California: An earthly paradise??

[visalian]

"I'm happy to tolerate people different from me, as long as they respect me and my rights. I see this as a chance for adventure and to learn more about a new place and about myself! I keep wondering why people out here post the slams on California but stay there (although I think some of them have left or have never even lived in CA - not sure why they post at all). Must be easier to stay put and b*tch about things, I guess."

Wouldn't it be nice if they all respected you and your rights? In an ideal and perfect world I suppose that would happen.

Some of us who are not happy with CA can't or won't move because it's simply not that easy. We can't afford to move to the coast (which is much nicer than alot of other CA areas) and we have family and friends here, jobs here, etc. Some people can't just pick up and move all that easily. I love CA but "slam" it because of all the negative changes it has experienced the past 10-20 years, mostly due to population growth (rising prices, gangs, crime, bad traffic, etc). As someone who grew up here, it's difficult to see it change for the worse.

[Coffee Mate]

California....pared AND diced.....

Yes. The good memories of home...
The black cherry orchards along the El Camino...and the apricot peach and pear trees by the thousand right behind my old high school....Jumping over the fence to eat the perfectly ripe golden fruit....[all gone now...buried under housing]
The warm summer days...walking along the creeks fishing for trout....exploring all the little pools for interesting creatures.....and neat looking perfectly smooth stones....rounded by the waters.....[now all the creeks have been cemented for 'flood control']
I remember the huge fields that used to be along the SP tracks...days spent wandering among the fallow grass....watching all the life spring out...rabbits and black birds...we'd go shooting tin cans with our .22‘s…..[that's all gone now too....lost under 'high-tech’ development']
I remember the wonderful little sailing harbor we used to have in Palo Alto at the foot of the Embarcadero....actually a historically significant old harbor....It was so much fun learning to sail.....gaining a deep appreciation for where man fits in the natural environment....what the wind would let you do in a small sailboat...and what you simply could not do....The days spent sailing alone in the huge south bay....alone in that little El Toro.....[That harbor is long gone now....shut down by the sierra club, the league of women voters and the city of Palo Alto...because somehow the scouts who used to have their boats there were deemed a 'Para-military fascist organization']
Hiking up cow hill......was another good memory....watching the sunlight filter through the bay trees...the live oaks...and tall grass..….The best time to see wild life though was during a rain.....the rain would keep your noise and scent down and so you stood a better chance of seeing something neat...as I almost always did.....like a family of red foxes....or the mountain lions......one time very close....less than ten yards....That vixen moving her den was perhaps the neatest thing I've ever seen...her fur all matted from the rains...the kits she carried in her mouth....passively dangling....I froze and stood motionless for almost an hour before she noticed me....and off she went....[those old trails are all closed now.....too many drunk and violent “stanford” kids littering and making a mess of it all. Too many people started to go up there so the university had to strictly regulate it all....fence it all off...post lard-ass security guards...….but boy they got some WAY cool 'art' up there now...on the hillside...and the paved jogging paths are too cute!!!]
Yup.....California memories....

[From one of my other posts...]

[junkman18]

Originally Posted by Coffee Mate

California....pared AND diced.....

Yes. The good memories of home...
The black cherry orchards along the El Camino...and the apricot peach and pear trees by the thousand right behind my old high school....Jumping over the fence to eat the perfectly ripe golden fruit....[all gone now...buried under housing]
The warm summer days...walking along the creeks fishing for trout....exploring all the little pools for interesting creatures.....and neat looking perfectly smooth stones....rounded by the waters.....[now all the creeks have been cemented for 'flood control']
I remember the huge fields that used to be along the SP tracks...days spent wandering among the fallow grass....watching all the life spring out...rabbits and black birds...we'd go shooting tin cans with our .22‘s…..[that's all gone now too....lost under 'high-tech’ development']
I remember the wonderful little sailing harbor we used to have in Palo Alto at the foot of the Embarcadero....actually a historically significant old harbor....It was so much fun learning to sail.....gaining a deep appreciation for where man fits in the natural environment....what the wind would let you do in a small sailboat...and what you simply could not do....The days spent sailing alone in the huge south bay....alone in that little El Toro.....[That harbor is long gone now....shut down by the sierra club, the league of women voters and the city of Palo Alto...because somehow the scouts who used to have their boats there were deemed a 'Para-military fascist organization']
Hiking up cow hill......was another good memory....watching the sunlight filter through the bay trees...the live oaks...and tall grass..….The best time to see wild life though was during a rain.....the rain would keep your noise and scent down and so you stood a better chance of seeing something neat...as I almost always did.....like a family of red foxes....or the mountain lions......one time very close....less than ten yards....That vixen moving her den was perhaps the neatest thing I've ever seen...her fur all matted from the rains...the kits she carried in her mouth....passively dangling....I froze and stood motionless for almost an hour before she noticed me....and off she went....[those old trails are all closed now.....too many drunk and violent “stanford” kids littering and making a mess of it all. Too many people started to go up there so the university had to strictly regulate it all....fence it all off...post lard-ass security guards...….but boy they got some WAY cool 'art' up there now...on the hillside...and the paved jogging paths are too cute!!!]
Yup.....California memories....

[From one of my other posts...]

I can remember these things too, Maybe in a different place in SoCal all the nice things are gone today. Replaced with gang spray paint, Illegals and crime. not a nice place to be anymore.

[visalian]

I miss the "old" CA too. It's a shame because when I was young I griped about living in a small town with "nothing to do" but I'd love if it was like that again- back when the air was cleaner, there weren't gang problems, the traffic wasn't as bad, you felt like you knew everyone. The sad thing is that I know it'll never be as it once was. But, I'd still have a really hard time leaving because it's such a beautiful state (even with the traffic, gangs, etc)- and my family is here.

[Woof]

Even back before civilization came to California, I doubt it could have been accurately called paradisical, except in a few places near the coast where the climate is nice, and a few places up in the mountains where it is scenic.

Most of the area is ugly drab desert. There are beautiful deserts such as in Arizona and Utah, but California's deserts are not pretty.

[cynwldkat]

Depends on your personal idea of paradise?! For me, 20 years ago it sure was paradise. We moved to another state last year and now we feel like this is paradise. Each to their own!

[New England Yankee]

What would you say was the best place and what is the worst place in Ca.

[junkman18]

Originally Posted by New England Yankee

What would you say was the best place and what is the worst place in Ca.

The worst place in Ca. is the pits of Los Angeles. And the best place is as far as you can get from the pits of Los Angeles

[robertpolyglot]

There you go..."paradise lost" as described, or "innocence lost."

Los Angeles, and So Cal, has been more hit harder than the Bay Area in terms of deterioration, in my mind. For the Southland, I would say the critical year was 1984...not because of the Orwell book and not specifically because of the Olympics. I think the city was less hectic, more affordable, less polarized and more casual up to that point. (Funny thing, people mark 1996 as sort of a downward turning point for Atlanta as well, and that was when the Olympic games were held there).

Southern Cal was a paradise when there were still orchards of sorts in OC and Ventura County, together with nice homes and new freeways. But the paving over of these orchards and this beauty, which was inevitable, changed the Southland into a never-ending concrete and strip mall jungle.

Nor Cal is a different story. The Bay Area, with its excellent and interesting topography, not to mention the benign climate, just plain makes for expensive real estate. $ 1 million for a small home in the Bay Area with a sliver of a view or $ 1 million for a small home on Long Island NY with a sliver of a view? C'mon...oh, that's right, "I just have to be near Manhattan"...you can keep it...I'll just visit. I think the Nor Cal area became so "have and have not" because of the intellectual critical mass that is there...the highly educated, the entrepreneurs, the think-tank brains...who made it prohibitive for the middle class to buy that 3 bedroom 1955 stucco ranch in Redwood City or San Leandro or Novato.

Wow, California. For those who didn't "get in on the ground floor," it's a tougher climb.