Is Sacramento really ‘The Midwest of California?’ Transplants give us the final word

If you’ve ever seen “Lady Bird” — and you’ll be hard pressed to find a Sacramentan who hasn’t — you’ll likely remember the iconic, drawling putdown of California’s capital delivered by the titular protagonist.

“I have to get out of Sacramento,” Lady Bird says. “It’s soul-killing. It’s the Midwest of California.”

Setting aside the irony of Lady Bird casting this stone while frolicking in a glittering outdoor pool in late winter, many Midwesterners will recognize the dismissal in her pronouncement, expressed by Californians who view the Midwest as nothing more than a series of corn-fed cow towns.

“The definition comes from the common assumption of Bay Area residents that the geographic definition of the Midwest starts pretty much at Fairfield and ends in New Jersey,” said California historian and Illinois native William Burg.

“If someone meant it as an insult, I would fight them,” said Dylan Moore, a California state worker from Kenosha County, Wisconsin.

As a born-and-raised Michigander, I’ve wondered where these sniffy comparisons to a region home to more than 65 million Americans came from. What does Sacramento, a West Coast city that burns with 100-plus degree heat six months out of the year, have in common with the land of cheese curds, snow pants, open-carry gun laws and flattened vowels?

And this made me wonder: How much truth do other Midwest natives think there is to the comparison? And what does that say about why so many have chosen to stay?

It’s time for my fellow Midwest transplants to set the record straight: Does Sacramento really deserve to be called “the Midwest of California?”

As it turns out, Lady Bird may have been on to something.

Historical alignments and divergences

Lady Bird can sigh all she wants, but there are actually some salient historical parallels between the Central Valley and the Midwest, several historians said. Sacramento’s first elected mayor, Hardin Bigelow, was from Michigan, and many of the city’s early residents were from Missouri and Indiana.

“Sacramento was settled by a lot of Midwesterners that came here for the Gold Rush,” said Marcia Eymann, a historian for the city of Sacramento who grew up in Michigan. “This was the first main city that you would have come to from the overland trail.”

As a result, much of the city’s infrastructure and government were set up by Midwesterners looking to settle down and create stable living conditions quickly, Eymann said. And just as the Midwest was long the country’s farm belt, so too is Sacramento’s economy rooted in agriculture, especially in growing tomatoes.

Both regions also took advantage of their geography to establish trade ports. Sacramento is a landlocked river port, much like many major Midwestern cities. This, combined with the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, made it easy for Sacramento farmers to ship their produce out to the rest of the country on record time.

That’s also how Chicago established its fortunes in the early 19th century, according to Burg, using the Erie Canal instead of trains. And like the Midwest, land in Sacramento was cheaper than San Francisco.

“They were coming here for the same reasons as today,” Eymann said.

But Sacramento’s three biggest population swells — one during the Gold Rush, one during the Great Migration and another after World War II — brought different populations that weren’t necessarily Midwestern, historians said. For instance, the Gold Rush attracted thousands of Chinese immigrants, laying the foundation for California’s large Chinese population today.

Sacramento also saw a major influx of Southeast Asian immigrants and refugees after 1965. Though there are parts of the Midwest that mirror this — such as Minneapolis, home to the country’s largest Hmong population — Sacramento’s urban growth and demographic diversity likely outpaced the Midwest because of those events, historians said.

The Sacramento Historical Society’s Bill George pointed out Sacramento is also the seat of state government. The city’s political development and decision-making status has contributed not only to the city’s character, but also the rate at which its growth exploded in the 20th century.

“Sacramento, even though it may be the Midwest of California, it’s still the capital. There’s a lot of power in this city,” said Alia Kay, who grew up going back and forth between Ohio and Michigan.

What is ‘The Midwest?’

But what do we mean when we say Sacramento feels like the Midwest? What about Sacramento’s attitude mirrors that of our landlocked native homes?

Perhaps it’s the landscape, some said, the flat highways and tree-lined neighborhoods. Or maybe it’s the city’s stable energy, neither as frenetic nor as crowded as San Francisco and Los Angeles.

“It’s the pace of life, which is Sunday morning slow, and yet regimented in a 9-to-5 way,” wrote Los Angeles Times columnist and former Sacramento Bee columnist Erika D. Smith in an email. “This gives Sacramento a sense of place.”

Both regions are committed to brewery culture and craft beers, and boast (relatively) cheaper housing prices. There’s also similarities in the way people introduce themselves, several observed, often using local points of reference.

“In coastal cities, I’ll be asked ‘Where did you grow up?’ But in Sacramento and the Midwest, it’s ‘What high school did you go to’ or ‘What church did you attend?’” said Vignesh Ganapathy, a lawyer who’s lived in Kansas City, Missouri, and Sacramento. “It’s more regional markers of identity.”

But opinions were mixed on what seems to be the Midwest’s most prominent cultural export — our niceness. Smith, who grew up in Cleveland and spent several years in Indianapolis, said Sacramentans express the same level of preternatural niceness she noticed in Indiana.

“Indianapolis is like Sacramento. People are nice for no reason,” Smith said. “I once saw a guy holding up a railroad crossing that had gotten stuck in the down position near 21st and Q streets so that cars could pass.”

Others gave the opposite review. For Jenna Hull, who grew up in Rock Island, Illinois, Sacramento doesn’t match the “background friendliness” of the Midwest, such as making small talk in line at the grocery store, or smiling with eye contact while walking down the street.

“When I moved here I realized that no one was pulling over to the side of the road to help people who had flat tires or been in accidents,” Hull said in an email. “There’s very little expectation of people to do anything but mind their own business. … I don’t think Californians broadly or Sacramentans are mean or not nice, I just think that there’s no expectation to perform these sorts of friendly social interactions.”

Of course, many interpret polite Midwest actions as something different altogether.

“You’ll still end up with the same passive-aggressiveness,” Ganapathy noted. “That isn’t being nice, it’s just being polite.”

Clear differences

There are also clear differences. Sacramento is more racially diverse than many parts of the Midwest, and others noted the city’s greater tolerance for LGBTQ+ residents. The Midwest has made diversity progress, people noted, although the changes are largely still concentrated in bigger cities.

The most common difference people cited was the weather, which pushed many of them to spend more time outdoors. But it also made them hyperaware of how weak Californians are when the sun isn’t visible.

“One of the first things you notice here is how people drive when it’s raining,” said Monica Baumann, a lawyer from Ohio who belongs to an Ohio State University football-watching club with other alumni in Sacramento. “Like, ‘Stuff is falling from the sky, what is this?’”

“I went to a movie one October. People were bundled up in coats, and I was wearing shorts,” George said. “I was like, ‘What’s wrong with you people?’”

And Sacramento’s evolution rate feels much faster than the Midwest’s, they said, a byproduct of living in California. Kay, who works in marketing, helped launch The Joint Chiropractic in the Midwest several years ago. The biggest struggle they had, she said, was simply convincing residents that their long-term health was worth spending time and money on.

“People are resistant to change sometimes in the Midwest,” Kay said. “They are (into wellness), but it’s in pockets. ... California … we get a lot of things first.”

The ‘underdog’ mentality

Ultimately, the Midwest masses were united under one recognized shadow: Just as Sacramento is often disdainfully compared to San Francisco and L.A., many lamented the sense of feeling overlooked by the coasts. Moore was horrified to learn her California-bred roommate classified Colorado as part of the Midwest.

“I have very strong feelings about Californians in general being snotty about the Midwest,” Moore said. “I would push them to consider … who they’re disparaging and why they’re disparaging them. … I think they see people outside of either California or the West Coast as being uncultured, and there’s a lack of appreciation for the quieter culture of other places.”

Smith called this attitude the “underdog” syndrome, with many Californians overlooking Sacramento’s rich history and bountiful activities in favor of maintaining its popular stereotype as a boring cow town. Comparing Sacramento to the Midwest should be considered a compliment, not an insult, they said, and those who mean it unfavorably reveal more about themselves than their characterization of Sacramento implies.

“I think it is one of those things that’s meant to be demeaning, but is not demeaning at all,” Baumann said. “The Midwest is a great place to live with good, hard-working people, and those are true characteristics of Sacramentans.”

California-committed

It might be easy to see an article asking people to reminisce on and, perhaps, romanticize the Midwest, as an argument to return there. But for various reasons, all of these Midwest transplants chose to return to the Central Valley.

So what drew them back? The near-daily sunshine is a major plus, they said, and California’s general proximity to outdoor activities among mountains, lakes and trails is what keeps many here.

“I’ll take a 100-degree day in Sacramento over 80 degrees with Chicago humidity,” Burg said. “There are many things that I miss (about the Midwest). Weather isn’t it.”

Not that living in California doesn’t come with its own pitfalls — everything from groceries to gas is more expensive. Some said they miss the region’s brick architecture and fervent football culture.

There’s also the fires. Last fall, Moore seriously considered moving back to Wisconsin during Northern California’s series of wildfires, frustrated by another year of being trapped inside by smoke and ash and dreaming of peaceful Midwest summers.

“Having to sit at home and watch the sky turn orange … it was frustrating,” Moore said. “But once the fires died down, my roommate and I (went) trail running. We went up near Tahoe one day and ... I think I sort of quelled the homesickness by reminding myself why I live in California in the first place.”

Kay has long abandoned the fight to convince Sacramento naysayers of the city’s appeal. If they want to disparage Sacramento by comparing it to the Midwest, she said, so be it, if it means less people will come into the city and raise home prices.

“I used to get frustrated about it, and I would try to explain why Sacramento has cool things. I’m like, ‘You just don’t know where the good stuff is.’ But then I realized I didn’t want to share Sacramento,” Kay laughed. “All they’ve been doing is raising the prices. Stay wherever you are with your negative attitude. We don’t want you here!”

Perhaps Sacramento’s resemblance to the Midwest is mostly in the eye of the beholder. But in my bid to parse out just how closely the two areas match each other, I found myself finding reasons other Californians should appreciate Sacramento.

“Joan Didion, Lady Bird or other Sacramento natives would not take ‘Sacramento is the Midwest of California’ as a compliment,” Burg said. “But as a Midwestern native and Sacramentan by choice, I certainly would.”

This story was originally published January 31, 2021 at 5:00 AM.