Nestled between two mountain ranges at the crook of central California’s coastline sits a valley known as the “salad bowl of the world”.
asserted
valley → nestle → world
Farm workers stoop over neatly lined rows of crops off Highway 101 to harvest more than half of the nation’s supply of lettuce and nearly a third of its strawberries.
asserted
workers → stoop → strawberries
The soil here is so rich that author John Steinbeck made the Salinas valley the promised land in his literary depictions of people chasing the American dream: immigrants, farm workers, westward-moving hopefuls, hungering for a better life.
asserted
valley → make → life
It’s a story that continues to capture the American imagination: Netflix has adapted Steinbeck’s 1952 blockbuster novel, East of Eden, into a limited series starring Florence Pugh, released 1 October.
asserted
Netflix → ’ → Pugh
“This will be a valley of great richness one day,” Steinbeck wrote of the farmland in East of Eden.
asserted
Steinbeck → write → Eden
“And happy people will live here, thousands and thousands.”
asserted
people → live → ?
But Steinbeck also understood just how difficult it can be to achieve that elusive American dream.
asserted
it → understand → dream
Even after some his characters found their way to Salinas and other parts of California’s agricultural valley, many remained stuck in low-paying jobs, making barely enough to scrape by, let alone own their own land.
asserted
many → find → land
That reality persists in the Salinas of today – an area at the sharp edge of a national affordability crisis that is reshaping politics across the US, and much of the rest of the world.
asserted
that → persist → world
A recent Brookings Institution analysis found that Salinas is the least affordable city in the US for the middle class, defined as the middle 60% of income earners.
asserted
Salinas → find → earners
Nearly 60% of the middle class in the Salinas area – which spans households making $38,000 to $193,000 – can’t afford basic necessities, double the national average, according to the analysis.
uncertain
which → span → analysis
And for Salinas’s Latino middle class, which make up 40% of all middle-class households, three-quarters struggle to afford everyday life.
asserted
quarters → make → life
Residents specifically say that homeownership, the modern symbol of the American dream, is out of reach.
asserted
homeownership → say → reach
It’s an issue that is playing out across the country: half of all renter households and about a quarter of homeowner households spend more than 30% of their income on housing, according to the latest data from the US census.
uncertain
half → ’ → census
“It really calls in question: what is the middle class?” said Andre Perry, a senior fellow at Brookings who oversaw the study.
asserted
who → call → study
Many towns like Salinas that served as havens for the middle class are now out of reach.
asserted
towns → serve → reach
“People go to Salinas as a reprieve from San Francisco and some of these high-priced cities, but in actuality, they’re finding it more difficult to live,” he said.
asserted
he → go → actuality
Solutions are not easy to come by.
asserted
Solutions → come → ?
The rising cost of living has torn Salinas apart.
asserted
cost → rise → Salinas
New housing has grown at a snail’s pace, and a rent-stabilization policy has bitterly divided residents.
asserted
policy → grow → residents
If life in places like Salinas becomes too expensive for American families, where do they go next?
asserted
they → become → families
‘Everything’s changed’
asserted
Everything → change → ?
Steinbeck had a conflicted relationship with his home town, said Gavin Jones, chair of the English department at Stanford University and a Steinbeck scholar, one that he often reflected in his writing.
asserted
he → have → writing
For many of Steinbeck’s characters, California and its farmland ultimately prove to be gutting disappointments after everything they sacrificed to get there.
asserted
they → prove → everything
“It’s kind of the promised land.
asserted
It → ’ → land
It’s this realm of richness,” said Jones of the role Salinas played in Steinbeck’s magnum opus.
asserted
Salinas → ’ → opus
“But then of course, it’s also a fallen paradise …
asserted
it → ’ → course
it’s not quite Eden, it’s east of Eden.”
asserted
it → ’ → Eden
Steinbeck was born to a solidly middle-class family and was raised in a turreted, Victorian-style house that still stands just a few blocks away from Salinas’s downtown.
asserted
that → bear → downtown
He was long critical of the hypocrisy and “underbelly” he saw in his social demographic, Jones said, and worked alongside immigrant workers on nearby farms while dropping in and out of Stanford University.
asserted
Jones → see → University
Steinbeck was also “very American” in his idealized vision of social mobility, ascendancy and agency, Jones added, and would have likely been outraged at the affordability struggles many still face in the US, accentuated by the increasingly “K-shaped economy” with the rich getting richer as the poor slide down the other side.
asserted
poor → add → side
“One wonders if the conditions are that much different today in the central valley, especially for agricultural workers … from the conditions that Steinbeck represented in the 1930s,” Jones said.
asserted
Jones → wonder → 1930s
Gaye Freedman, 75, and her husband had been searching for somewhere affordable to live for years before they moved to Salinas in 2017, where their son was raising a baby as a single dad.
asserted
son → search → dad
Though they passed up more affordable cities in northern California, the beautiful, year-round weather – cool, foggy mornings that give way to balmy afternoons – as well as proximate medical care for older adults made their decision easier.
asserted
decision → pass → adults
But Freedman, who earned a doctorate degree in educational psychology from the University of Southern California, was unable to find much work in Salinas that paid much beyond minimum wage.
asserted
that → earn → wage
She currently works part-time at a school.
asserted
She → work → school
Between part-time jobs and social security, Freedman and her husband make about $75,000 total and pay $1,850 for their one-bedroom apartment, which became a rent-stabilized unit in 2024.
asserted
which → make → 2024
After rent and Medicare payments, they don’t have much left to spare on groceries, gas and unexpected maintenance on their 14-year-old car.
asserted
they → have → car
The balance on their credit card, she said, keeps climbing.
asserted
she → say → card
“This is the first time in my life I’ve actually had to think about what I’m cooking, because I can’t afford to cook what I usually would,” she said.
asserted
she → have → what
…and 57 more, not listed.
The Aporia
