for more on this idea, we're joined by nbc bay area political analyst larry gerston.is iteration? >> it all depends on how you think about it, california has 38 million residents. that's more than a lot of countries. really the second most populated state is texas at 25 million. then you think about the fact that in terms of calculating size, it's eclipsed only by alaska and texas, third largest state in the texas. if you think about california's thousand-mile coast line that's surpassed only by alaska and florida. we're talking big here. you put all those facts together and, you know, some people, yeah, they think that this state is just too big to meet the needs of its varied population. >> we have heard this idea come up before. it's not a novelty. my question would have to be, what needs to happen to actually effectuate this kind of change? >> well, first, a little history here. ever since california became a state there, have been more than 200 of these efforts. some consider them kind of wacky, but nonetheless, serious efforts to break the state up. currently th

nbc area political analyst larry gerston joins us.nk you for being in this morning, nice to see you. >> sure. >> so what does this official declaration mean? usually it means that there are resources that can be freed up. >> there are resources. for example, the governor is hiring more people to fight fires. he's allowed local water districts more latitude in determining when and how they want to restrict the use of water. and finally there's this whole question of federal resources. once you do this, the federal government frees up resources, whether it's aid, material, money for firefighting, you name it. so the state moves into an area the governor would not like to have done because it does create a sense of urgency for people. but nonetheless the time has come, the support for what he's doing is there and now we just have to sit back and do the rain dance. >> what would be the downside of declaring a drought emergency? sometimes we see officials like hold off until the last possible minute. >> you don't want to create a sense of

nbc bay area political analyst larry gerston joins us to discuss the clash of cultures and potentialand to you. first time. >> it's going to be a good year. so what's the issue here? we hear a lot of grumbling coming out of san francisco and on the other side folks saying, people, we need jobs. >> even good things have a bad side sometimes, the best things. san francisco mayor ed lee and the board of supervisors, they have done a bang-up job, kris, in terms of attracting dozens of new high-tech businesses led by the likes of twitter, salesports.com, zynga, yelp, the list goes on and on. these companies have brought a tremendous amount of wealth to the city with thousands of employ is making pretty good salaries. >> clearly, though, there's fallout because people say a lot of those tech workers, they're young and hip and want to live in the city and they have plenty of money to do that. >> they do, and that gets to the other side of this high-tech boom, if you will. most people, they like to live, we all do, as close to work as possible. that's created a huge problem for the city, whi