Tonight, Charlie Gibson anchors World News from California, which has been on the front lines of the recession. ABC's Stu Schutzman reports from Los Angeles:
From 1,000 feet above Southern California's so called Inland Empire, you can see the ravages of this recession first hand. Town after town, Pomona, Covina, West Covina, Ontario and on to San Bernardino, the evidence is stunning. Empty parking lots at the local Ikea or Target. People who flocked here believing it was the land of ultimate opportunity are now packing up the pick-up in the front yard heading somewhere -- anywhere there's a job they'll tell you.
But the most striking scenes from the air are the backyard swimming pools. In some neighborhoods, pool after pool on street after street are the same danky, dark green hue; a sure sign of foreclosure. State officials periodically fly over, as we did this morning, cataloging the areas of high concentration. Teams of exterminators and fumigators are then dispatched to prevent these once thriving neighborhoods from turning into public health hazards. It's a measure of where this place was and how far down it has gone.
People here blame incompetent government, greed and some even blame themselves for believing the bubble would never burst. We talked to a group of Californians today all facing hard times. What some of them have to say could be quite instructive for the rest of us. Tune in.
