For decades, the story of California’s economy has been told from the coast outward. Silicon Valley, Hollywood, the ports of Los Angeles and the Bay Area — these places have defined the state’s image of innovation, wealth, and global influence. The Central Valley, by contrast, has often been cast as the reliable but secondary engine: the place that grows the food, provides the labor, and absorbs the housing overflow from more expensive coastal metros.
That narrative is incomplete. And it is beginning to change.