Things people miss most after leaving California or disliked most in another state (San Francisco: best city, lofts)

[tstwahine]

- Dear God not having bugs!!!!! - I almost got killed when I moved to Texas!
- The consistently good waves for surfing
- closeness to activities. If I wanted (and got started VERY early in the day I could surf, ski and rock climb all in one day.
- My family (had to say this)
- No humidity
- Did I mention the bugs?
- relatively decent cost of organic produce
- the roads - dear god, how I miss the roads.
- Trader Joes
- Mother's
- No blizzards, ice storms, floods or Tornado! My first year in Iowa City, IA a tornado went through downtown!
- the extremely CHEAP cost of community colleges (has gone up but I looked recently and its still cheaper than most other places!)
- How clean everything is
- the lack of panhandlers - I'm now in Austin and its just everywhere all the time.
- I miss that view coming up over the hill when driving on Crown valley Parkway in Dana Point towards PCH where you first see the ocean.
- The drivers - I never knew how good i had it until I drove in Boston and Austin. Awful, just awful.

Things I do not miss
- the fake people. I didnt notice this as a child but as an adult I can see why my mother (who had moved from Iowa) loathed a lot of the people in Orange County. They are definitely nice to your face but god knows behind (this is not all inclusive).
- The spoiled people.
- the lecherous (as I call them) men that could be my fathers age that think that because they make tons of money I will get with them. No, sorry, can't buy me.
- traffic (iowa wasnt bad - but I'd say austin is just about on par).
- Gas prices - holy moly.
- the rising cost of going to a state university.
- the cost of going out - expensive drinks.
- lack of real seasons (but this is also kind of a plus).
- the fact that sometimes orange county seems a bit stepfordish...


Every place has its goods and bads though

[awasner]

Wanted to answer your post!
1) The weather where I live in Oregon is wonderful. It's not as nice as San Diego, you can't wear shorts year around, but we have these things called "Seasons", which can be very nice. San Diego it almost seems the same day after day and I found it very tiresome, I actually got tired of clear, sunny and windless every day.

2) Bugs, we have no mosquitoes, no ticks, and almost no fleas here. I'm not sure why but there's also hardly any flies. More importantly to me, there are some very nasty scorpions I've run into in Southern Cali, and we sure as heck don't have those.

3) We have great Mexican food here, thankfully.

4) People are friendly here and I've seen zero racism.

5) Produce here is good, too. I know what you mean though, try and buy a tomato in Kansas, it's scary.

6) No problems here with roads, in fact the highways and freeways here in Oregon are far, far superior to much of California. Oh my dear HWY 99, I sure do not miss thee. And I-5 in southern Cali reminds me of the movie "Road Warrior".

7) No driving in snow storms here unless you live at one of our great ski resorts.

8) Mass transit is excellent here

9) I've been in Santa Monica so everywhere else has a lot less homeless, so Oregon seems like paradise in that regard.

10) Humidity isn't a problem here, ever.

Oh and no sales taxes and wonderful benefits including lower State taxes and State fees like DMV for veterans is a huge plus. Oregon is a great place to live. I live in a small town of Otter Rock, OR and we essentially have ZERO crime, no gangs, no graffiti, no noise, and the forests are wonderful and the State isn't an over-developed nightmare.

Originally Posted by LuvSouthOC

Hello fellow Californians:

1) Weather. It was obvious that I could not wear shorts most of the year as I had been accustomed to in my native land of San Diego. When I used to land off the plane home for the holidays from the east coast, my relatives in California would say I was dressed for an expedition to Antartica. Oh and sinus infections too. Fun fun.

2) [No] Bugs. The east coast has these many things that fly around, sometimes stinging you, other times swarming around you. (Well ok, I did like the fire flies over there though!)

3) Great Mexican food. I looked for it. I was assured by many that this place and this place or that place was authentic. Bleh. And even when I found decent Mexican food, not one of the places could prepare a carne asada burrito the way I was used to it. No rice for me, thanks. Oh and, by the way, no east coaster I encountered (Puerto Ricans etc. excluded) could speak Spanish at all (I do) even though they all rave about Miami. Weird!

4) Racism (of many, many varieties). The things I observed in D.C., Virginia, Pennsylvania, etc. deserve to be written about in a book. Period. Oh and on a related note, unimaginable rudeness.

5) Produce quality and prices. I like buying raspberries, blueberries and blackberries year round. Thanks. Oh and I won't pay 2.99 for an avocado.

6) Roads in winter, following sand and salt, often not cleaned well the entire year from the last winter and the winter before that, etc.

7) Driving in a snow storm. People abandoning their cars in heavy snow making it impossible for others to move forward. How lovely.

8) So I was always a proponent of trains in California. I suppose, to a certain extent, I still am. But the anticipated joys of real, mass, mass transit on a daily basis rarely materialized for me, at least NOT in DC. The red line was broken down all the time. It took a year to fix one escalator in Chinatown. Mass transit has some pluses, certainly, who could deny that? However, it is far from efficient even in a place that is showered with our tax dollars. I just loved waiting on a subway train late at night for 20 minutes after 1:15 am in NYC and having to do that urban "I'm not scared of you man, in fact, I could mess you up" look/pose. Oh and those DC metros

9) Aggressive panhandling. Yes I know this exists in California too, but it is significantly less common.

10) Florida. God those east coasters rave about that state non stop as if it were some Shangri-La. (It's not a terrible place, so Floridians please do not take offense, it is just NOT for me.) They dream of retiring there. They vacation there. They go to Disneyworld with their kids in July, yada yada. I mean, really? Guys, it is like 97 degrees (with crushing humidity, 107?) as you await your entry into Epcot. Talk about over rated! See also weather and bugs above.

[craezie]

I have lived in Illinois and Texas mainly (other than California), and have traveled a lot around the East Coast. The main thing that I appreciate about California is the open-minded culture, specifically racial tolerance. We are a multiracial family, and California is miles ahead than anywhere else in that regard. Yes, there is racism everywhere. But there are also a lot more families that look like us here than anywhere else, and I love that our neighborhood literally has people from every corner of the world and everyone coexists relatively well. While there are less African Americans percentage-wise than many other places, people are pretty tolerant. On a related note, I can get good Persian, Mexican, Thai, Afghan, Vietnamese, and Ethiopian food all in the same week. Just to name a few. We have gotten used to appreciating different cultures and would really miss that anywhere else.

The main thing I don't like about OC is I feel that real community is hard to find. People don't talk to their neighbors in general, and there are not as many community gathering places. Everyone is too busy to make time to be a neighbor and friend.

[NoNansea]

Or vote! Most people in California are too busy and/or don't care enough about what is going on around them, politically.

[Teckeeee]

Originally Posted by NoNansea

Or vote! Most people in California are too busy and/or don't care enough about what is going on around them, politically.

And how do you compete with the Supreme Court's ruling allowing unlimited campaign contributions from corporations

And yes I vote every election, and this country is slipping to 2nd world status, how many more bridges need to collapse?

[psichick]

Here's something I miss......a clean car. For the most part, the dirt builds up pretty slowly unless Santa Ana's hit. And if your car is clean, before it rains, it's pretty clean after the rain passes.

Here in Portland, OMG. Clean car during the rain means nothing. It's like the roads are so dirty that when you drive, the rain just leaves dirty brown streaks. Dry weather? Well, usually it's okay, but then the winds kick and forget it. I washed my car during a dry day, just because my car was 1. gray (it's usually shiny black) and 2. not repelling water because there was a gross layer of dirt. Not sure where all the dirt is coming from. You'd think the rain would wash it all away.

Yup. Miss not having to wash my car so much. Miss hand washing and hand drying at car washes. Miss having a clean car for more than a few weeks.

[LuvSouthOC]

[quote=tstwahine;33623645]
Things I do not miss
- the lecherous (as I call them) men that could be my fathers age that think that because they make tons of money I will get with them. No, sorry, can't buy me.
- traffic (iowa wasnt bad - but I'd say austin is just about on par).
- Gas prices - holy moly.
- the rising cost of going to a state university.
- the cost of going out - expensive drinks.
- lack of real seasons (but this is also kind of a plus).
- the fact that sometimes orange county seems a bit stepfordish... /quote]


Re lecherous men, all I can do is apologize for them. I guess what you are sahing is that if the guy is 67, has had hair implants, drives a red ferrari down PCH down to his Dana Point pad, that THAT alone, isn't enough to get with you.

Hey on drinks, even happy hour (my rare outings) is expensive here in OC.

Re gas, you forgot one thing: that crap additive that they add in the winter here that makes me gag off the fumes in California.

[LuvSouthOC]

Originally Posted by psichick

Here's something I miss......a clean car. For the most part, the dirt builds up pretty slowly unless Santa Ana's hit. And if your car is clean, before it rains, it's pretty clean after the rain passes.

Here in Portland, OMG. Clean car during the rain means nothing. It's like the roads are so dirty that when you drive, the rain just leaves dirty brown streaks. Dry weather? Well, usually it's okay, but then the winds kick and forget it. I washed my car during a dry day, just because my car was 1. gray (it's usually shiny black) and 2. not repelling water because there was a gross layer of dirt. Not sure where all the dirt is coming from. You'd think the rain would wash it all away.

Yup. Miss not having to wash my car so much. Miss hand washing and hand drying at car washes. Miss having a clean car for more than a few weeks.

Yeah but one thing is for sure in Oregon, YOU guys didn't have to do rain dances to get the clouds to finally dump some wet stuff.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by LuvSouthOC

Re lecherous men, all I can do is apologize for them. I guess what you are sahing is that if the guy is 67, has had hair implants, drives a red ferrari down PCH down to his Dana Point pad, that THAT alone, isn't enough to get with you.

Hey on drinks, even happy hour (my rare outings) is expensive here in OC.

Re gas, you forgot one thing: that crap additive that they add in the winter here that makes me gag off the fumes in California.

HEY! Watch it now. I'm 67. I'm also a SoCal native (SD & OC) but even if I was still in CA I wouldn't be lecherous.

I do miss the ocean! I disliked almost everything about TX.

[LuvSouthOC]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

HEY! Watch it now. I'm 67. I'm also a SoCal native (SD & OC) but even if I was still in CA I wouldn't be lecherous.

I do miss the ocean! I disliked almost everything about TX.

Hey, I didn't mean any disrespect to 67 year old guys in general.