California is more than just the coast, DUUUUUUUDE
Just like how New York is not just NYC
Lies! Cease your lies and chicanery!
but the international image will always be NYC = NY
The only thing up north is reservoirs, casinos, broken dreams, and snow. Even Niagra Falls is mostly in Canada. Canada could straight up occupy half the state and I'm not sure we'd bother to get the military involved.
IAdd Washington and Oregon (also Nevada, because why not add the deserts of Vegas to parched California?) and I could see a general Western Seaboard nation...
That's that "Cascadia" thingamabob I see every so often, I think. Meh. I guess it's better off than most wannabe state-nations, since it has some sort of cohesiveness about it, but it's just... boring. I guess that's why it's together.
Not many places could be independent successfully. Ironically, NYC could manage as a Singapore-lite by importing food and establishing a fee to cross the border (the money from commuters alone would be glorious), but about a quarter of our stuff comes from being the Financial Capital of the country, and you can't be the Financial Capital of the country when you aren't in the country. I could conceive of redesigning the economy to reduce dependency on the rest of the country and take advantage of what would essentially become poor American migrant workers and put them to work along those lines, but why bother? Too expensive, and the protection of the US military is very nice.