City name: California
City size: 0.24 Square Miles
Population: 83
Median income: $59,458
Median home value: $102,925
Mayor: Emma Neises
Incorporated: 1874
California is the least populous incorporated city in Northern Kentucky, with only 83 residents living on 0.24 square miles.
The city was founded in 1849 and named after the Gold Rush that was going on in the state of California at the time. It was officially incorporated as a city in 1874.
Today, the city’s only entrance and exit is hidden past railroad tracks. After crossing them, California takes shape, with four streets, a small park, a city building, a Methodist Church and a post office alongside homes. There’s also a little public boat dock that operates in the summer months.
Emma Neises is California’s mayor. At 82, Neises has served on the city’s board since she was 24, including three terms as mayor.
While on the phone from her Okeechobee, Florida home, Neises said she doesn’t have any competition for office. She said you have to beg people to fill vacant spots on the board.
Neises and her husband vacation in the sunshine state for about a month at a time in colder months and rent their house out there during the summer.
Neises’s dad was born in the city and lived there his entire life. She followed in his footsteps and has stayed in the town where she was born and raised.
Faith Martini is Neises’s great-niece. Martini’s dad was born and raised in the city like his aunt, and Martini lived with him for 22 years, until this past year when she bought a house in Latonia.
“It wasn’t so much that I wanted to move out of California. I just felt obligated; I couldn’t stay with my dad anymore having more kids,” said Martini, who is pregnant with her second child. “If I could have found a house in California, I would have bought it because there’s just not a better place to raise kids. I was sad that I had to leave.”
With a median home value of $102,925, California could be considered an affordable place to live for some people, especially with the median income per household being above the state average at $59,458; however, the four streets of California aren’t necessarily booming with for-sale signs. Especially once the “for-lifers” take occupancy.
“But our problem is we’ve got so many households that are just one single person that lives there, or maybe just a couple,” Neises said. “The city used to be full of kids, and now, of course, a lot of us are older, and our kids are grown. But a lot of our kids have stayed here instead of leaving. Mine both live here. One lives next door to me and one around the corner.”
What makes the smallest city in Northern Kentucky a great place to live?
“If you have a problem, we’ll be right there to help you,” Neises said. “Summertime, it’s beautiful. I had many people come in and say, ‘you know, you live in paradise.’ Wintertime. It looks like wintertime.”
Martini said she is still at her dad’s house every weekend.
“When I was growing up, it’s always been one of those places where you can just let your kid out, and they can just run around and play, or you come home when the streetlights turn on,” Martini said. “You don’t have to worry about where they’re at the entire time. Everybody knows everybody, so it still happens. I still see kids just out roaming.”
With only 83 residents, the question of why California remains its own city arises.
“We like to be individual and the city next to us, which is Mentor, everybody just kind of likes to have our own individual little cities,” Neises said. “And if we map them off, each city has got their own little area.”
There’s no doubt of the fondness for the city from the people who live there.
“My one friend lives there. She, on her 50th wedding anniversary, got up and was giving a speech at the little party they had, and she said that was the best thing her husband ever did for her was bring her to California,” Neises said. “I thought that was really neat because she was on the town board for years, and she worked her butt off too.”
