Why palm trees were planted along the coast of California

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If you've lived on the coast of California sometime in the last 100 years, you've seen a lot of palm trees. In fact, for many people, it's hard to imagine San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, even all of the way to San Francisco, without them. But if you like looking at old photos, like I do, you can see that these places looked very different at one time.

And it all has to do with Real Estate. Because in order to get people to invest in real estate, you have to assure them that they will have water. Nowadays, of course, other than some water conservation, people don't give much thought to water. They turn a tap and get water for coffee. They brush their teeth at night, all the way along the California coast. Yes, it's precious, but no one nowadays really decides not to invest in a property in San Diego for fear or having no water. At all. But it used to be like that.

The tremendous engineering that has been done in California has made it possible for millions of people to live along the coast. But that really wasn't enough to sell Real Estate. The land had to look like it had water. Look at old photos. This land was dry dirt and scrub land. So how do you make a desert look inviting? Yes! An oasis! Plant some palm trees, some tropical plants, flowers, etc. That's a visual that says *plenty of water! No worries! Invest here!*

It worked!


Public domain image by photographer Ken Kistler

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