that's part of it.
The endless supply of fresh potable water is also nice. Just give it another 50 years and the wars will be over fresh water instead of oil. I'll defend the Great Lakes basin to the end. Not sure why civilization ever decided that building cities in the desert and then re-directing the water supply was a good idea.
I agree. But, if you're making reference to Los Angeles, (The City of the Angels) ... this was never a desert.
The first Europeans to enter the Los Angeles basin was the Portola Expedition with Father Crespi serving as the expedition's journalist. Crespi stated, from his journal, upon entering the LA Basin "... After traveling about a league and a half through a pass between low hills we entered a very spacious valley, well grown with cottonwoods and alders, among which ran a beautiful river from north-northwest, and then, doubling the point of a steep hill, it went on afterward to the south. ... As soon as we arrived, about eight heathen from a good village came to visit us; they live in this delightful place among the trees on the river."
The party left "this delightful place" the following morning. Although there were three earthquakes during their brief stay, Crespi noterd that the location had "all the requisites for a large settlement." Crespi also stated that he was surprised by the colors of the wild roses growing everywhere and that the abundance of grapes made the valley equal to a vineyard.
The importation of water was based upon the greed of a few, but powerful landowners realizing that by plowing under the Citrus trees and subdividing the San Fernando Valley for homes, the landowners would make tons of money. The landowners convinced the Los Angeles to secretly buy the water rights from a valley running off the Southern Sierra Nevada and then construct an aquaduct hundreds of miles long just so they would get richer. An audacious plan which worked.
Other California water projects transports water from Northern California, (in which two-thirds of the water in California is located), all the way down to Southern California, (which has two-thirds of the population). All along the way this water is irrigating California's Central Valley which products more food per acre than anywhere else in the world, making agriculture California #1 industry (remember that California has the eighth largest economy in the world, so California's agriculture is truly significant on a world-wide basis.)
Gary
PS- Another answer ... how about weather? Coastal SoCal has some of the best, if not the best weather in the world, for comfortable human habitation (period). :tongue:
G