With all due respect, you live in Houston. Houston, FFS dude. If it cost me 5 times as much to live here compared to Houston, I'd pay it. Life is short. I'd be bummed-out if I had to land in the Houston airport for a flight change-over. I'd be worried that something would eff-up and I'd have to spend a night there or something. That is one horse schit American city. You really should not throw stones.

None of the things you mention affect my life one iota. State govt.? Who gives a fk. I'm not on welfare, they can cut services all they want.

I'm unemployed today, this has been my morning so far:

Oh look, they're shooting "Californication" on my street! Ratty Porsche, hot chicks standing around, yup. That's what it is...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274809918.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274809950.jpg

Shot those pics from my car window, must get to coffee now. I can not start day w/o Peet's coffee. Here is my view at this moment:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274810077.jpg

You can have Houston and your bargain basement prices, pardner...:cool:

Hey, I think Denis and I had lunch at at Zpizza a while back. But he's a unique position of being able to be apathetic about the state's condition. He doesn't work a regular W2 job, so he's not affected when the state decides to increase tax witholdings without raising taxes, just to steal an interest-free loan from the taxpayers. He keeps his car registered in MN, so it doesn't matter if a few MVD or smog locations close down. Try to do business with state agencies, however, and you'll see it can be difficult when all your contacts are furloughed on the days you're in their areas. This happens to me regularly when I come to CA on business. See how you feel when the state mails you an IOU instead of a check for your work.

Since I sold the 996, everything I drive is registered here. Do I like spending $68.00 for a smog every 2 years? No but really, this affects my life for one hour every 2 years. I could go on and on, I guess different strokes for different folks.

Your new hood ornament...


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274812445.jpg
Dennis makes a good argument...

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BADZW9tZ1uc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BADZW9tZ1uc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

I did a stop over in the houston airport once, it wasn't bad at all.

I love Orange County but I think I'd rather live in downtown houston than in downtown L.A.
It's good that I know which side of the Orange curtain I belong on.

Denis, you are an unabashed cheerleader for LA. I might have to take you up on that "spend 2 hours with me" deal because I don't get to see your view of things.

It's been 15 years since I lived out of CA and I can say that I've forgotten what it was like. But, I'm here, not there, so there must have been a reason to be here.

I do know something about the San Joaquin and Central Valley. I'm not there and won't be. I'll go back to Vegas before I live there.

Last comment: like you, Denis, I feel very little of the effects of CA politics except, like you, I'm unemployed. And I think our State of affairs has a LOT to do with that.

Not surprised - I was at a conference in Houston and talked with a few local Chinese immigrants. They have a critical mass, but it isn't like Monterey Park as far as I could tell. And the rest of Texas?

burnin..i go to mariposa to hunt. turkey and deer. i know some landowners up there. if this weather ever drys up, i have to go up there "to pay back" some generosity. i am going up there with my weed wacker, for some grass cutting. maybe next week. it will be hell.

i go all the way up 99 and take a left in merced at hwy 140. there is a back way?

oh, who mention houston? is houston cool? i havent been there since my dad's cancer treatment days. it was no vacation. sucked actually.

I bicycle year round. I can own any kind of firearm I want, legally. August doesn't bother me, as long as I don't have to shovel snow in the winter as well. I can build pretty much what I want, where I want. Freedom is the word. If the government were more like here, I'd probably pick New England.

I lived in San Diego for 3 years. I could have stayed, nothing forced me to leave. But as we were starting a business, California made it very difficult and expensive. I was quite happy to leave.

You guys concentrate on the weather. Is that the most important thing in life? Seriously? For the price of my 1400 sq ft townhouse in California, I own a great house in a great part of Houston and have enough money to also own a 200+ acre ranch, about 1.5 hours from here. I can fish, hunt, swim, etc. I have a business that is thriving in a down economy. It would be dead in SoCal.

Hot? When I lived in San Diego, if you drove 20 miles inland it would be 100+. What was San Diego and LA like before irrigation, again? What happened in the past year when they cut off the water to the California farms?

If I was homeless and living on welfare, etc, yes, I'd rather live in California. Otherwise it will be Texas, or maybe Arizona.

The climate, along with the breathtaking natural beauty, is a huge factor in creating the culture here. The nascent motion picture industry relocated here from New York in the beginning of the 20th century largely because of the unique quality of the light here. It is different from other places, (some of which also have beautiful natural light, to be fair), and ideal for photography. Particularly back in the olden days when natural light had to be depended on more.

This attracted other things like capital and lots of beautiful girls, a new and unique culture sprang-up in and round the film industry. The bulk of the recording industry eventually wound up here as well, though not for reasons related to the climate.

As everyone knows by now, WW2 saw an unprecedented explosion of manufacturing capacity here, mostly in the aerospace industry but also in munitions and ship building. Many returning soldiers and sailors fell in love with SoCal and stayed here to work and raise families. This population explosion, and related economic growth can definitely be tied to the climate and natural beauty of the place.

It is impossible to separate these things from the culture at large, here. The same way that it's impossible to separate the ugliness and horrible climate of other places from their lack of magnetic appeal to people from around the world. Yes, it's very populous here.

Down boy, down. You're starting to froth at the mouth. ;)

"...unique quality of light..."

How can you footnote something like that?? :)

Sorry, it's a well-known fact. The film industry located here because of it.

All kidding aside, the "unique quality of light" in LA is due to the smog. I'm in Denver right now, and when the sun goes down it goes from light to dark in a minute, I meant digital, on/off. In LA you get very beautiful sunsets with lots of red color in the sky; it's the smog.

Hey, Denis said they came from NY to LA a little before smog. You want consistent sunny days, go to S. NV. There is a bar in Boulder City that has a sign outside that says,

"A free drink to anyone any day that the sun doesn't shine."

I never got a free drink in a year living there.

Oh, well, maybe Hollywood likes overcast days. Then they should have gone to Seattle. ;)

Thank you Hugh. Someone needs to get Denis out of LA from time to time to see what real air looks like! :)

when you have a nice place, it draws alot of people. when you have mass amounts of people, you have corporations capitalizing on the people like vultures...which brings inflated property costs, wallmarts, dollar general, starbucks, home depots, lowes, a wallgreens on every corner etc....eventually what made the place nice and unique, is gone....the history disappears

i love california and always hoped to live there, but like NYC and its surrounding areas, i can not afford to own a decent house with a garage...so, screw it. gentrification has taken over, so screw it.

those of you that managed to figure out how to live in california comfortably and happily, i do envy you.

i think i was born at the wrong time...way too late.

I actually was there when it was rainy and snowy all day this past January. And Boulder City is one of the few places whose gun laws are worse than KA's. Boulder City exempts itself from NV's state preemption law and plenty of folks from AZ have found themselves in big trouble passing through there between Hoover Dam and Vegas. Boulder City is one big speed trap and with a gun-grabbing police force.

How as a city do you exclude yourself from a state pre-emption law?

That doesn't even make any kind of sense. If it is illegal each and every conviction (if not arrest) should be tossed out on it's ear.

Let it go.

And, "gentrification"?? Hmmmm.... that's not quite how I see it.

But, if you saw Long Beach vistas during the broadcast of the LB Grand Prix or the mountains behind Pasadena during the Rose Parade coverage, then we look better than we are. How about last Sunday's live coverage of the Tour de CA bike race? Man, those roads we did the Thanksgiving run on never looked that good to me.

Thanks to the marvels of TV production and directing.

Anyway, the landscape can be pretty good. So, the prices reflect.

The land scape in Pa is equally gorgeous, but without as many socialists, very little smog, and much lower prices. :)

http://www.destination360.com/north-.../s/poconos.jpg

http://bluemountin.net/images/mounta...ns_250x251.jpg