I have a new perspective on smog requirements and emission rules since moving to the LA basin. That rule isn't crazy at all and not a big loss IMHO. Most the time you'd break a sweat having a fireplace going down in SoCal. I have a wood burning fire place and never use it. Most people put it on for show on TG and Xmas. I know, something you can probably not imagine being from Michigan ...

So long,

G

CA has its good and bad like everywhere else.

I miss some things about it, other things not at all. I would say that at the moment it doesn't matter because CA probably has the worst job outlook of any location on the planet right now. Anyplace sucks (even one with sunny, 70-degree days every day) if you can't find an income and are spitting distance from living under an overpass with 50 other homeless guys.

CA is not what it used to be. And by "used to be" I mean as recently as four or five years ago. It has changed DRAMATICALLY in the last five years, certainly in the last ten - and not for the better.

Live somewhere else for a year or two - it'll really open your eyes to how restrictive and onerous the laws are there. This is for all those who have been there long enough to claim to "not notice" certain things. Some examples:

I can have a wood fireplace or wood-burning stove (thread topic)
I can build pretty much whatever I want on my property (minimal local codes/restrictions)
I can go down the street and buy high-capacity magazines and pretty much whatever else isn't federally restricted firearms-wise
I can legally defend my own property without fear of being sued or arrested
I can buy kerosene, propane, heating oil or whatever other fuels I want and store them/use them on my own property
I can clear my own property of brush and get a burn permit to dispose of it over-the-counter at the local FD with no fee required (same-day too)
No motorcycle helmet law (stupid to ride without one - I never do, but I also don't like the idea of it being mandated by the NannyState)
My state income tax? $0.00
My state sales tax? $0.00
My car registration? I think it was around 50 bucks.
Want to hunt/fish/shoot on your own property? No problem. Nobody cares and it's not illegal.
My electricity is around $0.13 a kWh (in CA it was around $0.37 IIRC)
Car insurance? For all my cars it's about $600 for the year. In CA it was well over $2,500.
People here speak/use English. And I can still find places around to get a good burrito too.
You can breathe the air here.
You can see a sky full of stars at night (in Long Beach I could literally see four, five on a good night under the right conditions due to all the light pollution)
I open my window and hear... nothing. Maybe the occasional bird.
Good roads (including a lot of nice twisty/hilly ones)
Good schools (second or third highest-rated in the nation, IIRC - and that's just the public ones)
Housing prices? Don't even start. LOL! I will pay less for my mortgage than I paid in rent during my 11 years in SoCal. Yes really.
Red light cameras? What are those?
Traffic lights? What are those? Oh yeah, there's one a mile or so from here I think.
Jobs? Yep. There are a bunch of those around too if you need one.

I could go on and on and on but you get the idea. It's the "little things" that a lot of CA types (I know, I was one) don't realize they can't do until they get a chance to go someplace where they can. It's the same reason why a lot of foreigners come to the USA and go "wow, you guys can do ANYTHING here!" It's all perspective.

There are downsides too - no In-n-Out around here, no Coffee Bean and it does pretty much suck for four months of the year but all-in-all it's pretty much a no-brainer right now. In good/boom times? Sure, CA has a case to be made for itself. But right now? When it's in the crapper economically and the iron fist of government taxation and oppression is crushing the average subject... er... citizen? When the state is being frittered away to illegals and criminals? No brainer. Sadly I think CA's best days are behind it - at least for a long, long time to come. Maybe in 50 or 60 years it'll be top dog again, but I'd be stunned if we saw a return to its former glory in my lifetime.

yeah, the aerospace industry is going too. it may be gone in the next 5-8 years along with the movie industry. then I will be in deep caca.

I imagine that's pretty much standard across the world. Wood burning is highly inefficient.

It's also highly unprofitable for utility companies and local governments who collect taxes on the distribution of either gas or electricity.

I can go out into my back yard, cut down a tree (or hack up one of the dead ones that's already fallen over) and use it to heat my house - no problem. Nobody says "boo" about it. It's a renewable resource and it helps clean up the area by not having brush and rotting trees all over the place. But the poor utilities and government bureaucrats don't see a dime from it (and it doesn't cost me one, unless one counts a modest amount of fuel and the occasional chainsaw chain) - THIS is why they really don't want people doing it guys. Wake up!

On a long enough timeline, everything will kill you. Air quality from fireplaces my arse. That's probably #1,274 on a list of things that are likely to kill you, behind about a thousand things that ARE legal and encouraged by gov't (e.g. mass-produced agricultural products, consumer products, carcinogens, cigarettes, disease, etc.)

I'm sure "reining in healthcare costs" will be trumpeted once ObamaCare takes effect, this being one of hundreds of behaviors they'll try to ban because they "drive up healthcare costs". Such utter rubbish. You guys in CA really need to pull your heads out and realize what's happening to you.

This is one more example of how the nation of "5% of the world's population, 60% of the world's lawyers" is slowly killing itself. I worry more about errant meteors than dying from wood-burning stove emissions.

WTF? You have to get a permit to burn a brush pile? ;):D

Every day, in every way, California=toilet.

Generally they do this only on cold days when you would want to use the fireplace.

I love California. The liberals have destroyed the place. Steady downhill slide since Gov Moonbeam got elected the first time. I am surprised the state is not bankrupt, though I suppose technically it has been for at least 5 years.

And where do you live, ass-wipe? :cool:

The City of Burbank Logo has an airplane and a piece of film. Aerospace is non-existant now, and we aren't filming one feature this year in CA. Not one.

A client, he's a director told me the same thing about the non existing filming in CA. We did this ***** to ourselves. Those that are pushing industries out of town better have kids who will be lawyers and doctors or else they would not have job around here when they grow up. I fear for my little boys. I really like to see them grow up here and stay .

speeder
As far away from you and your fellow sphincters as I can get, s--t for brains.

That seems uncalled for. People from Minneapolis are usually nicer than that.

mossguy, speeder
I'd really like to have a face-to-face talk with you about this, but it would take a colonoscopy to find your heads.

Besides, I just visited this pathetic forum out of curiosity to see what people do when they have way to much time on their hands. So you may continue with your California drivel without me. Adios, Bozos.

He's from Minneapolis? Hahahahahaha

What a frikin' loser. I'll ping you dude when I'm in town visiting my folks, I wanna see your tough guy act up close. Hilarious....

Denis,

I know California has some beautiful real estate/weather, that said...... surely you have traveled enough to realize that California laws/taxes are pretty restrictive compared to many other parts of the country.

Every time I hear of a new law/tax here in Ohio I cringe knowing that govt has no reverse gear..... Doesn't Cali's laws bother you in the slightest bit?

Different strokes and all that, but I can't believe you truly enjoy govt's ever increasing regulation of your freedom.

When I"m out there this next week, I'll find out what he had to do (fireplace) and what he could do.

The key to living in KALIFORNIA is to simply ignore all the laws and rules. All my liberal neighbors do and rarely face any consequences. It is funny to hear them whine when sometimes caught out, and I always say "you didn't know that?" and I'm the immigrant. Well, climatological refugee actually.

The sweet spot in KA is to be homeowner for 20+ years (prop13 no to low property taxes), have pre 75 hot rods, and to have a multi 6 figure KA state retirement.

I live in Ohio and I've seen the effects of the "free" market vs government regulation. We have two lakes (government-made in the 1850s) that are about 30 miles apart. Lake A has had regulation of the farm effluents from up-stream that took away the rights of farmers to farm right up to the edge of feeder streams and spread cow&pig ***** on frozen fields. Both the farmers and those who make their livings off the lake are prospering.
Lake B wanted no such government interference. Now lake B lake is essentially dead. People who make their living off it are begging the government to dredge out the cow&pig ***** and fertilizer residue so they can use their lake again.
It seems everyone is against the government until they have a problem, and then they turn to government to use its power to take money from the rest of us to solve their little problems. Their attitude toward government is "let us screw up until everything is FUBAR, then come rescue us." Who wins and who loses? The farmers make their money, the people on the lake will make money again after they are saved from the farmers, and the rest of Ohio taxpayers pay the bill. A little preemptive regulation, as was exercised at lake A, could have placed all the burden on the farmers who caused the problem and not spread it to the rest of us.