California exodus mystery (Laguna, Laguna Beach: houses, buy, closing)

[mgforshort]

We live in a small town in the Sierra foothills and we plan to stay.

But if the property tax protection - prop.13 - is eliminated and our prop. taxes double overnight, we might be packing.
Same thing if the prop. insurance is canceled or becomes unaffordable.
We are lucky to have a small lake for our water needs, but other towns are going dry. If the closest town of Chico gets the pipeline to our lake we might lose the water we need.

Our biggest threat to life are wildfires. One average 3 a day. Most of these are started by arsonists. Some get arrested and let go, some get jailed for a year or two. If the fires are stated by the homeless there won't be any consequences.

The state plans to ban or eliminate the following for the new green deal: natural gas, gas-powered vehicles and generators, chainsaws. Seldom does a month go by without a young legislator coming up with some hair brained idea, like, "we haven't banned anything this week, can you guys help me?"

California government hates cars. The Sacramento Bee had a long piece about the difficulty passing the written driving test. They claim a 58% failure rate, and that is among people driving for decades and in need of a renewal.

I drove motorcycles for decades, from coast to coast and back, but I couldn't pass the written test again. The questions are written in such a wicked way, or the questions have nothing to do with traffic laws.

How do you cross an ice-covered bridge on a motorcycle? There will be 3 different answers, and the right answer depends on the bridge, the amount of ice, oncoming traffic, your bike, and your skills; but if you think wrong you won't pass.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by mgforshort

…
How do you cross an ice covered bridge in a motorcycle? ….

“In” a motorcycle?

Anyway, the obvious smart answer is: ‘on a trailer’.
But that’s just motorcycle-hating me.

I expect this thread to now segue off into some truly funny suggestions.

[tikkasf]

I think I would pass on trying that.......I actually like motorcycles. But, I gave up riding them long ago. At one time it was my only form of transportation

[stablegenius]

Originally Posted by sinatras

For all the California haters dying to leave California, how about this: Sell me your house in Menlo Park for $300,000, and you can come and live in my house in Tampa, Florida. You will sweat like a pig the minute you get out of the shower and have fun with all the roaches, alligators and mold. Oh and we have homeless camps and graffiti in Tampa too, Cali-style! Except you will be just as hot and sweaty as they are 6 months of the year no matter where you live! Deal?

Please. That's just it. You can't get a house for 300k in Menlo Park or any of the "good" parts of California, hence why some people leave. Your perspective is irrelevant. You were on vacation. Anyone vacationing anywhere will usually enjoy it. Living here is a different animal.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by stablegenius

Please. That's just it. You can't get a house for 300k in Menlo Park or any of the "good" parts of California, hence why some people leave. Your perspective is irrelevant. You were on vacation. Anyone vacationing anywhere will usually enjoy it. Living here is a different animal.

I live “here” … and love it … as do tens of millions of other Californians.

The constant kvetching and anguish about California expressed on this forum is predictable because forums are typically venues for people to vent … this forum attracts mostly venting. And then, for balance in entertainment, a scattering of non-venting types chime in to rebut.

[sinatras]

Originally Posted by stablegenius

Please. That's just it. You can't get a house for 300k in Menlo Park or any of the "good" parts of California, hence why some people leave. Your perspective is irrelevant. You were on vacation. Anyone vacationing anywhere will usually enjoy it. Living here is a different animal.

Like I said. If California was undesirable, it would be cheap, there would be zero demand for real estate there. In fact it’s the extreme opposite. From what I can tell, for every household that’s leaving, there’s another family (or two) chomping at the bit to pay $3 million for that 1978 split-level right behind them. 1,000 miles I drove through NorCal and there were few homes for sale and the ones for sale most were already pending. There’s a lot of people paying a lot of money to live in that “undesirable” state

[sinatras]

Originally Posted by stablegenius

Please. That's just it. You can't get a house for 300k in Menlo Park or any of the "good" parts of California, hence why some people leave. Your perspective is irrelevant. You were on vacation. Anyone vacationing anywhere will usually enjoy it. Living here is a different animal.

Also I was not on vacation. I was there on business several weeks looking at commercial properties

[sinatras]

Originally Posted by 1200RT

I'm genuinely curious - you sound like you'd love CA. What is precluding you from acquiring property here?

Nothing

[Nasudesu]

I am not leaving CA. Best weather, great medical care, variety of grocery stores and restaurants, ocean, mountains, lakes, redwoods, deserts, and direct international flights, etc. I pay no attention to politics. Don’t like transients and homeless but they are not in my residential areas.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by NORTY FLATZ

To answer your first query, I think it has to do with the rights and liberties that have eroded in California over the years, and the oldsters are done with it. They may recall being able to do lots of things that are illegal now. I can give examples but that really isn't needed, I suppose. Just go to any popular beach and read all the numerous signage: No This and No That.

Now, the people that have fled California, some are very well to do. Some are middle class. It seems that the lower class/homeless class remain. This seems true, based on their numbers. Never have there been as many homeless as there are here, right NOW.

As far as the people immigrating to California, they are mostly from other Countries, that have even less liberty than Californian's. They feel right at home. In fact, they see this as a panacea.
(Some run track from Eritrea to make their escape from their native country.) That's Oregon, but they'll be in SoCal by the weekend. They'll go "underground" like so many more have. Just "disappear..."

And, sorry, I don't have a house in Menlo Park, so I can't help you there. But you DO mention something about Paris. Maybe we CAN work out something...

What 'rights and liberties' have eroded in California? I've lived here most of my life and can't think of anything that I want to do but am prohibited from it by some kind of California only law.