I don't know Jon, Oroville is a very nice area. Once you get north of Sacramento, it is fairly conservative but still just as expensive.
I think that just about ANYWHERE outside the bigger cities in California, folks are very real, very AMERICAN.
As a young, dumb GI, I got treated better in Salinas, CA (and Southern AZ) than anywhere I was stationed. I was scum in most places, but in Salinas, the community took care of me and treated me like a neighbor and a friend. Monterey, Seaside, not much different, except maybe INdifferent, which was actually better than being profiled as a lowlife because of how I cut my hair. Wherever I went in CA, I was treated well by GOOD people. I did, of course, avoid the cities as much as possible.