Santa Barbara, Santa Maria or San Luis Obispo? (Los Angeles, Santa Rosa: sale, renter)

[Winston Smith]

Originally Posted by greatbasinguide

I spoke with a public sector employee of Lompoc the other day. I asked him if he lived in Lompoc, he looked at me funny, and said, "no, it is nasty, we call it Lompton".

How sad that the City of Lompoc has a nasty employee like that who takes such little pride his work to say spiteful things about the community that employs and feeds him. As a public sector employee, this individual undoubtedly has a good salary, generous fringe benefit package, and better than average retirement plan. Thoughtless and spoiled is how this employee rubs me.

[greatbasinguide]

Or perhaps he is someone who works and sees the seedy underbelly of the city on a regular basis. My guess is that his view reflects the views of his peers and is not an unusual or even odd opinion of Lompoc.

That you call him nasty is interesting, and certainly not what you would call him when you call him to save your life.

[Winston Smith]

Originally Posted by greatbasinguide

Or perhaps he is someone who works and sees the seedy underbelly of the city on a regular basis. My guess is that his view reflects the views of his peers and is not an unusual or even odd opinion of Lompoc.

That you call him nasty is interesting, and certainly not what you would call him when you call him to save your life.

If this employee is a 1ST RESPONDER to boot, God help anyone unfortunate enough to have him assigned to his or her 911 call. He -- PD or FD -- has an obvious attitude problem. If he's burned out, take a vacation or find another line of work, but to take good pay and benefits and then kick in the teeth the community he has sworn to protect and serve is, if not nasty, thoroughly pitiful. Besides, anyone who knows Lompoc also knows that despite its problems is a long way off from reaching Compton's or inner-city LA's level of trouble.

[greatbasinguide]

Again, it would take an extremely small mind to use words like nasty or pitiful regarding someone who lays his life on the line each day for the citizens of the community he works for.

Working for or in a community does not require wearing rose colored glasses. We live in a world that has positive and negative aspects, to pretend otherwise is just plain silly.

[Winston Smith]

Originally Posted by greatbasinguide

Again, it would take an extremely small mind to use words like nasty or pitiful regarding someone who lays his life on the line each day for the citizens of the community he works for.

Working for or in a community does not require wearing rose colored glasses. We live in a world that has positive and negative aspects, to pretend otherwise is just plain silly.

No way! Quite the contrary, it takes "an extremely small mind" for a first responder -- who the community pays well and counts on to save lives -- to call those very people and that very community "nasty." It puts into question his committment to "lay his life on the line" for the residents of Lompoc.

[irvm]

Originally Posted by cre8

No way! Quite the contrary, it takes "an extremely small mind" for a first responder -- who the community pays well and counts on to save lives -- to call those very people and that very community "nasty." It puts into question his committment to "lay his life on the line" for the residents of Lompoc.

They pay the Convention and Visitors' bureau head a lot more.
That's the ONLY job that requires anyone to lie about their feelings.
You try dealing with gang shootings and meth heads for a while, then tell me how 'nice' your community is.

Damn, do ALL californians wear rose-colored glasses?

[Winston Smith]

Originally Posted by irvm

They pay the Convention and Visitors' bureau head a lot more.
That's the ONLY job that requires anyone to lie about their feelings.
You try dealing with gang shootings and meth heads for a while, then tell me how 'nice' your community is.

Damn, do ALL californians wear rose-colored glasses?

Point missed. Read the entire exchange starting with #post1072903:
http://www.city-data.com/forum/calif...ml#post1072903

[CalBerkeley2002]

Originally Posted by greatbasinguide

Won't be "stuck" in SLO town. Everything a reasonable person could want is there,, or SB.. Santa Maria is not called Fresno on the Pacific for nuttin. It is, at best a hicktown,, at worst a racist Mexican gang ridden town.. Although the theater is the best between LA and SF... That is the PCFA. Now, before someone accuses me of some sort of bias.. Grandfather settled in the Santa Maria Valley in 1903, family is still there.. that qualifies as an old time family I think. Am fairly familiar with the town,

greatbasinguide: I've read several of your posts - you seem to be educated, so I'm really curious...what's with the obvious bias against the hispanic population? You are in California for crying out loud! Should we pack everybody up and leave only those with blue eyes and blond hair? I don't care for the way you and others state "it is primarily hispanic" as a negative attribute of the city (Santa Maria). Grow up.

[Westward]

Originally Posted by CalBerkeley2002

greatbasinguide: I've read several of your posts - you seem to be educated, so I'm really curious...what's with the obvious bias against the hispanic population? You are in California for crying out loud! Should we pack everybody up and leave only those with blue eyes and blond hair? I don't care for the way you and others state "it is primarily hispanic" as a negative attribute of the city (Santa Maria). Grow up.

This thread is about the differences between Santa Barbara, SLO and Santa Maria. One obvious difference is racial composition. If you want to argue about racial bias, please go find a forum for "racial bias"...so the rest of us can get on with the topic of this thread.

[Woof]

That's funny, I felt more like going to the SLO area after reading your posts, Diamond Girl. As long as there's a nice spring with clean water to drink where I park my van, a Wal Mart somewhere nearby to shop in (they don't let me shop in Costco), a healthfood store and a few good dumpsters to dive .... I can be reasonably happy. I have a wireless internet connection, works anywhere a cell phone would.

But I AM starting to get more ailments, it's not so good if the docs aren't taking new patients.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against rich people. In fact I'm fascinated by them .... there's this one guy I met at my wedding (sort of a brother in law, except that the marriage was not lawful). He's worth hundreds of millions. He told me that his work was philanthropy. Now THATS the kind of job I'd like to have, working hard at giving away my money! I went to a party of his once, it was fascinating but really just an ordinary barbecue, he was there cooking up hamburgers for everyone. He and his wife are fundies who see demons lurking behind every bush, I could tell he was itching to do an exorcism on me. Imagine having all that money and a medieval outlook on life!

So anyway, I'm not prejudiced against you people, you have your ways and I have mine.