It's started - Exodus from CA

[Nostril Cheese]

People are much friendlier in Oregon, I gotta say.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

... And the question about farms was not an exaggeration, I've actually been asked that question on several occasions by people from CA.

You should see the farmers around here - goat cheese; organic vegetables you never heard of; gay law professor sheep farmers; surgeons with vineyards; semi-conductor co. execs with hop farms...

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by Nostril Cheese

People are much friendlier in Oregon, I gotta say.

except to people from ... California

[varmint]

Originally Posted by Nostril Cheese

I remember when Inglewood and Hawthorne were really nice places to live....

there are neighborhoods in inglewood full of beautiful run down craftsman homes.

[Nostril Cheese]

Originally Posted by varmint

there are neighborhoods in inglewood full of beautiful run down craftsman homes.

The same houses in Portland go for about half of what they cost there. And they dont have bars on the windows.

[fintstone]

I would enjoy living in CA for a few years because there are certain things about CA that appeal to me. I almost took a job there...but just couldn't afford it. The pay was equal to where I am now, but housing (including real estate taxes) were killer. I went to VA instead. The commute stinks, but my home in rural VA cost $175K on .6 wooded acres (payment inc tax and insurance is $812). A comparable home in Torrance would be closer to $800K. Since I am not too far from retirement, I am trying to build wealth and pay off bills quickly as possible so LA just did not compute.

[SoCal911T]

Originally Posted by daepp

It's started - Exodus from CA

Amen! I got home from work today and while parking saw this:



And then this:



F*ck it, I'm outta here...

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by SoCal911T

Amen! I got home from work today and while parking saw this:


...

That is a nice dog, but they have them in other states that are just as nice...and parking is better.

[speeder]

I say that if you want to live somewhere else, live there. What's the big deal about always trying to take the shine off of CA.? Yeah, it has its problems. Without a doubt. It's the biggest state by such a large margin that you simply cannot compare it to states that have 1% of its population.

As for people leaving, that's always been the case. Even during boom times, something like 300,000 more people move here than leave. If 500k move here and 200k leave, some idiot could say, Look! 200k people left CA. this year!"

As for talent and money leaving, the exact opposite is true. The post showing homeless people and a google-searched smog day is the height of fly-over ignorance. Go to San Francisco some time and tell me about the "welfare state". It's the most vibrant, brains and money collection you've ever seen in your life. There is nothing in other places that even compares in any way. The conflation of Stanford, Cal Berkley, the Silicon Valley and the cross-traffic with the Pacific Rim makes for one super-heated collection of smart people and money. I just witnessed it yet again skiing at Heavenly in Tahoe this week. Nearly every chairlift ride was with some interesting and successful person from the Bay area. ANd absolutely none of the whining heard from the "tough luck" crowd here.

I love it here. I just drove down highway 395 through historical mining towns and past Mono Lake and Mammoth yesterday home to L.A. My traveling companion was a pal who grew up in England, went to college in the midwest and lives here. He knew every detail of the historical places, has climbed nearly every one of the highest mountains on earth, been everywhere and met everyone. I know tons of people like this in CA., and not too many where I came from. A few, to be fair. The people and the talent is what makes this place, something that people happy to live in Kentucky or Nebraska will never understand. A Harry Nilsson song comes on the radio and he has a great HN story about hanging out at Chris Blackwell's studio in Jamaica in 1972 or something when HN was producing Ringo's solo record and how fk'ed up HN was. He went to Sinatra's house when he was a little kid in the 1950s and played with his massive model train layout with Frank. I'm continuously enthralled by people here.

If you're thinking that I just hung out with some name-dropping BS artist, he's a good friend and none of these stories have ever come up until we were stuck in a car together for 16 hours total in a week. I know lots of people like him in L.A. There are no people like him in MN. And MN. is a lot more interesting than most places in the midwest, with its education and technology hubs. There is a magic, an actually quantifiable "multiplier effect" when talented, creative people are thrown together in one place. It's always been most pronounced in NYC, but Los Angeles and San Francisco are amazing as well, albeit with a different vibe.

The people I know here are not moving to Kentucky or Tennessee anytime soon. Probably not in this lifetime. Most of them are thriving in CA. and that part of the economy is booming. Not so much for the middle class, I'll agree.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by fintstone

I would enjoy living in CA for a few years because there are certain things about CA that appeal to me. I almost took a job there...but just couldn't afford it. The pay was equal to where I am now, but housing (including real estate taxes) were killer. I went to VA instead. The commute stinks, but my home in rural VA cost $175K on .6 wooded acres (payment inc tax and insurance is $812). A comparable home in Torrance would be closer to $800K. Since I am not too far from retirement, I am trying to build wealth and pay off bills quickly as possible so LA just did not compute.

I totally understand this. You are part of a fairly mobile sector of the educated workforce and you look at locations in a particular way. Imagine if you'd been in CA. 20 years ago and bought a nice house + some income property with your conservative spending and saving habits. You would not have sucked all the equity out of them with HELs and you'd be sitting pretty right now. There are plenty in that boat, Hugh being one example.

[fintstone]

No one claimed the movie star crowd was starving...and when the rest of the US goes skiing...they don't usually "whine" much about "hard luck" either.

I still have to believe it would be darned difficult to raise a family in CA on $50K...although I imagine many do.

[Nostril Cheese]

Prince is from Minnesota..

[speeder]

$50k doesn't go far here. And my pal is not an actor, but yes, in the movie business.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Nostril Cheese

Prince is from Minnesota..

I knew that when I went to HS with him.

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by speeder

I totally understand this. You are part of a fairly mobile sector of the educated workforce and you look at locations in a particular way. Imagine if you'd been in CA. 20 years ago and bought a nice house + some income property with your conservative spending and saving habits. You would not have sucked all the equity out of them with HELs and you'd be sitting pretty right now. There are plenty in that boat, Hugh being one example.

Yes. I have done very well with real estate...but nothing like folks in CA. I like CA better now as a place to visit than I did in the '80s. I have more money, the pollution is less, and it seems less crowded.

Almost impossible to earn your money elsewhere and then retire there though. Maybe Vegas though. Very affordable now if you dont need to work.

[Aurel]

The day I retire, it probably won't be in the US. I am thinking Belize or Costa Rica, but could be France as well. At any rate, it will be a place where my dollars can go a longer way, If I want to retire at all. I like being 90 minutes flight or 12 hours drive from LA.

[Don Ro]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

The exodus from CA has been going on for a while. In a few years it'll be only illegals, gangbangers and a few (very few) others. Very sad. It's not the place it once was. I'm glad I got to spend 10+ years of my life there at the tail end of its heyday.

It's called Liberalism...make no mistake. It simply destroyed that which bordered on Paradise.

I lived there for 40 years and loved the first 25 of them.

[ZAMIRZ]

Originally Posted by Aurel

The day I retire, it probably won't be in the US. I am thinking Belize or Costa Rica, but could be France as well. At any rate, it will be a place where my dollars can go a longer way, If I want to retire at all. I like being 90 minutes flight or 12 hours drive from LA.

Your dollar won't go anywhere in France unless you want to live out in the boonies...even then, there are much better alternatives.

[Aurel]

Originally Posted by ZAMIRZ

Your dollar won't go anywhere in France unless you want to live out in the boonies...even then, there are much better alternatives.

I already have a house there, this should help a bit .

[ZAMIRZ]

Nice, where is it? I love hitting Nice/Antibes/Monaco/St. Tropez in the early summer before the crowds. Paris is nice that time of year too.