Why California? (Santa Barbara, Freedom: environment, relocate, military)

[Rwarky]

Why do you live in California? Are you a native Californian or transplant? Have you lived elsewhere besides this state, then relocated to the region again? If so, what were experiences? Why is this state the most populous in the nation? Is this state underrated or overrated? Is California the greatest state of the union? Could California survive as its own country? Are the other states inferior when compared to this one? What do you like and dislike about living in California? What things would you change about this state if you had the power to do so?

[ferretkona]

For me, steady work at a good wage. I will have a full 30 year pension in a few months at only 50 years old. I get twice as much a hour as most do in other states in my trade.
We plan on moving up north in a few years, we love the snow.

[DMenscha]

Originally Posted by Rwarky

Could California survive as its own country?

Yes we could and if we had invaded Iraq, the Governator would have kicked butt in just under 2 hours.

OK that was fun, but CA does have the 6th or 7th largest economy in the world. We could probably feed ourselves without imports, we might have to import just a bit of foreign oil from TX (If they don't sell it to us cheap, we'll invade them too).

[cre8]

Originally Posted by Rwarky

Why do you live in California? Are you a native Californian or transplant? Have you lived elsewhere besides this state, then relocated to the region again? If so, what were experiences? ... Could California survive as its own country? What do you like and dislike about living in California? ...

California is on par with Japan or France in terms of GDP. Yes, I believe CA would do fine as its own country.

I was born in Europe and relocated to CA as a teenager with my parents. Since then, I've visited 45 other U.S. states. Though many of them were lovely, I couldn't live anywhere but CA. As a foreign-born resident (now a naturalized U.S. citizen) and "hyphenated" American, I find comfort in being surrounded by others in a similar predicament -- immigrants/"orphans" from their birth culture, who live on a cultural bridge of sorts -- one foot in America, the other in the birth culture. We are simultaneously a part of both cultures, yet not completely a part of either.

Other than that, the weather keeps me here.

If I could change anything it'd probably be to tear down the car-culture a bit and beef up public transportation, plus see a stronger effort to create nicer walking environments. Some places in CA are, admittedly, better than others in this regard, but the car-based nature of some communities still amazes me, places where it seems walking wasn't even a remote consideration during planning.

[Capt. Dan]

The Good-
Diverse landscapes. Mountains,deserts, ocean, redwood and sequoya forests,canyons,lakes and rivers.
Diverse cultures and ethnicities.
Weather.
Freedom to be yourself;gay,straight,bisexual or whatever.
Beautiful women!
The Bad-
taxed to death!
over ruled and regulated.
Too many cities can tell you what you can and cant do on your own property.
Southern Cal gangs.

[Rwarky]

Originally Posted by ferretkona

For me, steady work at a good wage. I will have a full 30 year pension in a few months at only 50 years old. I get twice as much a hour as most do in other states in my trade.
We plan on moving up north in a few years, we love the snow.

You plan on moving to Northern California, Canada, or the Northeast U.S.?

[DD70]

I was born In Santa Barbara, I have lived here all my life that is until I got married to a military man. I have pretty muched lived everywhere in the US with excetions of course, for the most part it was tolerable but nothing like my hometown.
Let's see I enjoy the weather, the fact that there are many places to go, beaches and of course all my family resides in California.

[Tony from Europe]

California Is Beautiful,nice,marvellous !!!!!!!!!!

[Humanoid]

I'm a native Californian, I've lived in other states though. I'm back in CA but mainly due to family.

To me California is highly overrated. The job market is good, but other than that it is not that great. Although California has a lot of natural beauty, most of the man made structures are hideous. Southern California is one big hideous piece of concrete.

[bigcats]

I've been here for 7 years. I moved here from Maine (Maine was nice too).

Definitely the diversity of landscapes. We have so much natural beauty here.

I think the problems are overrated, and aren't particularly unique to California for the most part.