Wanting to move to Cali (San Diego, Columbia: employment, purchasing, bankruptcy)

[Wanderer818]

#1. Learn spanish. You'll need it.

#2. Learn to drive un nice, Minnesota nice won't cut it here.

#3. Want to see the real problems here? Spend a day in DOWNTOWN Los Angeles. Near the Flower District. If you can handle that yer 1/2 way there.

#4. Get an attitude or the Illegals will take all you have. Doubt it? Look at the state of our state.

#5. Visit an emergency room and count the emergency cases. Most in ER are undocumented or anchor baby family's sucking the life out of our hospitals.

#6. Be prepared to be treated like a piece of ****e.

#7. Bring lot's of money. And a real nice car. And dress real fancy or the women out here will scoff at you.

#8. Bring yer guns and ammo or be ready to buy em here.

#9. Job? Pal, so many of the people I know out here are hurting. Looking for new jobs after being with a company for 12, 14, 18 years. So the competition for what few good paying jobs is pretty ruthless.

#10. California has many a strange labor laws, like "at will". Check it out.


don't get me wrong, we've done well in California, but we have been here for over thirty years. Both of us retired now and liquidating so we can get the hell outta here..

#11. Get ready to press "1 for english".

#12. Have a pocket full of Vicodin or other tranq's when you go to the DMV.
That will rock yer Minnesota mind more than anything else.

Good luck and fair breezes.

[LQQKOUT]

Originally Posted by Wanderer818

#1. Learn spanish. You'll need it.

#2. Learn to drive un nice, Minnesota nice won't cut it here.

#3. Want to see the real problems here? Spend a day in DOWNTOWN Los Angeles. Near the Flower District. If you can handle that yer 1/2 way there.

#4. Get an attitude or the Illegals will take all you have. Doubt it? Look at the state of our state.

#5. Visit an emergency room and count the emergency cases. Most in ER are undocumented or anchor baby family's sucking the life out of our hospitals.

#6. Be prepared to be treated like a piece of ****e.

#7. Bring lot's of money. And a real nice car. And dress real fancy or the women out here will scoff at you.

#8. Bring yer guns and ammo or be ready to buy em here.

#9. Job? Pal, so many of the people I know out here are hurting. Looking for new jobs after being with a company for 12, 14, 18 years. So the competition for what few good paying jobs is pretty ruthless.

#10. California has many a strange labor laws, like "at will". Check it out.


don't get me wrong, we've done well in California, but we have been here for over thirty years. Both of us retired now and liquidating so we can get the hell outta here..

#11. Get ready to press "1 for english".

#12. Have a pocket full of Vicodin or other tranq's when you go to the DMV.
That will rock yer Minnesota mind more than anything else.

Good luck and fair breezes.

Ha, I love these......they are ALL true to the word.
Also, keep in mind it will take you an hour or so to go 15 miles anywhere!
Enjoy California!

[Rhenzanite]

Originally Posted by Proud Rowlett Owner

Ha, I love these......they are ALL true to the word.
Also, keep in mind it will take you an hour or so to go 15 miles anywhere!
Enjoy California!

Ok. This is getting ridiculous. Why does EVERYONE assume all of California is Southern California???? I have nearly NONE of the problems described in the above 2 posts and *gasp* I live in California!! I don't make 100k a year, have NEVER been pressured into purchasing fancy clothes or an expensive car to 'fit in', my neighbors and community do NOT treat me like **** and we only have traffic if there's an accident or road construction and even that rarely happens.

Quit lumping all of California into your SoCal stereotype. And I believe 42 of the states have at will employment statutes, with only 8 having none at all.

[LQQKOUT]

Originally Posted by JetJockey

Ok. This is getting ridiculous. Why does EVERYONE assume all of California is Southern California???? I have nearly NONE of the problems described in the above 2 posts and *gasp* I live in California!! I don't make 100k a year, have NEVER been pressured into purchasing fancy clothes or an expensive car to 'fit in', my neighbors and community do NOT treat me like **** and we only have traffic if there's an accident or road construction and even that rarely happens.

Quit lumping all of California into your SoCal stereotype. And I believe 42 of the states have at will employment statutes, with only 8 having none at all.

WOW! Not lumping on California's...just stating the facts.

[Rhenzanite]

Originally Posted by Proud Rowlett Owner

WOW! Not lumping on California's...just stating the facts.

Yes, the facts of Southern California, not the facts of California as a whole. It gets a little irritating when people say 'Don't move to California, it's nothing but rude people, traffic, smog, sprawl and concrete' when that is absolutely not true. Some of California yes... but all? No.

[coyoteskye]

Originally Posted by JetJockey

Ok. This is getting ridiculous. Why does EVERYONE assume all of California is Southern California???? I have nearly NONE of the problems described in the above 2 posts and *gasp* I live in California!! I don't make 100k a year, have NEVER been pressured into purchasing fancy clothes or an expensive car to 'fit in', my neighbors and community do NOT treat me like **** and we only have traffic if there's an accident or road construction and even that rarely happens.

Quit lumping all of California into your SoCal stereotype. And I believe 42 of the states have at will employment statutes, with only 8 having none at all.

Yep!
Media informed people regarding CA.
I'm in Santa Cruz ... doesn't matter what you where, what you drive, how thin you are, how old or young you are, how dirty your fingernails or hair, how beautiful you are, how much money you make, what kind of car you drive, etc.
People with the bucks here aren't obnoxiously obvious about it.
We just have the little traffic issue during rush hour on HW1 over and back over the hill to San Jose.

[riceme]

loveandpeace85 :

I lived my whole life in California -- in Southern California, then on the North Coast -- until about five years ago when I moved to Pensacola, Florida. If you want to move to a beach town where there is a lot of night life, and don't have a high-paying job to walk right into in California or Hawaii, Florida might be a better option for you to explore. The cost of living here is much cheaper.

I live in what is -- for this area -- a very, very nice 700 sq-ft condo where most of the people own the units they live in. There is a beautiful pool, the whole place overlooks the water... it's on the Gulf of Mexico (which is about a 15-minute drive, and is extremely expensive to live on or near), but it's on Escambia Bay. I pay $650/month for rent. So, there are many considerably less-expensive options in the area. Since there is a university and a community college here, if you were to come here, once you made friends it would be relatively easy to get roommates and share expenses for housing and things of that nature.

I understand wanting or needing to get out, see and do new things, and maybe make a fresh start, but California is extremely expensive, and jobs are very hard to come by. Don't get me wrong... Jobs are definitely hard to find here, as well, but the cost of living here is so much lower, your financial risk would be lessened significantly.

Do you plan to move by yourself, or do you have a friend who plans to go with you? Do you have a vehicle? Do you have an education or a degree? Or is there a specific line of work that you work in? If not, what sort of work will you be looking for?

[uptown_urbanist]

It's a bit ironic to complain about California stereotypes and then turn around and lump all of Southern CA into one big category. CA is a huge state, and you'll find a bit of everything. No one cared what kind of car I drove in LA , for example, (which was nothing, as I don't drive. Didn't matter.) There was, admittedly, bad traffic.

I think CA is a wonderful place. It may very well be what you're looking for. But it's not being unrealistically negative to say that a move at this point in time would not be easy. I know people across the state, in both big cities and smaller places, and nearly all of them have either experienced job-related insecurity first-hand (laid off or hours reduced) or are worried that they will in the near future. I know people with years of experience scrambling to get a job, and they're willing to take lower-level jobs because an entry-level job is better than no job.

I love California, or at least many parts of it, but think you'll have a tough time being able to afford it right now. Given that there are other interesting places out there, too, that also might be good fits, it might be better to check somewhere else out for now and move to CA later. Or find a job before moving. At the very least make sure you leave enough money to move back somewhere else if you find that it just won't work out, at least not this year. Maybe by the time you are ready to move the economy will have improved; in the meantime, if you're serious about moving, start saving your money now. I do, by the way, completely understand the impulse to try something new, and think it's a great thing to do. You're just unlucky in wanting to do it at a really bad time.

[riceme]

uptown_urbanist has phrased it very well.

I think California has got to be the most diversely beautiful states this country's got, from the varying coastlines of the Pacific to the Sierras, the Mojave Desert, the Redwoods, Death Valley, Yosemite,... even some of the cities, in their own way, have their charm. There's no other city in the world quite like San Francisco, California! I love my home state, but I'll be damned if it isn't expensive to live there, especially if you are not already established.

I have certainly gotten by on a pretty skimpy budget in California before, but I had family in the areas (remote areas, compared to what you're looking for), I knew where to rent, had friends and roommates lined-up, not to mention I was living in places that had considerably lower costs of living than the norm in California.

So, if that's what you really have your heart totally set on, don't abandon your dream altogether, just let the excitement for your adventure be tempered by the experience of those of us who've been there. I would again suggest that you look into the Gulf Coast of Florida.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

The answer is Oxnard. Seriously. Not that bad ... not good enough to be overpriced.