Anyone else think LA is going down the toilet? (Los Angeles: safest neighborhood, buy)

[monti]

Originally Posted by TrojanDLA

The South is still a bastion of intolerance, and that for me is not worth a house and picket fence for $130K.

Bravo! I wholeheartedly agree!

[Charles]

Originally Posted by lagirly30

So I think it's unanimous. We all think LA is going to the toilet. I think that too for all of the same reasons why so many people think LA is going to the toilet.... WHY DO WE STAY???

They don't:

"Last year [2004], a half million people left California for other parts of the United States, while fewer than 400,000 Americans moved there. The net outflow has risen fivefold, to more than 100,000, since 2001, an analysis by Economy.com, a research company, shows, although immigration from other countries and births have kept the state's population growing."

From

Saying Goodbye California Sun, Hello Midwest - New York Times

[simpleprincess]

I think until who speaks ill of illegal immigrants is one themself they should not judge i feel anyway. living in l.a i totally agree with most of these problems ive lived here 4 years [ too long] and ive found l.a is too money minded, a room or or an apartment appears to go the higgest bidder. so im stuck in this shabby motel since last august becuase no-one would rent to me plus i have a pet that outlaws any chances of finding somewhere. people seem very anti pets here. also the prentiuous ,snobbery, self seeking of these people around me is awful. everyone comes accross as very rude, i try to stop people in the street to maybe ask the time, they carry on walking like you dont exist, the traffic is horendous. i can only afford weekly rent now unfortunatly i did have amonths rent and deposit but it was wasted on motels becuase it has taken us a very long to find somewhere, also theres like 20-30 other people going for the same room!!!Im wanting to live somewhere nice without overly greedy landlords.im curently stuck in this shabby motel with a nasty manager and i have nowehere else to go..

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by monti

People always underestimate the ****tiness of the midwest.

Are you including Chicago in that statement?

[kritterz78]

It really is so comical to hear everyone complain about LA. I am originally from Southern CA and have lived in MA for about 4 1/2 years. I am moving out of here in 2 weeks and I can't wait!!! The only reason I am not retunring to CA is my extreme fear of earthquakes. If you complain about LA then come to MA. In the few years I have been here I have been run off the road and in car accidents 5 times...I was never hit once in LA in 24 years!!! The people here are rude, self centered, closed minded, the state is filthy and littered everywere you go. The road conditions are so bad that cars spin out on highways and blow tires do to foot deep pot holes...EVERYWHERE!!! The big dig collapsed and killed an innocent person last year...MA knew that the tunnel was a threat!!! Our electric company has a HUGE problem with live wires EVERYWHERE and as people walk their dogs, they are electricuted and killled on the side walks. This summer a child suffered serious burns on his legs and now needs extensive surgery and skin grafts when he was burned but hot steam that poured from a man hole cover. There are thousands...yes thousands...of natural gas leaks everywhere and houses suddenly explode. The police and state troopers are rude and unhelpful. The medical care is so out dated it is scary! I spent 7 months in the hospital in CA for cancer and recieved the BEST medical care possible. Out here I recieved the WORST care anhyone could get. The doctors here were not even sure what medications I was taking. The helath insurance is simply UNAFFORDABLE...I had Blue Cross of CA PPO and it was very reasonably priced and a GREAT plan! In MA you pay excise tax on your car......their reason for this is that it is your privelage to drive in MA....that's a joke!!! I know people's kids misbehave everywhere however in MA the kids are so wild, rude, out of control, and filthy mouthed...even in elementary school it is sick! The homes are still heated with oil that is expensive and leaks into the basement all the time. Or you can always heat your home with forced hot water which gets your temp your temp up to 55 degrees...great when it's -35 and snowing!!! Rent is extreme and unlke the great state of CA there is NO rent control.....and I can't tell how bad the slum lords out here are!!! Boston has a huge infestation with rats and mice. That's just to name a few....so it's true what they say...the grass is not always greener on the other side!!!

[Candid Canuck]

Originally Posted by TrojanDLA

Charlotte, NC is definitely not for everybody. Sorry no offense, but I dislike the annual hurricane/tornado season and need a community with more diversity in terms of culture/food/events. Charlotte would be fine if I wanted to be surrounded by either White or Black people who didn't like to hang out together. I used to live in Atlanta when I worked in the South for 8 years. Yes housing there is affordable, but housing doesn't appreciate much in the South does it? You buy a house for $130K in 2003, guess how much it's worth in 2007? $170K? That same house if bought in Burbank for 130K in 2003 would be $450K today, after the bubble popped. A home in Charlotte is not an investment, it's just a home. A home in LA can pay for your kid's college education after 10 years.

And the diversity in the South is simply ironic. With all those Black people there, you'd think there would be tolerance wouldn't you? Nope. If you're Black, you hang out with Black people in Black clubs around Black neighborhoods. If you're White, you hang out with Whities in their neighborhoods. The diversity is in the numbers, but not in the attitudes. As for Hispanics and Asians? Well, they're unwanted by either Blacks or Whites.

I probably would've enjoyed living in the South more if I had not grown up in SoCal, where Blacks, Whites, Hispanics and Asians can all be seen hanging out together having a good time. Yes, the price of housing is unusually high, but that's the price I pay if I want to live in a neighborhood where the color of my skin is irrelevant.

The South is still a bastion of intolerance, and that for me is not worth a house and picket fence for $130K.

very interesting post.

[Californialeavin]

I will make this short and sweet. I use to like living in California until I woke up and came to my senses. If you like "hopes and dreams" of someday owning an "average" 500k home, traffic everywhere you go, rude people, smoggy days and nights, then you are in the best place to be! As for me, my wife and kid we are leaving next month to TN. I am almost certain within 2 years I will own a NEW home for about 180k, same home here 600k. GET OUT NOW, unless you are rich.

[TheRealAngelion]

Originally Posted by Californialeavin

I will make this short and sweet. I use to like living in California until I woke the F**k up and came to my senses. If you like "hopes and dreams" of someday owning an "average" 500k home, traffic everywhere you go, rude people, smoggy days and nights, then you are in the best place to be! As for me, my wife and kid we are leaving next month to TN. I am almost certain within 2 years I will own a NEW home for about 180k, same home here 600k. GET OUT NOW, unless you are ritch.

Goodbye. What a grand life you are in store for down south. The place everyone is so eager to move to with those $180,000 bargain mansions. Oh, what a dream. As for those of us left behind, we will be basking in the glow of our smoggy days and nights, enjoying the company of our rude and obnoxious neighbors, and chilling with the radio blasting in endless traffic, and kicking back in our average $500K holes, I mean homes. Woe is us.

[fastfilm]

The above post originates from someone who lives in San Diego. San Diego more resembles the Los Angeles of fifty years ago, with far less of the toxic/social problems we in L.A. actually experience today. If I could afford your life in San Diego, I might wax enthusiastic as well.

But as a moderate income person in Los Angeles, I concur with ness, Charles, and leavincalifornia. This place presents a terrible struggle for those who are not wealthy. Middle class here means borderline slum conditions. Many of us who've lived here for, say in my case, five decades, also do not covet the tiny abode/Manhattan/highest density way of life so antithetical to the whole of residential Los Angeles. The nanosecond my husband retires, we will be voting with our feet, outta here like rockets.

[TheRealAngelion]

Originally Posted by fastfilm

The above post originates from someone who lives in San Diego. San Diego more resembles the Los Angeles of fifty years ago, with far less of the toxic/social problems we in L.A. actually experience today. If I could afford your life in San Diego, I might wax enthusiastic as well.

But as a moderate income person in Los Angeles, I concur with ness, Charles, and leavincalifornia. This place presents a terrible struggle for those who are not wealthy. Middle class here means borderline slum conditions. Many of us who've lived here for, say in my case, five decades, also do not covet the tiny abode/Manhattan/highest density way of life so antithetical to the whole of residential Los Angeles. The nanosecond my husband retires, we will be voting with our feet, outta here like rockets.

Real estate prices and housing in San Diego are no different than they are in LA. And the idea that San Diego somehow resembles LA of 50 years ago only confirms what I have thought about you since I first joined this sight over a year ago, which is that you don't get out much and have a very uninformed, narrow view of the world. Just because you live in slum conditions doesn't mean that everyone else in LA who is middle class does. I know many people in LA who are middles class and I am very familiar with the San Fernando Valley, where you live, most of which is middles class and is hardly a slum. Not even close. Perhaps when your husband retires you will have the opportunity to finally see the rest of world, and I hope you make it to cities like Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, and Queens in New York, so you can get a reality check of what a real slum is.