Wanna be the test case? Car carry is legal in NV with no permit. Get caught doing it in Boulder City or North Las Vegas and you will go to jail and lose the gun. It's very well known in AZ. Lots of folks learned the hard way. Hey, open carry is legal in KA too. Wanna try that?

If there is a state pre-emption law why is the NRA not all over Boulder like spit on stink?

ANY time Philly tries to pass a law in conflict with the Pa State connie wrt gun laws the law gets stricken down as if god himself tossed the lightning bolt.

i have let it go. if i win the lotto though, i will be buying a nice house in california. though probably in big sur or san diego.

how you dont see gentrification, im not quite sure. im not familiar enough with the neighborhoods of LA to point it out to you (Echo Park, perhaps..?) but i know its alot like NY...see for example, Williamsburg 10 or even 5 years ago, or SOHO 30 years ago....the wealthy buy up everything and push the middle class out to the edge until they are living in kansas

what once was CBGB's is now a John Varvatos store....because the wealthy landlord wants it that way. yea i know, things change and life goes on...get over it...

i agree, the landscape in california is second to none in this country, with the exception of hawaii

Saw a guy open carrying at Blockbuster on Larchmont the other night. Had a long conversation with him, wish I had my camera with me. Young Asian guy, transplant from Seattle. He said that he'd much rather conceal carry but it's illegal. I was sure that he must have been one of those protesters that we've all read about who open carry in CA. and basically challenge the cops to eff with them. He wasn't.

I asked him if the cops ever jacked him up. No, he said. His Glock was unloaded but he had two full magazines on his belt. At first I thought that he was an undercover detective or something, (young rocker-looking guy), then it occurred to me that undercover would not have open carry gun on belt. It was a little surreal. :cool:

LA is a hole. It's a schit-pit. No desire to go back there. If I ever moved back to CA I'd either go to the north central coast (SLO, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, somewhere in that area), to the mountain areas out near the Sierras or to Palos Verdes - assuming I didn't have to commute into the city, possibly Orange County (parts of it, other parts are far too crowded and undesirable). I've done LA and I've done Long Beach and we spent a long time looking at San Diego (I had a job offer there, which I eventually turned down).

And I don't see the presence of the film industry as necessarily a good thing. Yes, it's an economic engine to some extent (however many parts are getting siphoned away by other states/countries with far more lucrative tax incentives) but it has given rise to several generations of bratty, self-absorbed, narcissistic, egotistical people who are actually convinced that being an "entertainer" (or being peripherally connected with them) is somehow important. And of course you can add all the various "unintended consequences" it has brought like drug addictions, alcoholism, the popularization of broken families and lack of moral direction (divorces, adultery, etc. are simply accepted as normal). Take a drive through the side streets off of Sunset Boulevard sometime and watch all the washed-up people with broken dreams living in their cars. Lured by "the industry", told that "yes, you too can be a millionaire without doing any real work or putting any effort into it!", then used, discarded. Oh well, it keeps the supply of local diner wait staffs well-stocked I suppose.

For one, I never had ANY interest in getting involved with film or (ugh) television. I prefer to live in the real world, dealing with real people, solving real problems and making real differences in peoples' lives, not creating faux realities that dumb down peoples' sensibilities. I've had enough people from "the industry" as clients over the years to be able to clearly identify a pattern of seriously distorted views of reality and major psychological baggage. I can count the number down-to-earth, well-adjusted individuals with their "feet on the ground" from this group on one hand. The rest were seriously screwed-up to some degree and almost all of them had egos way out of line with anything they were ever capable of producing or what their real worth is/was.

Are there valuable/noble/noteworthy things that have come out of Hollywood? Sure there are. But the vast majority is garbage. Junk. Useless pablum. And somehow the people who manufacture this rubbish constantly pat themselves on the back and engage in regular and ritualistic self-congratulatory exercises to reward one anothers' egos because of the wonderful and significant contributions they're making to society. It's quite hilarious and disgusting at the same time. I see enough similar behavior in my own profession (there are plenty of self-promotional, egotistical architects out there who design garbage too, and who strut around thinking their poo don't stink). Nowhere is it as blatant and shameless as in Hollywood though. As I've said - I had no interest in being connected with it, opportunity for making money or not. You can't put a price on self-respect.

It's okay though - in 50 years most of "the industry" will have been driven from CA by the tax structure anyway. It's already trending that way...

California has been very good to me. It has provided me with a very rewarding job (I will forever be humbly indebted to the taxpayers who pay my salary and will finance my retirement when I turn 50), a very good business (landlording), the most terrific wife a man could ever wish for (Thanks Santa Ana!), and many, many dependable, loyal, trustworthy friends.

but...

In California, I always feel that the split second that I "ease up" or "slow down", someone is bearing down on me, ready to run over me and destroy me. I have felt like that for the last 20 years that I have lived here...

I was a Long Beach Cop for almost 12 years, including the early 90's during the crack epidemic. I worked 12 hour shifts in North Long Beach during the LA riots and witnessed the city burn... In 2002, I moved to a department with alot of money, thinking that it would improve my "outlook." It didn't. I don't have to deal with "diversity" and "culture" so much anymore, but I still feel the stress everyday, even on my days off. I work out an hour and a half EVERY SINGLE DAY just to try to keep the stress at bay...

In four years, I will sell off all of my schit in CA and move back home to suburban Cincinnati. I have enough money to pay cash for any house that I want to buy in any of the school districts that I want to send my kids to. My kids will NOT attend schools with a DIVERSE student body. The school district that we are leaning toward is over 97% white. (my kids are half white/half Hispanic). I have the money, I can decide where my kids go to school.

I was in Cincy for 4 days a couple of weeks ago. I can't even explain how relaxed and content I was...

I have many guns, including a Colt AR15. I'll probably give them all away to some of my young cop buddies when I leave. Except for my Stainless Colt .45 Combat Commander that I carried as my duty weapon at Long Beach. That gun saved my life. Twice. : )

I have been to CA scores of times. Used to live in Scottsdale and had to fly to LA at least once a month. Lots to like there, but like any big city lots to dislike.

Where I live isn't perfect. Summers in mid-south missouri will take your breath away if you haven't lived here for awhile. 90 degrees with 75% humidity will do that to you. But that is the extreme in late July/early August.

But what I do like is living in a town (50,000) where I can be walking downtown and run into several people I know. I can go home for lunch everyday as my commute is around 5 minutes. I see my daughter's teachers in the local stores or at church. The mayor and I are on a first name basis. Sure we don't have all the fancy "cultural" events that a big city has, but I can go watch the local 4th of July parade (this year I am in it) and probably see 100 people I know by their first name. Yesterday a client left my office (old 3 story limestone house on a tree lined street) and left her purse on the trunk of her car when she drove off. Person walking by saw what happened, picked it up and brought it into my office. Things like that never happened when I lived in Kansas City or Chicago.

P-O-P,

Having been born and raised in LA, I can say that you summed up the fim industry (or more correctly, the bulk of the people working in it) pretty well! Many of them have a truly distorted view of reality.

Silver,

Feel that there are a lot of people who feel that way. In fact a big part of what started our housing downfall 3-4 years ago here in Phoenix were people from Kali throwing in the towel and coming here and paying cash, sometimes 20-30% over list, to buy a house. Then the bubble burst and down it went.

Rot,

Really miss Missouri and the small towns but boy do not miss the humidity in the summer nor the ice rain in the winter. That said it sure is a nice place to live... and would go to a small town were I to return to the area again.

Joe A

Report from behind the lines:

Day two.


I've been here two days visiting the wife. Rainy rain. We've had several lengthy discussions about living here and I am getting more comfortable with it. Again, we'd only be living here for a couple months to a year and she is ok with my job hunting elsewhere.

This whole thing is kind of cool because I feel that the whole country is my hunting ground.

Sadly, I'm forced to look at the public sector for work as the bulk of my experience, training and education fall in the LE category. We'll see how it goes.
The wife and I agree that CA is not a good place to live in the longterm. She wants to finish school and get 2-3 years of RN experience under her before she feels comfortable with leaving.

I'm looking for jobs in the following areas:

ID, NH, CO, TX, and AZ.

It was wrong of me to flip out on California the way I did. If I offended anyone who loves their state, I apologize.
Yes, I collect, build and enjoy shooting firearms for sport and entertainment. Being freely able to do so and knowing the government is helpless to stop me as opposed to having to ask permission makes me feel good. It reinforces the notion that the government works for me and not the other way around. The 2nd Amendment is obviously important to me and I can accept that it is not equally so to others. But, CA's restrictive gun are only one aspect of what I feel constitutes a very irresponsible state that will shortly suffer for its policies.

Emigration is the most sincere form of flattery.

I suppose there are some isolated spots that used to be down trodden are now on the up. Downtown LA has 44,000 residents now as opposed to a 4th that a decade ago. But, the number of homeless hasn't declined and the blight just outside of DTLA is still there.

Whole cities are ghettos in LA County. There is and will never be gentrification at large.

In Long Beach, gays have taken the place of the sailors that lived off base when the Navy was here. By and large, the gays have at least kept up the place if not improved things. I suppose that's a form of gentrification. OTOH, we have the largest Cambodian population outside of Cambodia. There are vicious gangs. These folks live where there were once legions of Mid Western retirees.

AFA as the rest of the place, well according to the last info published by the US Census Bureau (probably 5 years old now), LB is the poorest city in the state for large cities and one of the top 10 in the country. If you could take the hillside wealth out of LA, I'm sure they would be right there with us.

No, I don't see gentrification beyond little pocket here and there. You can still buy a house in LA for way less than 200K if you would dare to live there.

Leland,

Would also throw Nevada into the search. New Mexico is also ok but not much there outside of ABQ area.

Joe A

Leeland you could have just been a cop here in any of the Philly suburb areas.

Having lived in both LA and Philly, Philly is way farther down on my list of cities I'd ever return to. But I work in the Film and TV industry, so my perception of reality may be distorted.

yes, evidently you're a narcissistic moron that won't grow up and get a real job :D

It's note worthy that all three of the really negative, "LA insider" comments above are from people who either currently or recently lived in Long Beach. One was a LB cop. This is not for your benefit but rather for the benefit of any outsiders who might be reading this and wondering which "truth" to believe here.

Los Angeles county is HUGE. Land-wise, it's thousands of square miles. Population-wise, maybe 20 million people(?) The actual city of Los Angeles is a very small fraction of L.A. county. The city of Long Beach is one the very edge of L.A. county at its southern and western border, it's a harbor city with the 2nd busiest port in the world, after the Los Angeles port, which is almost next to it. It has always been a gritty, working-class place. Even before the crack epidemic and modern gangs, it was sailors and dock workers, rough bars and guys getting cut with broken beer bottles in fights every night. In short, it's a schit-hole. Industrial areas are necessary if you want to have industry, (and everyone does), but the object of life is to make something of yourself so that you do not have to live in an industrial area. I mean, come on...

Long Beach has parts that are not complete ghettos and I assume that is where Milt and Porsche-o-phobia live or lived. But to compare any part of LB with any desirable address in Los Angeles is absurd. Milt is 100% incorrect with the assertion that Los Angeles would be in the bottom 10 U.S. cities w/o "Hillside wealth". A surprising statement from someone who has spent some time up here. There is a staggering, mind-boggling volume of wealth in Los Angeles and southern Cal in general. For every mile of industrial schit hole, I can show you a mile where small houses start at a million. One can drive for an entire day, 8 to 10 hours straight through neighborhoods from Hancock Park to Beverly Hills to Bel Aire to Brentwood to Pacific Palisades to Malibu to Santa Monica to Calabasis/Sherman Oaks/Encino and then back to West Hollywood without ever even going up any hills and never leave $1M+ homes.

The major cities of the world are all serious concentrations of wealth, along with concentrations of the opposite. Long Beach would be the part of this megapolis that is the poor part. It is also tangentially connected to most of the other really poor, really awful industrial areas such as Firestone/Lynwood/Compton/Downey/Maywood and South Central Los Angeles. There are two worlds here and for whatever reason, these three previous posters chose to live in that part. I live, work and exist in the other part. And I'm not rich. I can't decipher this any further...

SWT actually sounds less bitter than a lot of former cops in that post but as someone with family members and family friends in law enforcement, it's a well-known fact that many if not most veteran cops have a less-than-rosy view of people and life in general. Especially if they patrolled a really depressing part of town like LB. I'm just sayin'...

As for Porschaphobia, he's a lost cause and not worth arguing with directly. I'll simply continue to prove him completely FOS, opinionated based on limited experience. I will not have outsiders believing this guy. He has often described Hollywood in intimate detail here, as though he just spent a night on the town and saw people living in their cars smoking crack. You know, all of the failed actors with broken dreams, eating out of dumpsters and crapping on the sidewalk, etc., etc., googlygobbshriek(crazy sounds)...:rolleyes:

This guy is a crackpot. I took these pictures yesterday morning after leaving the coffee shop, believe it or not I was thinking about PoP and the BS he posts here. This is Hollywood and Vine, the epicenter of old Hollywood and where it used to be pretty seedy, even 10 or 15 years ago. Scary place. Must run home and get my gun. Mommy, make it stop!!


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274895338.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274895391.jpg

These must be the crack dealers and hookers that POP has told us about. I dunno, they look like harmless tourists. That must be part of their evil disguise.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274895488.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274895554.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274895579.jpg

And the freaking traffic? Hideous as always. Just ask the guy posting from a mental hospital thousands of miles away. Don't believe your eyes, believe POP. :rolleyes:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274895697.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274895717.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274895796.jpg

More likely to see groups of young ballerinas than hookers since the Capezio store is one block up on Vine and Yucca. You guys from the heartland, look me up when you are here and I'll drive you around. You can decide for yourself who is FOS here.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274896370.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274896399.jpg

For the record, even though I worked for the City of Long Beach, I NEVER EVEN CONSIDERED living in Long Beach or anywhere in LA County.

Orange County is crowded, but much more civilized, and "livable", in my opinion.

and I'm still a cop, but now work for a city that is loaded $$$. The job is really not that much different, just much less daily contact with poor people.

Denis,

Please stop showing your propaganda.

Anyone who has been in Kalifornia knows about the traffic and posting pics like this is not fooling anyone except yourself.

We all know you like it there and are biased.

End it.