For Those Thinking of Leaving, Where are You Looking to Go? (Sacramento: pharmacy, to live in)

[Charles]

Originally Posted by nightbird47

I have no problem with anyone's religion but leave mine alone please.

They don't want your soul; Those kooks want your money. They say is god is all powerful, all knowing, all perfect, and all wise but for some reason, god just can't handle money.

[bond1978]

I've been in Southern California my whole life and I can say that based on my research the states that are up and coming in terms of jobs and quality of life are Florida and North Carolina with Virginia a not too distant third. People don't realize just how bad the city of Los Angeles is run. LAUSD is on the verge of being completely being taken over by the Feds. The weather factor here is so overated when one considers the traffic and low quality of life and just overal crowdedness of the place. Despite this I'm used to this place but could see myself leaving anyways.

[blauskies]

Originally Posted by bond1978

I've been in Southern California my whole life and I can say that based on my research the states that are up and coming in terms of jobs and quality of life are Florida and North Carolina with Virginia a not too distant third. People don't realize just how bad the city of Los Angeles is run. LAUSD is on the verge of being completely being taken over by the Feds. The weather factor here is so overated when one considers the traffic and low quality of life and just overal crowdedness of the place. Despite this I'm used to this place but could see myself leaving anyways.

I would take Florida off of your list, things are not so great here now on the job market. Not sure what part your looking at but I'm in South Florida and we have major corruption issues in local government, rising taxes and home insurance rates, traffic and overcrowding and that's the short list.

Home prices rose to insane levels then dropped but are still too high for the average income earner. Salaries in general are low to the high cost of living.

Weather might be too much to handle for some, people move here from drier climates can't handle the humidity (it's currently 90 here now with 65% humidity) sure our winters are very mild and that's when it's the most appealing but with that comes a large seasonal crowd with even more traffic and clogged roadways.

Things here are not by any means on the magnitude of Southern California, it's a smaller area with a smaller population bordering the Everglades with no room to grow.

The rest of the state is of a different make-up, you have plenty of other choices in the state personally I would avoid Orlando, but the job issue remains the same. It would be nice if a bunch of those high tech companies in CA would relocate to Florida but I don't see that happening nor would I expect things to be any better.

[markfromCA]

Originally Posted by Ludachris

And you're unhappy in San Ramon? If we could afford San Ramon, I'm not sure we'd leave the area. Not to say we don't enjoy Denver.

I love the area. it is when i travel outside the bubble that i get fed up with California. My biggest worry is what am i setting my kids up for when they grow up?

[vlfradio]

This syndrome is not just in the "Bible Belt." I recall in 1988 when I visisted a good family friend in Merlin, Oregon, some local J.W.'s actually hung dead chickens from the porch eaves of our friend's (rural) house there, because he rejected their offers to join their church. So there is a sort of religious fanaticism thread throughout our country everywhere, it would seem.

Your posting, albinoazian, was very funny and has me laughing so hard right now. But yes, for various reasons, we must be careful with our views - we may not suffer (too much) a "tyranny of the Government" like people in the former USSR/Soviet Bloc did, but we DO, alas, suffer from a form of "tyranny of the People," alas, and your posting proves this, once again.

OK, I grew up in Marin County (San Rafael) and finally left there in 1997 - WHY?? Crowded roads, extreme cost-of-housing, traffic gridlock, cold, rude people (some quite extremely), increasing road-rage, increasing days of bad smog in even the North bay Area, then you wish to "escape" into the beautiful Marin hills only to find yourself overrun as a hiker by hugely-increasing amounts of aggrresive mountain-bikers (heck, even mere bicyclists in Marin County have become manic and demonic, unfortunately - so unlike places like Copenhagen, Denmark, etc.).

So I bailed out after being so stressed out - I desired a place (being single) that I could afford to live, preferably within CA, but I was willing to go to anywhere in the Pacific time zone. So I chose Lakeview, OR in late 1996 - and you know what - scary, redneck, meth/druggies everywhere, loud, unmufflered pick-up trucks everywhere, a high-percentage of scary people in that town of about 3,000 population.

And so I returned to California - but found KEELER, CA, a tiny semi-ghost town of about 70 people (see zip 93530 data on this site) and LOVE it here - I own my home in the clear, can do my home-biz and live without a "job" or "boss" because I can afford to be self-employed with a radio business. Tons of open spaces nearby - Death Valley Nat. Park to the High Sierra Nevada Mountains nearby - a desert paradise playground for myself! Tolerant, open-minded people here - the majority - it is very cool!

But there are a few bad sides to here, like occasional and sometime frequent military jet "attacks" on this teeny town (so there is a lot of noisy jet airplane activity), dust storms, extreme heat and cold, - so I cannot expect pure quietude here until late in the evening, then it is soo quiet you can hear a pin drop a mile away!

Yep, no place is perfect, and I have been to 16 countries. So I will "stay and pay" as Neil Young sings in his album "Hawks and Doves."

--vlfradio--

Originally Posted by albinoazian

That is why I said that I was having trouble coming up with places. My dad gets church folks bugging him 3-4 times a week in Texas. He bought a sheik looking outfit with the head piece that he keeps by the door now. So, when the people he has told countless times to stop bugging him, keep coming by, he puts on the sheik head piece to mess with them.

Some of his neighbors in Texas spray painted his Obama-Biden sign and threw stuff at the house. He said that it was cool when on Halloween a group of black kids (~12-13) knocked on the door and said they didn't want candy, but to only shake his hand.

Or like in Kansas where they were burning Harry Potter books. I just don't want to be in an environment like that. It is like Colin Powell said, "And so what if Obama is Muslim." I would prefer to investigate a place where the predominant belief isn't to hate something different, like Muslims. It is like the McCarthy era except Communist has just been swapped with Muslim.

[vlfradio]

I grew up in Marin County, California, and left there in 1997 stressed-out for various reasons. I am now living and very happy in Keeler, Caifornia, a teeny, semi-ghost town of population 70 or so. I found my little piece of happiness and tranquility within the maw of California - a state I thought I would leave years ago...

I have seen some "Texas-bashing" in this forum, and find it a bit of a bummer - because... I got invited on a storm-chasing group to meet in Texas and follow bad storms that had tornadoes associated with them (we rarely have to fear those out in CA), and I admit I expected the "worst" about Texas because of what so many people whom do not live there had to say about the state.

And you know what? When I got there via a long drive, back in May 2006, I found I really LIKED Texas - it was far more mellow everywhere - cities to small towns, than most places in CA. People were very helpful, the traffic was far-less intense and people were friendlier - by far, than in a lot of CA cities. But that was just my findings upon staying there for one week during my storm-chasing adventure, so I can't judge Texas as a resident would. But I had mighty-good first impressions. My father was stationed at Bergstrom AFB, near Austin, in 1968-70, so I did live there, on an air-base, as a child, and have dim but fond memories of our Texas travels even way back then. Just my own two cents. Thanks.

Originally Posted by dweej

Agreed. All 4 major metro areas voted blue in the last election, including "conservative" San Antonio. Some of my most liberal friends live in Dallas and Austin. Texas isn't for everyone, granted, but to imply that it's filled with a bunch of backward, bible-thumping, vandals is a little close minded...

[vlfradio]

Yep - I thought this way a dozen or two times over the past decade.

Then, I traveled on a 10-country tour in September 2009: Denmark (the nicest urban place - Copenhagen - I visited, Germany, Poland, Lithuania (very unsmiling people, and grafitti everwhere in Vilnius), Latvia (delightful), St. Petersburg, Russia (freer now, but scary drivers abound - worse than L.A. drivers by far, and winters there, brrr...), Helsinki, Finland (wonderful soft water, far-friendlier that a lot of USA places, but I was just a tourist), and Stockholm, Sweden (gorgeous central city, but the outskirts resemble Seattle).

I guess my point is, "the grass often seems greener on the other side" goes the old-tired saying, and it is true. Despite, for example, Germany's generous social-benefits and more "liberal" social attitude as the reputation is, I can't judge these places at all, being a mere tourist. While I thought I was really enjoying Berlin, and met some cool locals, I was hanging out by the old remaining section of the Berlin Wall, when some jack-arse in a Black BMW ripped out from a parking spot and nearly ran me down - rapidly changing my opinion of Berlin for the worse, unfortunately. Ya gotta watch out for Europeans in black BMW's - they think they own the roads there - that was a universal observation I saw in many places.

So my point is, we can think the USA is getting worse, but then, you move on to another country, and find in one fell-swoop that things are not better - really. Just my observations last year during my "tourist-binge."

I really like living in huge, low-population Inyo County, California because the World comes to visit here and see Death Valley (the lowest) to Mt. Whitney (the highest) and it makes for a very cosmopolitan feel to this ex-Marinite, despite it being so rural. But even Lone Pine, filled with tourists, has its share of arse-backwards "goobers" so what can one do???

A person has find your little piece of happiness, no matter where, I guess. It worked out for me - I struggled with the question "where to move to" for a dozen years before I found my place in a ghost-town. :]

Originally Posted by TheCaliforniaBear

I'm getting out of the US. This whole country really sucks these days. Sad but true. There are better countries out there.

[vlfradio]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

29 Palms? Are you kidding? That's hardly the mythical California people dream about. It's the middle of the freaking desert. You might as well move to Phoenix. At least there's civilization there.

Ummm, one other thing to really consider about Twentynine Palms, CA - although it is adjacent to the gorgeous Joshua Tree National Park - a place I find totally fascinating and amazing, and love to travel the 150-something miles down to there from Keeler, Ca, my home-ghost-town, to hike in the splendor of those huge granite boulders there:

It is a military/Marine town next to Twentynine Palms MCAS. I honestly find it a scary place because of that - a lot of aggresive, young "Jarheads" abound there, and weekends can be frightening there - I only go there during the weekdays when they are busy on their base... nothing anti-military here, just my reality-observations.

One of my San Diego friends calls the place a cool "desert-dive" - the outskirts of 29Palms has zillions of those "Jackrabbit Homesteads" built in the (I think) 30's and 40's for "desert escapees" and that is interesting in itself, but please VISIT and hang-out in the place before you consider it just because it is in the desert!

Now, I love the desert, and go to JTNP frequently, but really consider if you love to be around a lot of aggressive, pent-up "young-Marines" before you move there...

A word of advice...

g-day.

[BacktoBlue]

You may have loved texas, but I for one will never move there and have no desire too. ugh even thinking of my time there makes me sick

I'm staying here forever because it is where I want to be for the rest of my life. Despite the economical status of California, it is still an amazing state with so many interesting towns and cities with lots of beautiful scenery from oceans, tall redwoods, to hills, mountains, and deserts! it will always be my home because no other state I have been to can compete in my opinion.

[vlfradio]

Originally Posted by SoCalBrad

You may have loved texas, but I for one will never move there and have no desire too. ugh even thinking of my time there makes me sick

I'm staying here forever because it is where I want to be for the rest of my life. Despite the economical status of California, it is still an amazing state with so many interesting towns and cities with lots of beautiful scenery from oceans, tall redwoods, to hills, mountains, and deserts! it will always be my home because no other state I have been to can compete in my opinion.

Brad,

Yeah... "loved" may be a tad of a stretch - I did like some things about TX 4 years ago during my storm-chasing experience - especially a section of the state between Alpine, Marfa, and Sanderson (mountainous and outback territory that vaguely resembles the Outback of Australia - yes, no kidding. But those nasty t-storms/tornadoes were intimidating!

But, I do love so many things about ole' Cali (landscape!) especially here in Inyo County, that I'm not inclined anymore to think about moving away.

And I still really like to visit the folks in Marin County now that I don't have to stress-out about having to live full-time there.

-v-