Facebook page that draws some interesting conclusions, with maps, charts and analysis.

It brings to mind themes often raised here: how hard-right GOP ideologues — and their “my way or the highway” approach to politics — keeps the party from growing. This is an epidemic in our county. The local GOP Central Committee and its leaders ought to read it:

“California may tend to vote for Democratic presidential candidates, but many places around the state espouse views that fall to the right of the Democratic Party’s typical positions. In fact, only the Bay Area is home to extraordinarily large numbers of people who hold opinions associated with the Democratic Party,” according to a report from the Public Policy Institute of California.

“This could signal an opportunity for Republicans. Moderate Liberal and Conservative Liberal places contain half the state’s population and seem sympathetic to many conservative positions—yet they tend to support the Democratic Party. Still, altering this status quo could prove difficult. The small number of liberal Republicans in every part of the state implies that the party’s electoral coalition is ideologically solid—but that may also make the party resistant to expansion efforts. Only time will tell.”

The report is here.

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“Andrew Breitbart, the noted conservative Internet publisher and author, has died. He was 43,” according to ABC News.

“A statement posted on his website said that Breitbart died ‘unexpectedly from natural causes’ this morning.

“A conservative blogger and journalist, Breitbart helped launch the Huffington Post and was an editor at the Drudge Report.

“He also founded his own news network, acting as the publisher of several news websites including Breitbart.com, Breitbart.tv, Big Hollywood, Big Government, Big Journalism and Big Peace.

“Big Government broke the ACORN child sex trafficking scandal and also, in 2011, the ‘Weinergate’ photo scandal that led to the resignation of New York Rep. Anthony Weiner.

“Breitbert was known for publishing controversial exposes and wrote a best-selling critique of celebrity culture, ‘Hollywood, Interrupted.’ His newest book ‘Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World!’ was on the New York Times bestseller list.”

The rest of the article is here.

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This week the media had a field day predicting that Mitt Romney might lose the GOP primary in his “home state” of Michigan. To be sure, Romney was born in Michigan and his father was the state’s governor. But his “home” — in more realistic terms — seemed more like Massachusetts, where he was governor, or Utah, where he led an effort to host the Winter Olympics and also the “home” of his Mormon faith.

Now if the media wanted to portray Romney as “in trouble” politically, it would have been to conjecture that Romney would somehow lose support in Utah. I think Michigan is going to be won by Obama anyway.

It got me thinking about the longtime “movers vs. stayers” arguments in America — something that is foisted upon you in our county more than in other places.

Where only the past matters?

In Nevada County, whether intentional or not, “stayers” often put the “movers” on the defensive. District 1 Supervisor candidate Sue McGuire touts that she’s a “6th generation Nevada County resident” in her campaign literature — as did resident and financial services business owner Mike McDaniel in an op-ed about public pensions last week.

Mike even signed his name that he was a “sixth generation” resident (though he went away to college in the Bay Area). Sue is a law-school graduate.

All this preoccupation with how long your family has lived here — in generations, let alone years — has caused a friend to joke that our motto is “Nevada County — where only the past matters.” It’s a reference to a lack of economic diversity too — and I think he’s only half-joking.

In truth, however, it’s not uncommon to be a “stayer,” at least in rural areas.

Only a third of the people living in U.S. urban neighborhoods and suburbs say they have spent their entire lives in the same place, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. That compares with 48 percent of Americans living in rural areas.

On the other hand, the nation’s most transient region is the West (so that makes our county somewhat of an anomaly), while the nation’s most rooted region is the Midwest. The report is here.

I’m more of a “mover” than a “stayer” but extremely proud (still) to be a native Californian. I was born in and grew up in Pasadena in the early ’60s; lived in Denver in my early teens (my father was transferred); then we moved back to California (where I finished high school near San Jose).

I lived in Berkeley and Chicago for college degrees, and moved to South Florida (my first job during the ’82 economic downturn) — but settled in San Francisco and Marin County for a more than a decade after that. So I’m “four states” — California, Colorado, Illinois and Florida; see chart.

Now us “movers” vs. “stayers” are settled together in a small rural county of “stayers.” But that’s changing: A growing number of people have moved here from somewhere else.

I suppose that puts the “stayers” on the defensive too, worrying that people want to disrupt their rural lifestyle. In some cases, losing their influence is at play too.

Most “movers” that I know embrace the more laid-back lifestyle, rather than wanting to change it. They came here to raise their children or for family ties — the same reasons as the “stayers.”

Jobs — the No. 1 reason for moving in the Pew study — was not one of the reasons in many cases. A lot of the folks are retired.

But just like Democrats vs. Republicans, or working people vs. retirees, there’s sometimes friction between the “movers” and the “stayers.”

It seems misplaced, though, because in the end, here’s what the Pew Survey concluded:

“Levels of community satisfaction do not appear to be correlated with people’s past mobility patterns. Equal shares of movers and stayers——–about six-in-ten — rate their current community as good or excellent.”

That’s worth remembering.

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