"Just where would you Go?" Poll (Los Angeles, San Fernando: neighborhoods, buy)

[nightbird47]

Originally Posted by City Boy

The cost of living here is higher because people actually want to live here. Why do you think New york, Hawaii, California, Japan, etc etc are expensive? Because so many people live there and want to live there. Imagine if you could get a 4 bedroom house in San Francisco or LA for 150 K. You can't. There is also not much land left to build on which drives up the cost.

I lived in New York, Snow is "cute" for the first year until you get tired of having to get up early to shovel it out of your driveway in order to move your car. No thanks.

Also like I said before. California has the weather of the rest of the country somewhere. It snows, It rains, it hails, it's hot it's dry, it can get humid not that humid like down south but it's been humid. The land changes, there's ocean, rivers, lakes, big cities, plains, flatlands, etc etc. Everything is already here.

Why are some of you so concerned about whether or not the grocery clerk is nice to you? Who cares???

The cost of living is however a major factor with people leaving. If you can afford it, fine, but a lot can't. Or won't be able to when they lose their jobs. The cost of living is way overblown in cali and you don't realize how much until you get away.

You should be able to get a liveable house in a good area for 150k. The rest is all greed and speculation. When the adjustable morgage bubble busts in the next few years perhaps the prices of homes will return to something reasonable and if we're all lucky people will see homes as a place to live rather than something to make money off of.

I couldn't live on NY either.... we have maybe four inches of snow. I wouldn't try anywhere north of here.

And it is indeed important that the clerk at the store is friendly, especially genuinely friendly. So are the neighbors and the people who run the stores. Take away that veil of anger and self absorbtion and rushrushrush and life looks a whole lot nicer. This isn't for everyone but its how do you know until you try? After my visit this holiday I couldn't wait to get away from all the nastyness.

[cabolissa]

I think the rudeness comes from the stress of trying to keep the lifestyle afloat. Of course there are those who bought pre-bubble, or have been here for decades and don't owe on their houses, but the others are in a real fix. People aren't genuinely happy, therefore they're not friendly.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by cabolissa

I think the rudeness comes from the stress of trying to keep the lifestyle afloat. Of course there are those who bought pre-bubble, or have been here for decades and don't owe on their houses, but the others are in a real fix. People aren't genuinely happy, therefore they're not friendly.

Yeah its tough to be friendly when you're always stressed, rushing around, trying to make a buck, running off to job #2, trying to beat traffic, etc, etc. Maybe that's why New Yorkers have had a bad reputation for decades. We're slowing approaching the "New York Minute" lifestyle out here.

[City Boy]

Originally Posted by deathegg88

Spoken by someone who has lived in CA for too long and has obviously forgotten what it is like to live in an area where people are nice to each other, not just because it's the right thing to do in their job but because they are actually, you know, nice people who want to be friendly.

Sheeesh.....

I was being sarcastic about who specifically can be rude. I don't have a problem with rude people. Except when I'm driving but thats most places. Most people are nice for the most part. Once you live in New York City the idea that people in CA are rude is kind of funny. Miami also has some angry people.

[jaynetarzana]

I just don't see Californians as being rude and I grew up in the midwest. The other thing you hear is the Californians are flaky and I have had WAY more experiences with flaky people living in Chicago then I ever did in 13 years living in CA.

[City Boy]

Originally Posted by nightbird47

The cost of living is however a major factor with people leaving. If you can afford it, fine, but a lot can't. Or won't be able to when they lose their jobs. The cost of living is way overblown in cali and you don't realize how much until you get away.

You should be able to get a liveable house in a good area for 150k. The rest is all greed and speculation. When the adjustable morgage bubble busts in the next few years perhaps the prices of homes will return to something reasonable and if we're all lucky people will see homes as a place to live rather than something to make money off of.

I couldn't live on NY either.... we have maybe four inches of snow. I wouldn't try anywhere north of here.

And it is indeed important that the clerk at the store is friendly, especially genuinely friendly. So are the neighbors and the people who run the stores. Take away that veil of anger and self absorbtion and rushrushrush and life looks a whole lot nicer. This isn't for everyone but its how do you know until you try? After my visit this holiday I couldn't wait to get away from all the nastyness.

If people can't afford it fine, but the excuses that people are rude and immigrants are the reason need to stop. Nobody was complaining about that before. Just say "I can't afford to live here so I have to move". There seems to be a large amount of bitter people who can't accept the cost of living here so they rip people who live here and the state as a whole.

This is not the only expensive place on earth. Watch the amount of people who flock back once they find out they actually can afford something out here.

[jaynetarzana]

Originally Posted by City Boy

If people can't afford it fine, but the excuses that people are rude and immigrants are the reason need to stop. Nobody was complaining about that before. Just say "I can't afford to live here so I have to move". There seems to be a large amount of bitter people who can't accept the cost of living here so they rip people who live here and the state as a whole.

This is not the only expensive place on earth. Watch the amount of people who flock back once they find out they actually can afford something out here.

You took the words RIGHT out of my mouth!!!!!!

[jaynetarzana]

To answer the OP question, I know people who have left CA for Monument Colorado, Vancouver CAN, Portland and Bend Oregon and many who go back to the places where they grew up in the midwest and east coast. I would have to say that almost everyone who left did so because of finances. I think that every single one of them would have stayed if they could have afforded it in CA. But it is a fact that CA is very expensive and you have to be willing to deal with that.

[cabolissa]

Originally Posted by City Boy

If people can't afford it fine, but the excuses that people are rude and immigrants are the reason need to stop. Nobody was complaining about that before. Just say "I can't afford to live here so I have to move". There seems to be a large amount of bitter people who can't accept the cost of living here so they rip people who live here and the state as a whole.

This is not the only expensive place on earth. Watch the amount of people who flock back once they find out they actually can afford something out here.

You know, the money is a huge reason... The main reason. If I were a millionaire, you'd find me in a quiet neighborhood in Carmel or somewhere on the central coast. No doubt.

But having been born and raised in California, and then having lived elsewhere you realize things you don't notice while living somewhere - you gain perspective. The state's changed. The population has exploded (I'm not talking about international immigration - we've received people from out of state en masse over the last two decades), and because times have changed. Homes are seen as investments rather than a place to grow roots for your family.

I love California, it will always be my origin. But I am seeking a little more "community" and a tad slower pace of life. It's great if a lower cost of living comes along with that.

[nightbird47]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

Yeah its tough to be friendly when you're always stressed, rushing around, trying to make a buck, running off to job #2, trying to beat traffic, etc, etc. Maybe that's why New Yorkers have had a bad reputation for decades. We're slowing approaching the "New York Minute" lifestyle out here.

I'm speaking as a third generation native. Even before people got so stressed by worry of losing their home or job it had changed drastically. Just because there are plainly too many people. If you asked how long those leaving have lived in cali a great many remember a cali that was very different. It was no longer California. It had a lot to do with finances, but much more to do with feeling like it is now a foreign land.

The "New York Minute" is one of the things that is so wrong with the state. This is primarily from those from elsewhere who came looking for weather. If the first time you saw the state was 1995 then you have no idea what the culture was before. That is what those natives and long long time residents are looking for.

I have to disagree that finances are the primary reason people leave. It certainly does figure in, but if you love the place you live you'll only leave if there is no other option. Its all the other things, especially the way the culture has been hijacked over the last fourty years into something which is no longer California that is the final push.

Not everyone goes to states like Oklahoma. Some want cities and find cheaper ones. But a lot of us are looking for a fundamentally different culture which is not like an almost wannabe of the new york minute. The people who are looking for cheaper urban life will come back if they can. Those who want out of the madness would never return.

I am not bashing California. If you like the way it is thats fine. But as someone who remembers it when it was the image that still prevades, I am very sad that my state has ceased to exist.