Newsletter: Essential California: For all of Irvine’s diversity and success, some residents still feel like outsiders

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Tuesday, May 30, and here’s what’s happening across California:

TOP STORIES

Melting pot

Irvine is often cited as a model for diversity and success, a booming city of great schools, manicured neighborhoods and an ethnic, albeit elite, melting pot. But even in this “mini-United Nations,” diversity sometimes brings strain. For recent immigrants, it can be hard to fit in to the Irvine ideal. Some feel self-conscious about their heavy accents, while others talk about encounters with the occasional longtime resident who resents the influx of Asians and other immigrants. For white residents, the boom has brought much to like — rising home values, stellar test scores and an explosion of ethnic restaurants, cultural celebrations and retail spaces that have brought international sophistication to a place once known as cookie-cutter suburbia. But some also think it might all be too much, too fast. Los Angeles Times

Deadly river

Over the Memorial Day weekend, three people died and 24 were rescued in multiple incidents along the Kern River. Five more were rescued from other nearby rivers. The exceedingly wet winter has returned the 165-mile Kern, California’s 10th-longest river and a favorite among whitewater rafting enthusiasts, to a power not seen in years. Los Angeles Times

Where are the women going?

For half a century after World War II, women barreled into the job market in numbers that surged higher every year. They drove most of the rise in real household income for decades and boosted the economy’s total output at a time when men were dropping out of the job market. Then, all of a sudden, they stopped. Since 2000, the share of women working in their prime earning years has declined. Los Angeles Times

Giving back

Gyasi Zardes is a star on the soccer field. But his biggest difference might be on the harsh streets of Hawthorne, where Zardes is making the biggest difference. It’s where the Galaxy forward inspired construction of three futsal courts, transforming a park once overrun by derelicts and drug dealers into a refuge for kids with nowhere else to go. It’s where he mentors at-risk high school students and Special Olympic athletes and has handed out thousands of dollars worth of soccer equipment — once taking the custom-made cleats off his own feet and giving them to a shy boy before driving home barefoot. Los Angeles Times

L.A. STORIES

Food help: L.A. County officials are expanding their efforts to get more people in need signed up for food assistance. But this has proven difficult in the past. Los Angeles Times

New era: A very fancy house symbolizes the new Highland Park. Los Angeles Times

Here’s looking at you: A historic hangar at Van Nuys Airport — immortalized in an iconic scene in “Casablanca” — has been saved from the wrecking ball for now. Daily News

No Jaws: Shark sightings along the coast didn’t stop big crowds from coming to the beach this warm Memorial Day weekend. “If they are around, we don’t see them a lot. We just enjoy the fact that they let us play in their ocean.” Orange County Register

Tech dud: A co-working space in Santa Monica, which became a key meeting place for the Silicon Beach tech crowd, is closing after a dispute over a terrace and missed rent. Los Angeles Times

Skate park woes: Why it’s been such a struggle for San Pedro’s “underground” skate park to reopen. Daily Breeze

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Divided we stand: Democrats in California are increasingly divided over education policy, a clash that pits charter schools against teachers’ unions. San Francisco Chronicle

Valley fever: Silicon Valley’s housing crisis might be a threat to the region’s innovative culture. Mercury News

Catching on: The idea of free community college tuition is spreading rapidly across Southern California. Daily Bulletin

CRIME AND COURTS

Tough challenge: Sacramento’s new police chief inherits a department reeling from several controversial incidents and a need for change. Sacramento Bee

Death alley: Six people have died on one Central California highway in recent months. What can be done to make it safer? Fresno Bee

ENVIRONMENT AND NATURE

Attack: Dramatic video shows a great white shark attacking a kayaker in Monterey Bay. SF Gate

Bridge too far: Looking back on the plan in the 1950s to build a huge bridge across Lake Tahoe, which could have created a population the size of San Francisco. Sacramento Bee

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Times change: Two decades ago, “Baywatch” was a campy and potent pop culture symbol of the L.A. beach lifestyle. But its reboot bombed big time, and there’s a lesson here for Hollywood. Forbes

The review: How “Baywatch” owns its dumbness. Los Angeles Times

Plus: On a higher-brow note, the winners from Cannes. Los Angeles Times

“Homeless Plaza”?: Horton Plaza in downtown San Diego was once a symbol for urban renewal and a model for upscale development in central cities. Now, some say it’s turned into “Homeless Plaza.” San Diego Union-Tribune

Hot pot: The Bay Area foodie scene has a new cuisine — the type where the dishes are stuffed with pot. The Cannifornian

Melting museum: And yes, the downtown L.A. ice cream museum is becoming a thing. BuzzFeed

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

It’ll be partly cloudy to mostly cloudy in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Sacramento today and Wednesday. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Craig Thornbury:

“I was born in Hermosa Beach in 1959 at a small private hospital on Pacific Coast Highway. Rumor has it that the hospital was closed shortly thereafter for performing, at that time, illegal medical procedures — the family joke being that I just squeaked by. No joke, or a very bad one to say the least. I never saw Hermosa Beach until some 50 years later. I looked for the address on Highway 1 and found that it had become a retirement home. Although I am considerably short of retirement age, at least I know I have options. Some circle of life, eh?”

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.