Commentary: The California I grew up in was full of ambition and possibility. Is the dream still alive?

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

See more from the L.A.Times in Google Search.

Set us as preferred The California I grew up in had its pluses and minuses, just like the state I’m living in now.But consider this:In 1974, I wrote a check for a semester of college.The fee was $98.That was the cost of registration, by the way.Tuition for in-state residents was free at San José State University and other public universities in California.

The state’s leaders believed subsidized higher education would serve the greater good and seed economic growth.Two years after graduating, I was working as a sportswriter for a small Bay Area newspaper.My spouse was a drug store clerk.

Together we made less than $20,000 a year.And we bought a brand-new house, 45 minutes east of Oakland, for just under $50,000.In a thousand ways, we’re living in a different California today.Tuition and fees for a semester on a Cal State campus now run about $4,500, and the average mid-tier home costs about $775,000 in some places and far more in others, which is out of reach for nearly 80% of working people.So as I watched the gubernatorial debate Wednesday night between the two men who want to lead us into the future, I was wondering which California is better in terms of hope, opportunity and livability?The one I was born in during the postwar boom, or the one we’re living in now?There’s no easy answer.

The California of my youth was more affordable, but it was no utopian dreamscape.Housing discrimination and segregation were deep-seated, and the Los Angeles sky was the color of swamp water.We need both candidates to be bolder, more creative, more convincing, and to tell us things we haven’t heard before.In the last half of the 20th century, California went on to become a global leader in technology, aerospace, the arts and healthcare, and its investment in public education helped build an economic superpower.

Even the air g...