California is huge, why do people make generalizations (San Diego, San Jose: home, rent)

[Tex?Il?]

California is the third largest state in area. Its over 700 miles from north to south ( I think I have to check on that).

Why does everyone think of California (including those who live there) generalize the state as being overly expensive, overcrowded, congested, full of illegals, rude people, etc.

I've only been there once, but I want to explore it more.

All one has to do is look at a map and see the huge swaths of Cali that are dominated by wilderness and small towns/rural areas. Check out maps.google even

Theres the SF Bay area, and the San Diego-L.A-Santa Barbara SoCal megalopolis. Then theres the smaller cities of the valley, and the smaller towns in far north Cali and small places between Monterrey and Santa Barbara. Are people including native Californians simply unaware of these existence of those places?

You read posts of native Californias who want to move to other western states. But you look (or go to) places like Eureka, San Luis Obispo, Redding, etc. Aren't you able to find lower costs of living and peace and quiet in those places as you would find in Oregon, Colorado, etc?

I don't get it, are these places not very nice?

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Tex?Il?

Why does everyone think of California (including those who live there) generalize the state as being overly expensive, overcrowded, congested, full of illegals, rude people, etc.

Why are you generalizing that everyone thinks that?

Originally Posted by Tex?Il?

You read posts of native Californias who want to move to other western states. But you look (or go to) places like Eureka, San Luis Obispo, Redding, etc. Aren't you able to find lower costs of living and peace and quiet in those places as you would find in Oregon, Colorado, etc?

Not really unless you don't need a job. I checked. It is in the $300-$350/sqft there too. (So for a 2000 sqft home at $600K, you need to earn well into the six figures....) Also, those places (Oregon, Colorado, Texas, etc.) don't benefit from the free advertising California gets. A lot of people (as evidenced from many original posts on City Data) are exposed to the positives of California from TV and Movies. Most of the time those exposures are positive (uncrowded beaches, beautiful chicks, pristine skyscrapers, convertibles, foreground orange trees with snow capped background, etc. - kind of like what I'm seeing following the commercials of the Laker game I'm watching right now). It has to have an effect on demand.

Many of those who are looking to move out are starting or have families. Many of those who can manage urban California are single or DINKs with decent incomes and rent rather than own.

[Tim Currie]

They're ignorant....or an idiot.

Quick answer

[tande1n5]

Originally Posted by Tex?Il?

But you look (or go to) places like Eureka, San Luis Obispo, Redding, etc. Aren't you able to find lower costs of living and peace and quiet in those places as you would find in Oregon, Colorado, etc?

Now, I'm generalizing, but no, they're still going to be a bit more (although San Luis Obispo is "cheap" to LA, SF, or San Diego, it still isn't), and some of the more "affordable" towns are, frankly, armpits (Quite a few of the smaller Central Valley towns are God-awful). Especially the coastal towns, which still carry a California premium. Also, there aren't many jobs in the small towns like the cities. Many of those towns are for the retired, because there aren't major employers, unless you want to bag at Safeway. Some of these towns are tiny, and the only jobs are those that make it self-sufficient, which doesn't attract new folk.

People don't think about geographical size. They think about population, just as most Californians forget that upstate New York exists sometimes. If you run into a Californian on the streets of Kansas City, it's much more likely that he's from one of CA's big cities.

Frankly, I roll my eyes as a native Northern Californian when someone from out of state assumes I'm a surfer from LA when I tell them I'm from California. But if that's the price of keeping some of those towns "unknown" to outsiders, so be it. The charm of places like San Luis Obispo, San Simeon, Crescent City, etc, is in their quaint size and relative isolation. The last thing you'd want is those places becoming another LA.

[FresnoFacts]

I still remember the stories from the last major exodus of Californians a couple of decades ago. They were looking to "escape" everything that was wrong about California.

People would move to small towns around the west (Idaho, Utah, etc.) then complain that it wasn't like "home". They would complain about the lack of fine dining, a good latte, things to do, etc.

I fear we are going to see that again.

[happ]

As a native Californian of 5 generations, I can assure readers that Cali is one very beautiful place. I flew up to San Jose to visit family this past weekend looking down on still lush green hillsides & noticed patches of snow on highest peaks of Tehachapi’s. The Pacific ocean is an incredible sight as the plane crosses over the mountains above Santa Barbara. & flying into LA at night is awesome.

There's no other state like California in sheer diversity of landscape & cultures.

[Huckleberry3911948]

there is northern and southern california but some things are the same.
my uncle in mississippi says huck, livin in california is like livin with a beautiful woman that has a headache all the time.

[cre8]

Originally Posted by FresnoFacts

I still remember the stories from the last major exodus of Californians a couple of decades ago. They were looking to "escape" everything that was wrong about California.

People would move to small towns around the west (Idaho, Utah, etc.) then complain that it wasn't like "home".

Yeah, I was one of those who was fed-up with CA in those days, Southern CA to be specific. One June day in the mid-80s I packed everything I needed into a small pickup truck with a camper shell on the back, hit the I-5 north and didn't stop for a long time. That summer I bounced around northern CA, Shasta-Trinity, Humboldt-Del Norte, the Oregon coast, and everything in between it and the Cascades. Eventually I wound up on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, Seattle and various ferry boats around the San Juan islands. Spent probably two months bumping around the west coast before I went broke and spent the last of my money on gas to get back to Southern CA. Something in me on that trip back decided that Southern CA wasn't so bad after all; I could hold out another year or two, make some money and then head north again. It never happened. Now it's hard to imagine living anywhere but Southern CA.

[grimstuff]

I think most people who come to this site are dissatisfied with something about where they live. I know I am; that's why this site helps me to get subjective information regarding other places. I try to offer as objective opions as I can about where I live, but I can't control how someone else interprets what I say.

Experience is almost completey subjective... that's why we shouldn't expect to get a good idea of what it's like in another place unless we go there ourselves.

[Caliguy2007]

Some people just hate California or the changes that have occurred through the years,so they'll find anything negative to say,even it means generalizing all 163,696 square miles and the entire 37 Million people that live here

Originally Posted by Tex?Il?

California is the third largest state in area. Its over 700 miles from north to south ( I think I have to check on that).

Why does everyone think of California (including those who live there) generalize the state as being overly expensive, overcrowded, congested, full of illegals, rude people, etc.

I've only been there once, but I want to explore it more.

All one has to do is look at a map and see the huge swaths of Cali that are dominated by wilderness and small towns/rural areas. Check out maps.google even

Theres the SF Bay area, and the San Diego-L.A-Santa Barbara SoCal megalopolis. Then theres the smaller cities of the valley, and the smaller towns in far north Cali and small places between Monterrey and Santa Barbara. Are people including native Californians simply unaware of these existence of those places?

You read posts of native Californias who want to move to other western states. But you look (or go to) places like Eureka, San Luis Obispo, Redding, etc. Aren't you able to find lower costs of living and peace and quiet in those places as you would find in Oregon, Colorado, etc?

I don't get it, are these places not very nice?