California a disasterous state (Laguna, Laguna Beach: beach, rich, activity)

[the point]

Finally, some one with common sense, who understands what the origional poster is writing about, the writing is on the wall.

Originally Posted by shannon94

uuuum, I don't think the original poster meant "disasterous" in the "disaster" sense.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Joe_Ryder

I've come to realize that property in CA isn't expensive at all for what you get. It's just that property in the Midwest is very cheap. There is a reason it's cheap. You are simply getting less.

CA is a great place. That's why 32.5 million people (last number I heard) call it home.

Ya but...

One of the reasons (the strongest reason), California is so expensive is the high demand to live there. A huge part of California's economy is a media machine that constantly propagates the beautiful and desirable aspects of living there: Awesome weather, gorgeous movies stars, beaches, diverse geography, jobs in every major sector, etc. The average American watches 17 hours of TV per week. Much of what he watches are images produced in California and set in California. He is disproportionally exposed to all the nice things there. In his mind, moving to California will immerse him in this utopia.

Might that affect demand for living in California?

Unfortunately for him he will find it a grinding ordeal to commute to work and eventually balk at taking advantage of a lot of the natural beauty due to crowds and traffic. He will never meet a movie star (if you don't think that tickles people, turn around at the checkstand at the superparket and examine what 90% of the magazines are featuring: So-and-so movie star breaking up with so-and-so, etc.) He will never compensate for housing prices with a job that pays only about 10%-12% more (I checked) than his same job in the Midwest.

[skitow]

Originally Posted by greatbasinguide

California, 1,000 miles long, 300 miles wide, deserts, mountains, forests, farmland, coast line. 30,000,000 people, far too darned many, fortunately most of them live south of Conejo and the Grapevine and for the most part they stay there. The rest of the state is pretty grand.

The majority of the land in the state is federally owned, there for your recreation. Are taxes too high? Of course, where aren't they? Are there too many illegal immigrants? of course, where aren't they?

Quit whining, you will be dead inside of 100 years, enjoy your life while you have it.

Hi again. It's been awhile since I've posted. I don't mean to be rude or intrusive, But, Why are you selling your home? I've seen pictures of it, very nice. Maybe too much snow? We will miss your insite. At least I will. If you sell, don't forget to come back online and tell us of your great adventure. Stay safe,skitow

[greatbasinguide]

That question is asked of us a lot. We love our home, and where we live, half the year... We have a number of reasons. We do not ski much anymore. I worked in the business for many years, ski patrol and ski instructor, the usual ski bum occupations. My children all raced Nordic at one time or another, but they don't ski so much any more either. Working five days a week and skiing on weekends is not that much fun if you did it every day and got paid.

Working indoors has made a physical wreck out of me, soft and unfit. No Child Left Behind has taken the fun out of teaching. My wife and I have about 20 years in each, and it is just not fun anymore.

Our sports have shifted, we have a couple of sailboats, horses, pack llamas, motorcycles, road bikes and mountainbikes. All of which sit for half the year.


Arroyo Grande will give us the opportunity to sail, and do all of our other stuff year round. My wife is looking forward to gardening, something which really doesn't work well in Truckee. Two days ago it was 30 degrees in the morning, 90 in the afternoon. That 60 degree difference is hard on plants.

My youngest daughter has already been recruited by the local soccer club. Here we drive her 100 miles round trip three times a week for practice, and drive to Vegas, or San Diego, or Boise, or San Francisco for games, the Central Coast will make that much easier.

And finally, my mother is not doing so well, we need to get down there and take care of her, we still have large business interests in the area, and she can't take of that as she used to.

So, lots of reasons, not the least of which is that it is an easy place to grow old and decrepit.

I will miss the open land, the ability to head out the back door and go thirty miles before hitting a pave road. I will miss the aspens, the clear mountain streams, the infinite open lands of Nevada. I am not looking forward to the closed in spaces of coastal California, but we have land in various places in Nevada, and will travel there frequently.

Big long answer, eh?, I will still attend this board, likely. It is interesting, the folks here for the most part do not get too snarky.

My advice for all of you is "get thee to Elko!" I just drove 400 miles of back dirt roads in North and North East Nevada, and saw no one outside of the few communities, I did however see wild horses, pronghorn, elk.

Nevada is still the West we dream about.

[skitow]

Hi. I can relate to that. The ol' body doesn't hold up forever. Being disabled has surely ruined my life for the last 18 years. My clock ran out a long time ago. So Get active again GBG; you have a lot of good still happening in your life. As you said, enjoy the time that you have in life. You can get knocked down in 1 second. Best to you and yours,skitow

[Aunt Wonnie]

This has been a fascinating discussion. I was born here in CA and have lived from Redding to Sun City (with Oakland and Whittier & Yorba Linda in between) and with constant travel the length of the state, hope I qualify to comment. It's hard to appreciate the privileges you grew up with, but it was an ideal childhood to grow up in Old Orange County before real estate went through the roof. I remember going to Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm in the off-season and feeling like we had the whole park to ourselves. How many kids get to see a Gutenberg Bible (at the Huntington) or dig for a fossil (at La Brea Tar Pits)? Now when I go back to my old high school (which was razed for a mall) I can't find anyone in town who I recognize except Mom--there is no way a graduate of my high school class could afford a house in the old hometown. If someone searches this thread seeking advice on whether or not to move here, be warned: It's a great state in which to live if you have a lot of money. It's more of a struggle for the rest of us.
But it's still possible to find nice, somewhat affordable places to live on the fringes of the "big cities." (Sometimes they're affordable because the employment opportunities aren't there.) I'm thinking of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, where we have friends. If you're employed locally, you're okay; if you have to commute, you suffer. Bakersfield is a special case, not on the "fringe" of anything. That's where we are living now, and when I confess the fact, people usually condemn the town as a hellishly-hot backwater. Yes, it can be hot and can be dull here, but it's affordable, reasonably safe, and at about two hours to the north of LA, you have all the cultural resources at hand. We have a really nice airport but you aren't that far from LAX either. For recreation you have the mountains of Tehachapi and the River to the east. Bakersfield has seen a lot of new construction in the past couple of years (countless acres of cotton fields and almond groves have been converted into side-by-side mansions). You can get a lovely half-acre lot pool home in Bakersfield for the price of a one-bed condo in Orange County. Shopping and dining are okay, as we have all the major chains that you would find farther south, just fewer of them. What they call traffic here isn't anything like the 60 or the 91 or even the 15! It's hot, but not all year round, and the air quality could be improved, but that is what air conditioners are for. It's a trade-off. When I drive back from LA, down the Grapevine, and see that crazy-quilt of green and gold fields stretching out on the valley floor, I feel like I'm really coming home. How much longer it's going to last, I don't know.
I'm so sorry for those who feel they have to bail the state, forced out by the high prices, congestion, and other irritations and tragedies. It's hard to develop a neighborly relationship with people who come and go, and the many times our family has moved made it hard for me to feel close to people when we were soon going to say goodbye. Right now I know we are in a little dream bubble, and when we venture down South we are reminded that we are strangers in our own country (try sitting at a backyard barbecue in La Habra having the neighbors loudly criticize the stupidity of the gringos, ie, us). It really bothered me when the phone book delivered to my mother was entirely in Spanish, which she doesn't know, but I'm not sure I like the Dr. Pepper ads in Spanglish advising us to have more sabor in our lives, either. I know the advertisers are trying to hit the largest segment of the market, but when they advertise paper towels (mas asorbente!) and beer (mas fina!) in Spanish on billboards, it excludes those who don't speak it. I can figure it out because I've lived here all these years, but couldn't a Spanish-speaker figure out the same slogans in English? My husband was a refugee from Eastern Europe, and he nearly died to come here and earn his citizenship. So we were highly sensitized to the struggles of a legal immigrant and the challenges to be overcome. But when it came time to vote, there were translations of the California ballot in Hmong and Vietnamese and about 22 other languages, but not in his. Although he knew seven languages, he had to learn English to function in the US. And he had to learn Spanish to work with the guys on his job. Had he been part of a larger minority, he would not have had half the struggle. He wasn't asking for any special privileges, translations, or accomodations; he was simply surprised that, contrary to rumor, some people were made more equal than others.
This "rambling" is in direct response to various posts in this thread, so please forgive anything that seems off-topic. As a California native, I want to believe the best about my state even while I find parts of it unlivable. And I certainly urge those of you who would like to live in a place both affordable and pleasant to consider the west side of Bakersfield and the newer homes to the north. Bring your job skills and your businesses and set up shop. You'll find we have theatres (even a melodrama!) and arts already established. Or come to retire in sunshine. Our biggest problem here, it seems to me, is the wild church-going women in their SUVs who blast the doors off little law-abiding grannies like me. You see, they just don't understand speed limits around here.

[greatbasinguide]

Skitow, I do not know what your disability is, I am fortunate that my only disability is just the general breakdown from a very well spent youth. My back is a big problem.
I try to run by life by paraphrasing Dylan Thomas, who said, "Rage, Rage against the dying of the light, do not go gentle into that good night"

My paraphrase runs this way, "Rage, Rage against the creaking of the bones, do not let pain run your life"

Some of what I have I have to help me fight the elderlies. I have the pack llamas as my back doesn't like a back pack any more. I have the horse for when my legs go out, I have the jeep for when I am truly decrepit. One of my first projects when I move is to walk through the mountains from Cuesta Grade on the 101 north of San Luis Obispo to I 5 near Castaic. I figure that walk will fix me or kill me.

My wife may even come along, she refuses to believe there is anything I can do that she can't.

Again, not knowing your disability I do not wish to step on toes, I will give you a URL of a fellow, a parapalegic and his accomplishments; No Limits - Mark Wellman - Adventure Athlete, Motivational Speaker

The men in our family have a curse, for generations they have died young from stroke, I am right inbetween them age wise, which means I have zero life expectancy. I plan to skid into heaven (or hell, more likely) completely worn out and used up. Whatever time I have left I will spend being as active as I can be.

[skitow]

greatbasin. I'll make it quick so as not to bore the population. Two back operations, followed by a stroke. Seems we are playing the same song. I'd say LOL, but there's nothing funny about it. Take care,skitow

[CaliforniaDreamer]

Hi - I was interested to read Tom's views on California. We live in Europe and are thinking of buying a holiday home in California. Is it really that bad in CA? The things that really bother me are the earthquakes? Can someone enlighten me as to whether they're really such a big threat? The more I read, the more nervous I'm becoming about the whole thing.

[greatbasinguide]

California is earthquake prone, small quakes happen everyday, you generally cannot feel a 1 or a 2. Large ones seldom. More people are killed by bees in California than by earthquakes. I am in my fifties, I have lived in California most of my life, I have been in two large quakes. The Oroville quake in the middle 70's, that was exciting, and the San Simeon Quake in 2002 (I think) I actually missed that one as I was driving my rattly truck down 101 and never noticed it. My wife and kids shopping in San Luis Obispo got bounced around, but not hurt.

Here is a website you can track Earthquakes daily; Recent Earthquakes in California and Nevada - Index Map