Kim - yes I do feel lucky - I will give you that. My own little part of America feels relatively safe. I must admit I live in a small town surrounded by other small towns. To me California seems a lot different than my neck of the woods - but I don't really know. Some of the witnesses described Poway as being a small town where you would run into familiar people at many places - like the gas station, stores, you get the drift. I dunno though - doesn't seem that way to a gal from a real small town.
To me California seems a lot different than my neck of the woods - but I don't really know. Some of the witnesses described Poway as being a small town where you would run into familiar people at many places - like the gas station, stores, you get the drift. I dunno though - doesn't seem that way to a gal from a real small town. San Diego is something like the sixth largest city in the US. San Diego County is about 2.9 million souls, and Poway is a suburb of the city of San Diego.
It seems natural that Poway would be described by locals as having a "small town" nature. They mean that in the sense of having a community identity--strip malls, little league, schools, churches, similar neighborhoods and of course eating places and bars..
In old fashioned American small towns, it often meant families which had lived nearby for generations. That is not the case in Poway, which is largely made up of subdivision homes & condos, built in the last 30 years.
If I recall, the Van Dams are not originally from California. I'm fairly sure that the patterns of suburban sprawl of California, are taking place in many other places, too.