Many Needles Residents Want To Secede from California
Zeke Minaya
June 13, 2008
Residents of Needles, Calif., talk about their desert city in contradictory terms.
They decry high gasoline and electricity prices, the crumbling houses in half-deserted neighborhoods and the sleepy downtown. In the next breath, they express fierce loyalty and a desire to live nowhere else.
"It's a strange thing," said Bernice Morris, who has lived in Needles almost 65 years. "We complain about it and we curse the city council, but we love Needles."
Those dueling impulses have been on display this spring, as city officials threatened in April to break away from California and divorce what they have called an unsupportive San Bernardino County government.
Residents have long held a simmering discontent over what they perceive as second-class status in their home county, as well as the strangling high costs of living in California.
Discontent escalated to talk of secession after the county board of supervisors proposed to strip Needles' hospital of its emergency room and inpatient services.
County officials said the hospital does not get enough patients to be self-sustaining. Needles officials and residents saw the proposed downgrade as the final straw for a city stuck in a downward spiral.
"By closing the hospital, that was just another nail in our coffin," said Needles City Councilman Robert Smith. "Why would a family move here?"
Morris, head of the local museum, said the city, which drew its name from the nearby pointy mountain peaks, was founded in 1883 as a railroad town. Train crews and their families moved to the community nestled on the banks of the Colorado River.
When she first arrived in Needles from Texas, Morris said the heat overwhelmed her. The area often pushes 120 degrees during the summer.
"I wanted to get back on the train. It was August and it was horribly, horribly, horribly hot," said Morris, 91.
But she quickly fell in love with the place. On Saturday nights, residents could choose from among a dozen bars, and on Sunday mornings, they had almost as many options for church, she said.
Now, roughly half the population and most of the stores are gone.
The railroad dismantled much of its Needles operation in the 1960s, leaving a void that has never been filled.
The 2000 census put Needles' population at 4,830. The city was one of the few that shrank during the Southern California growth spurt of the 1990s.
"We've seen shrinking enrollment for the last dozen or so years. It's been a steady downward plunge," Superintendent Dave Renquest said of the school district.
"We are not on the edge of the planet, but you can see it from here," he joked. "Our nearest neighbors in California are more than 100 miles away."
Bartender Karla Greavle, 43, said Needles residents flee to Arizona and Nevada because the cost of living is lower there.
"On my street there are 12 houses, and six of them are for sale," she said.
Electricity costs are high in Needles -- a significant expense during the blistering summer when air conditioning is a necessity. Gasoline prices are about a dollar a gallon higher than at stations across the state line, she said.
"It's sad because I like Needles," she said. "It's a great place to live."
Her love of the town was challenged in December, when doctors diagnosed her with cervical cancer. The local hospital could not treat her, and her medical insurance was not accepted in Nevada.
So, for several months, five days a week, she drove nearly four hours each way to Loma Linda, Calif., for treatment.
She said she supports the city joining Nevada, if only because "then I wouldn't have to make that drive."
But in April, Greavle was reminded of why she loves the city when residents held a fundraiser and collected about $10,000 to help her.
"The town of Needles comes through," she said, struggling with emotion.
Even still, city leaders continue to explore secession. The city council has formed a nine-member committee to study it. The council won't form its own county, because that would require a minimum population of 10,000.
Joining Nevada or Arizona won't be any easier.
It would require an act of Congress and approval of legislatures in both California and the adoptive state.
E-mail Zeke Minaya at zminaya(at)PE.com
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
