Why do people stay in California?

[ckissick]

Originally Posted by Noah930

^^^ I guess that's part of the difference, ckissick. Full congrats on loving where you're living, and the hard work and sacrifice that went into making it work out. (And congrats to syncroid, too. Long live RMG!)

But I don't have a business. I don't have that dream home. A 5-minute walk, and I can get to a Rite Aid and Starbucks in a strip mall. I don't have that 2nd house in Santa Barbara. Other than friends/family (which admittedly is a big deal) I don't have anything material that I can't walk away from. I don't feel like I've "gotten mine" yet, and I'm supposed to be one of those villified "rich guys." I also have a lot of "liberal wacko" friends--most of them are--but they aren't the type to handle any sort of political teasing.

I have been very fortunate. But I'm 61 now and worked my way up for a long time. What I see all the time around here nowadays are houses selling for 2 to 4 million to people in their late 20 and early thirties. (Not in our beach town, but "over the hill" in Silicon Valley proper. Houses here "only" cost 1.5 million.) They are invariably couples both working in high tech. I'm amazed at how many of them there are.

[gregpark]

Northern California has it all. The best weather, the uncomparable beauty, the mountains, the ocean and the best driving roads in the world. No matter where you choose to live there are pros and cons. I've often considered moving elsewhere because of the BS politics and high cost of living but I l know I would find something to ***** about. Probably the weather. NorCal has spoiled us and I don't think we're budgin, the pros simply outweigh the cons for me.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Left CA after the 2009 crash. There was literally NO work to be had. None. It was scary as hell - lost the house, depleted all savings and had a new baby at the time. I sent out over 200 resumes, got two interviews which were both “geez we love your credentials and ability and really want to hire you but we just let a bunch of people go ourselves, so...” (so why the fk call me in for an interview then? But they did...). So I got a job offer back on the east coast after 10 months out of work and bolted.

Anyway, I watched from afar while the anemic “recovery” sputtered for nearly a decade under Prez. Zero and his America apologizing, business-hating policies. I really wanted to get back to the west coast but just couldn’t justify it. There wasn’t enough work, there was not enough of a “recovery” for several years despite a few leads and possibilities - too risky. So I dealt with living in the northeast for a few years... aside from being closer to a few family members who live back there I really didn’t like it at all. Just not my thing - I can’t stand cold and there’s simply not a lot of tolerance for “outsiders” there. In 2017 I got the chance to come to HI for some defense work and never looked back. It’s been the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. I’m busy as heck, working my butt off and while there are certainly problems here and I’m far from relatives I don’t regret doing it one bit. I do keep getting offers for work back in CA now but no thanks. We do a lot of work for agencies and clients back there too but the current arrangement suits me fine and I like being based here even with it being expensive and kind of isolated at times. Pre-COVID I was flying out to CA every couple of months but haven’t since January (Ige’s quarantine policy kebashed all travel...) Word is that trips MAY be coming back by the end of the year. I’m curious to see what’s happened in CA first hand and if it’s as bad as I hear...

CA will always have a special place in my heart - Yosemite, King’s Canyon, Sequoia, San Diego, Avalon / Catalina, Joshua Tree... Absolutely amazing places. When it was good it was amazing - lots of energy and innovation and creativity. When I left it was just decimated. It seems to have bounced back a lot but it sure took its sweet time doing so and probably won’t ever be like it was in the 1990s / 2000s. C’est la vie. Wouldn’t mind taking a trip down to Baja like in the good old days either at some point...

I think if I went back to the mainland I’d consider TX first but wouldn’t be too likely to do CA unless it was an offer I couldn’t refuse... I’m not optimistic about the state’s direction or future growth opportunities but for now there’s still stuff going on there (gov. work anyway...)

You have learned well from me sonny. Say a lot of words that say nothing.. the diffetence between you and i is that you are a vapid intelect..lots of open air between the ears.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by gregpark

Northern California has it all. The best weather, the uncomparable beauty, the mountains, the ocean and the best driving roads in the world. No matter where you choose to live there are pros and cons. I've often considered moving elsewhere because of the BS politics and high cost of living but I l know I would find something to ***** about. Probably the weather. NorCal has spoiled us and I don't think we're budgin, the pros simply outweigh the cons for me.

The coldest winter i ever spent was summer in san francisco.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by Alansglide

I was born at St. Jo's in Burbank and raised in Sherman Oaks. Went to UCLA and then did three years elsewhere for uncle Sam. I remember cruising Van Nuys Blvd and watching the guys race on Mulholland at night. I stayed in the valley after I retired but things changed so drastically within the last 15 years I just couldn't find a reason to stay. Road conditions became hazardous to nice cars and the nasty attitudes of other drivers became dangerous. Store clerks seemed to all have a chip on their shoulder as if the store was doing me a favor by selling to me.

I still love California but couldn't take it anymore. I sold my house and moved to Summerlin NV and while its not paradise it is a whole lot better. People are friendly to a fault and the weather while not valley nice is not bad ( I'm about 800 feet higher than Las Vegas ). Would I move back to Cal ? Not unless things changed dramatically.

I am a NW Centennial Hills boy..

The LV Strip is THUG TOWN lots of fights shootings and other assorted mayhem. A friend works for the numero.uno.jeweler in the world..they had a shooting right in the valet of the place he works..Cheap rooms brings in the rif raff from LA, Chicago and Detroit..those with welfare checks to blow.

LV summers are tough...no getting around it. The dirty little secret here is that the MD's here are Trade School dropouts so they went into medicine cause they knew they could get a job in NV.

I am thinking of moving away because of it..as i get older i am going to need more care. It took a friend 3 months to get a biospy for a tumor on her chest wall because of cluster fks. it was cancer but luckily for her stage 1..

And sadly no more buffets.

This town has taken a page right out of the Grapes of Wrath. Lots of people in U hauls moving back home to where family is .when the moratoriums end the shyte is gona hit the fan. Lots of desperate people.

I talk lots of Macro econ shyte but every once in awhile i get the smell from the streets and it is gd hellacious out there.

The item that continually sells in large numbers and out of at SAMS Club are the small freezers. I will see 30 or 40 of them come in and in a few days gone. The only thing moving quicker is guns an ammo.

When i look into the Deep the Equation comes up snake eyes we are tottering on the brink of the abyss. A food for thought is it took the FED 3T and Congress 2.5T to stop the panic over a 6 week period in March. They went all in as if there was no tomorrow and would gone to the limit of their ability if they had to.

Any way i have some HM Kiebasas smoking wt Cherry Wood. Made some hellacious Brown Sugar brined Smoked Salmon over Apple Wood. I didn't think I could eat 5lbs that fast... Just using one of those cheap azz Little Chief smokers that I found at a Thrift for $35.

[flatbutt]

I'm a total outsider. I haven't spent much time in Cali outside of business and visits to Laguna Seca. However, I often get asked the same question about jersey. Why don't I move?

Having grown up and lived here my entire life I'm like a salmon. This is home. My kids and their kids are here (except Flatbutt-ette who escaped to Pennsy just an hour away over the line at the Gap). I have visited most of the lower 48 and travelled to Europe and the Caribbean.
I always get the hankering to get back to my hills and my pond. My part of jersey isn't bad physically so maybe that helps mitigate the crap politics that affect us all here. I live in the hills but in less than two hours I can be on a beach. In less than one hour I can be in a NYC museum or concert hall. The only thing that troubles my sleep is the high property tax, but again I live in the hills alongside a pond. It's home.

[tabs]

"They turned paradise into a parking lot..." Or have Liz Taylor pull up next to you at a stoplight on Wilshire...

You Boyz have nailed CA down pretty gud. CA old timers said that after WW2 CA was ruined..too many new folks comin in. I lived their from 54 to 03...I remember when there were only a coupla freeways.. The San Bernardino, Santa Monica, Pasadena and 101 N out of LA...

I remember wall to wall Orange trees growing up. And the smog where you couldn't see the mountains on a fine day. I remember when they banned Incinerators to burn your trash back in 57.

Sadly that is just a memory now. I have gotten used to this place now, but I still miss the CA that used to be...but as they say you can never go home..

[Alansglide]

I agree with most of your post Tabs. This is by no means my final stop but moving here does give me time to think and my home value has increased in the short time I've been here.
Another friend who lives here and I have been talking about the hill country in Texas . As a side note , he mentioned he had some killer sausage and was going to give me a frozen brick of it to take home .

[GH85Carrera]

Most people stay where the jobs or family are.

I never lived in California but I have been there five different times in my life. No doubt as a visitor the beauty of parts of California is unmatched. Where else can you see a Sequoya tree? It really has to been seen in person to understand how big they are.

The coast are natural wildlife at it's best. But California has way more Bakersfield or Needles like cities than coast. One of the worst desolate places I ever drove through was Boron, CA. Most every state has parts that are ugly, except maybe Hawaii.

One thing the California residents just take for granted is a fantastic supply of fresh fruits and vegetables and of course seafood. There is a town in Colorado that has a "growing season" that is just one day. Not much is grown there. California grows all year year long. It is a major food production area and will be until they suck all the water from the ground.

It is a great state, but the politics have ruined it for so many. Crazy taxes and laws that make it legal to take a dump on the public sidewalk just make no sense.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by ckissick

I have been very fortunate. But I'm 61 now and worked my way up for a long time. What I see all the time around here nowadays are houses selling for 2 to 4 million to people in their late 20 and early thirties. (Not in our beach town, but "over the hill" in Silicon Valley proper. Houses here "only" cost 1.5 million.) They are invariably couples both working in high tech. I'm amazed at how many of them there are.

Los Angeles has a lot of the same phenomena, lots of talented, creative, high earning young people driving the economy and RE market. Strangely enough, RE has only gotten hotter during 2020, which goes against all logic.

The complaints that many are voicing here are legitimate as well, CA used to be a place where normal working people could carve-out a good life for themselves and thrive, not so much anymore. The state, (frankly the world), just keeps getting more crowded and expensive. All of the decent places to live in America are experiencing an influx of people and rising costs of housing, etc.

I've absolutely loved living in Los Angeles for decades with the friends I have, the great restaurants everywhere, (including cheap food to grab and go), the climate and lifestyle that goes with it, including cars and motorcycles and other wheeeled stuff. I don't think many people in other places really grasp how great it can be on the ground level, no matter how many times they've visited for a few days. The old saying is true; "it's a great place to live but I wouldn't want to visit..."

Anyhow, this is about the 72nd or 73rd California bashing thread since I've been here and they are all the same, with even the same people saying the same things in a lot of them. If you love living in Arizona or Nevada or Texas, god bless you. I wouldn't live in most of those places if you gave me a free house and a new GT3.

If I move anywhere, it's going to be a place w mild climate and LOTS of water. Water will be the big commodity in the future and places like Arizona will be prison camps for really bad people, IMO. My parents had the perfect life in northern WI. from April to October, then New Mexico in the winter. I'm leaning that way.

Los Angeles has lost a lot of appeal in 2020 but let's face it, this ain't a normal year. I ditched the place back in March and about to go back for the first time, I just hope that my car is in the garage where I left it.

[vash]

“Come out the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs…'”

[tabs]

Originally Posted by Alansglide

I agree with most of your post Tabs. This is by no means my final stop but moving here does give me time to think and my home value has increased in the short time I've been here.
Another friend who lives here and I have been talking about the hill country in Texas . As a side note , he mentioned he had some killer sausage and was going to give me a frozen brick of it to take home .

I moved her in May of 03...by the Spring of 04 my house went up 83.47% in value. At the peak value in 06 it had increased by 97.47% in value. At the low in 12, it had decreased 24.36% from what I had paid for it. At that point in early 12 home prices were crumbling..and if left to continue the value of residential RE in the USA would have gone into the abyss..as in wiped out.

Figure it out if you bought a house for 500K had lets say a 400K mortgage and the house was now worth lets say 100K...you are 300K UNDERWATER on the mortgage..that is the kind of thing that was happening...PEOPLE WERE WALKING AWAY FROM THOSE MORTGAGES...whole neighborhoods of 100's of houses here in LV were FORECLOSED upon because people walked away. Or stopped paying the mortgage until they were evicted.. I am talkin about 850K houses on Golf Courses in LV in 07.

The kicker in this is that there are still a lot of those houses that are STILL EMPTY...after more than 10 years..the lights are on and the ceiling fan is twirling but no body lives there. I can drive you by those houses...to show you.

What save our miserable azzes in 2012 is that the FED instituted QE3 which included 45B a month in Mortgage Backed securities and 40B in US Treasuries. ...otherwise you Boyz wouldn't be smilin right right now but cryin the blues while taking your fkin Opiods...

I have been hammerin away at this for more than a decade..but I keep gettin the bird flipped at me...by the smiling faces who think they are doin swell in Equities, RE and or their own lil patch of the economy.

I am a fkin Macro Econ Boy..I am gud at it..I can construct and deconstruct this shyte in the abstract in my sleep. It is an equation in my head, it is like a swiss watch ticking away with all of these moving pieces moving through space and time...and I am going Uhh ohhh we is movin like a little Dingy in the current to Niagra Falls... we are in a "Twilight Zone" atmosphere tottering on the brink of the abyss...

What I am workin on and I may run out of time is to get my azz out of this house and into a trailer on the desert outside of Pahrump...this RE and Equity euphoria ain't gona last forever before the plunge into the deep. If I don't make it I am never gona be able to move..

I listened carefully to what my parents and relatives had to say about the Depression..it was like wrestling with a GD Grizzly Bear with your bare hands. Then I compare that with what is going on today and know this time it is gona be a lot worse cause the USD ..World Reserve Currency is fkin used toilette paper.

That notion is virtually inconceivable for Americans to grasp, because they have never gone through a currency collapse like Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Zimbawe among others. The GD USD has been the rock of Gibralter to them..steady and true...Guess what NOW IT AIN"T NO MO..

Apple is fkin leveraged to the eyeballs even with 200B in cash in the bank..they can increase their market cap by moe holding on to those stock buy back shares than they can make selling product. Disney is another one...get the idear...

It is time to go check on my smoking sausage..

[Sooner or later]

Different strokes for different folks.

Where I live many wouldn't consider it "decent". Though it is my perfect place. Low cost of living. A traffic jam is sitting through one traffic light. A fully open economy. Instead of a 5 star restaurant I can be dove hunting or fishing within 30 minutes of leaving the house. I can see turkey or deer in my front yard while the red tail hawk or Mississippi Kite (or even a buzzard) circles my house.

Your slice of heaven may be the big city life. Mine happens to be SW Oklahoma.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Sooner or later

Different strokes for different folks.

Where I live many wouldn't consider it "decent". Though it is my perfect place. Low cost of living. A traffic jam is sitting through one traffic light. A fully open economy. Instead of a 5 star restaurant I can be dove hunting or fishing within 30 minutes of leaving the house. I can see turkey or deer in my front yard while the red tail hawk or Mississippi Kite (or even a buzzard) circles my house.

Your slice of heaven may be the big city life. Mine happens to be SW Oklahoma.

Well said. Having driven the 405 at rush hour once, that was enough for my lifetime. Back when I commuted to work an regular basis I could drive 3 miles before I saw one single other moving car.

We live in a very nice house with a 3 car garage, that we paid off years ago. We live a very comfortable lifestyle here but we would be paupers in NYC or any coastal city in California.

[tabs]

Well here is my Lil Chief smokin away...



Five lb of Polish Kiebasa. Last time I was too fkin fancy and added too many spices..it just didn't taste all that finger lickin, lip smackin inhale it gud.. This time a simple recipe... Pork wt lots of fat , Garlik, Pepper, Marjoram, Red Chili Flakes for some zing, salt, some Brown sugar, Powdered Milk for a binder, and Pink salt. Bin on for 3 hours..

What I have bin doin for the past year is addin Spoons to the drawer with the stuff that they eat..like a big hungry dawg knawin on a bone.. Gold and Silver is heavily manipulated, and the govt by decree can outlaw ownership of the stuff like they did in 1933. Now I could be bent over tomorrow, but looks like my bet 40 years ago was a gud bet after all.

Right now the Metal Bugs are sayin that there ain't nothin in the vaults, that all the Traders are moving around is pieces of paper that represent the metals. Smoke and mirrors..They are thinkin that at some point reality is gona set in and the price is gona make a huge jump when people are going to want to take physical possession. To me this is just another symptom. A piece of the puzzle in the ongoing equation.

[RNajarian]

No doubt the governance and regulations are a huge negative.

QUESTION: Why is gasoline more expensive in CA than in neighboring states when the major refineries are located in California? I get gas at Port Hueneme (The Seabee base) and it is $0.35 cheaper per gallon than the Mobil right outside the base.

Why do I stay?
1) Family
2) Weather
3) Job

One point to note is there are some communities in CA that have the Midwest small town feel to them. We have a place near the Harbor at Port Hueneme, small town, friendly people, more relaxed pace. When the rest of Southern CA is burning up at 100 degrees the temperature is 75 degrees. My neighbors call me “Colonel.” I don’t think my neighbors at our main residence even recognize me after 23 years.

Oh I guess there is a #4

4) The sunsets

[tabs]

Originally Posted by Sooner or later

Different strokes for different folks.

Where I live many wouldn't consider it "decent". Though it is my perfect place. Low cost of living. A traffic jam is sitting through one traffic light. A fully open economy. Instead of a 5 star restaurant I can be dove hunting or fishing within 30 minutes of leaving the house. I can see turkey or deer in my front yard while the red tail hawk or Mississippi Kite (or even a buzzard) circles my house.

Your slice of heaven may be the big city life. Mine happens to be SW Oklahoma.

Then Green Acres is the place you ought to be...say hey to the Ziffles, Arnold, Eb, and Mr Haney..

[tabs]

Originally Posted by RNajarian

No doubt the governance and regulations are a huge negative.

QUESTION: Why is gasoline more expensive in CA than in neighboring states when the major refineries are located in California? I get gas at Port Hueneme (The Seabee base) and it is $0.35 cheaper per gallon than the Mobil right outside the base.

Why do I stay?
1) Family
2) Weather
3) Job

One point to note is there are some communities in CA that have the Midwest small town feel to them. We have a place near the Harbor at Port Hueneme, small town, friendly people, more relaxed pace. When the rest of Southern CA is burning up at 100 degrees the temperature is 75 degrees. My neighbors call me “Colonel.” I don’t think my neighbors at our main residence even recognize me after 23 years.

Oh I guess there is a #4

4) The sunsets

TAXES, TAXES and MO TAX.

The place I grew up in was like Mayberry with Orange trees.

Back in the day that little Orange Grove town's Womens Club was by invitation only. After my Mom passed on to the big sleep my Dad was going out with a long time resident of the town who owned the local Travel Agency. She was amazed that my Mom was so readily accepted by the towns social elite and was invited to join. Even my Dad's GF couldn't get in. It was easy to figure out, the old guard of the town knew my mom didn't want anything from them. She didn't have an angle to play. As one summer my Mom volunteered to undertake the clean up of the YWCA which was an old grove owners home which was bequeathed by her estate to the YWCA. She did it because she wanted to be helpful.

[RNajarian]

Originally Posted by tabs

TAXES, TAXES and MO TAX.

It will only be a matter of time when the gas tax revenue drops and they start aggressively going after the electric vehicles. It has started in a small way already.

[ckelly78z]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Well said. Having driven the 405 at rush hour once, that was enough for my lifetime. Back when I commuted to work an regular basis I could drive 3 miles before I saw one single other moving car.

We live in a very nice house with a 3 car garage, that we paid off years ago. We live a very comfortable lifestyle here but we would be paupers in NYC or any coastal city in California.

in my neck of the woods (literally), I can commute 10 miles to work into a town that is 50,000 population with most of the amenities. I leave home at 4:30 am, and many days, I encounter 2-3 cars on my route, and on the rare day, I mistakenly think that it must be a holiday that I didn't know about zero (0) cars, or red lights all the way through town.

I'll take my 10 acres of homestead paradise along with it's changing seasons, over massive traffic jams, and endless people everywhere (in the big cities).