Trapped in OC, need to escape (Orange, Thousand Oaks: mortgage, refinance, insurance)

[Soccersupporter]

Originally Posted by denverian

Reminds me of driving to San Diego on Thanksgiving morning from OC - once it took over 3 hours, bumper to bumper the entire way. I was in such a bad mood by the time we got there. The next Thanksgiving we left home at 6 a.m. and got there in an hour, but had to wake up our friends because we arrived so early. Now I think it takes about the same time to fly to San Diego from Denver on a Saturday as it takes to drive from OC!

When my inlaws lived in the desert we would go out on Easter break, and other holidays. The only thing we dreaded was the drive back. It would take 3+ hours always. If there was an accident it could be worse. When they moved to Temecula before the hords moved there it was an okay drive. The last time we visited them before we moved to TX, Sept. 2007 it tooked us 3 hours to get back to Irvine. They live above the wineries in the hills and don't go into town very often because it is so crowded in Temecula now. They have seen the change in Temecula and the increased crowding. Where is their in SoCal that has not or will be affected by overcrowding?

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Soccersupporter

Where is their in SoCal that has not or will be affected by overcrowding?

Needles
Daggett
Ridgecrest
Lone Pine

[Soccersupporter]

Originally Posted by Charles

Needles
Daggett
Ridgecrest
Lone Pine

Those are a lot like the small Texas towns. I remember that there we some real nice small towns on the way to Mammoth too. It's too bad jobs are not easily found in those areas. But then again if they were the areas would probably not stay nice.

[crzzycindy]

Wow, I came here in 1975 also and I pretty much feel like you. I love California but like you said, when I came here a drive to Riverside was like going on a nice country drive and enjoyable. In fact it scared me, I use to think "If I break down out here?" Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda and Brea were all open space with a few homes. Santa Ana was nice it had the old Victorian Homes and was so beautiful. I watched each one demolished over the years along with the city and it is heartbreaking. The same is now happening to the city of Orange. The people in the last two years took the oportunity to sell at the high price and they moved. Now the area is changing and in ten years it will be like Santa Ana. The traffic is unbelievable now and the cookie cutter housing tracks now sit where there were strawberry fields or Orange groves. What kept me in California was the beauty and the sunshine. The beauty is gone with age and the sunshine is not the same, the winters are colder here and we now have humidity. If I have to deal with humidity I might as well go where I can have open land and fresher air. Not spending a large portion of my life (as you put it) starring at a license plate. Yes, I feel the same and what is so sad those that were born after it was all gone don't know what we are talking about.

[scorpionleather]

Originally Posted by crzzycindy

Wow, I came here in 1975 also and I pretty much feel like you. I love California but like you said, when I came here a drive to Riverside was like going on a nice country drive and enjoyable. In fact it scared me, I use to think "If I break down out here?" Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda and Brea were all open space with a few homes. Santa Ana was nice it had the old Victorian Homes and was so beautiful. I watched each one demolished over the years along with the city and it is heartbreaking. The same is now happening to the city of Orange. The people in the last two years took the oportunity to sell at the high price and they moved. Now the area is changing and in ten years it will be like Santa Ana. The traffic is unbelievable now and the cookie cutter housing tracks now sit where there were strawberry fields or Orange groves. What kept me in California was the beauty and the sunshine. The beauty is gone with age and the sunshine is not the same, the winters are colder here and we now have humidity. If I have to deal with humidity I might as well go where I can have open land and fresher air. Not spending a large portion of my life (as you put it) starring at a license plate. Yes, I feel the same and what is so sad those that were born after it was all gone don't know what we are talking about.

Well said Christy! It is a nice description of what made OC special. People come here from NYC and other metropolis centers, and they will never understand that for ages OC prided itself on being different from LA, not intent on adopting urban concrete dweller ways of life. Maybe the re-naming of the Anaheim Angels baseball team to the LA Angels was symbolic of OC's last gasp as LA swallows up the charm and frontier personality we used to have.

What I find funny is that the residents of South OC often feel that they are not affected. Just wait 10 years from now.

I think the long term solution is to require a certain amount of road infrastructure development corresponding to new housing development. If a developer wants to squeeze in 10,000 new condos, don't let the developer do it unless the traffic impact is considered and additional lanes are added to the I-5 etc. OC residents should care enough, and be active enough in local politics, to ensure that roads can support all the people we are squeezing in here.

[cityx]

Originally Posted by scorpionleather

p.s. I live right near Brea; in fact I go to Downtown Brea anytime I want to catch a movie.

Life here has to be planned around traffic schedules. It wasn't always like that. Reality is that OC has turned into an urban mega-city. I miss the orange groves.

I agree with what you are saying. I also spent most of my life in Fullerton, (I moved to Sacramento in the mid 90s and I'm still stuck here). I'll describe what I go through up here since I constantly compare my Sacramento plight with my prior, better life in OC. I too have to plan my outings around the horrendous traffic up here. Quality of life in Sacramento has degraded significantly and alot of that has to do with the crumbling transportation infrastructure. The region exploded in sprawl in the 1990s and early 2000s and traffic, smog, evil drivers, and crime have invaded the area with no end in sight.
The one big advantage that Orange County has is that even though traffic is bad, you have tons of options to get where you need to go. You have countless, and very wide, boulevards and several freeways that will give you many options to arrive at your destination. I do remember Imperial Highway and Harbor Blvd at rush hour can be rough. But the one thing I never experienced there was the crushing, unsafe, and clausterphobic feeling of being stuck in traffic like I do here in Sacramento. The freeways here are antiquated and the narrow surface streets were never designed to handle the kind of load they do. To make matters worse, they will be closing portions of I-5 in downtown for six weeks beginning May 30th for repairs. Lot's of fun!
I'd give anything to be stuck on the 57 freeway then in this mess.

[esselcue]

I was born in Tustin in 1946. THAT was when OC was beautiful...no way to even explain it to someone who didn't know it then. I escaped from OC in 1975...escaped California altogether in 1986...only the occasional jaunt to Disneyland with my grandkids, or a Tustin High School Reunion will bring me back to the awful, crowded, smoggy mess it has become. This old fogie can not understand what people see in it now. The weather is great...but otherwise...

[flo2900]

Originally Posted by esselcue

I was born in Tustin in 1946. THAT was when OC was beautiful...no way to even explain it to someone who didn't know it then. I escaped from OC in 1975...escaped California altogether in 1986...only the occasional jaunt to Disneyland with my grandkids, or a Tustin High School Reunion will bring me back to the awful, crowded, smoggy mess it has become. This old fogie can not understand what people see in it now. The weather is great...but otherwise...

where did you move to?

[L-88]

It is an interesting phenomenon. I spent 55 years in Maine. I lived in the country, and I loved the privacy and my home and several acres. When I retired from teaching the care and upkeep of the property as well as the long cold winters were no longer appealing.

My wife and I have always been rather private people who thoroughly enjoy each other. We have no children, and we sold our Maine home and moved to south OC to semi-retire. We have been here for ten years, and I can see why people who have lived here from childhood want to leave, and at the same time, although I seriously doubt I could have tolerated much that is southern California if I had to drive the freeways every day and compete to make a living, I too would want to get out. The place would become deplorable...expensive, shallow, and crowded and hurried. That said....being semi-retired, the place is a great place to spend the senior years. Great medical facilities, terrific restaurants and entertainment, lovely beaches, mountains, and deserts to enjoy, the best weather in the country, and a home base which affords trips to some of the most spectacular country anywhere.

If you were born and raised in OC, by all means, get out for a while. The rest of the country is very different than this little bubble on the south western coast. Most of the kids will never be able to afford to live here anyway unless their parents front the money, or the kids get high paying jobs. For those of you who are a little older and want a nice life and can afford the place, south OC is a great place to live.

[Soccersupporter]

Originally Posted by L-88

It is an interesting phenomenon. I spent 55 years in Maine. I lived in the country, and I loved the privacy and my home and several acres. When I retired from teaching the care and upkeep of the property as well as the long cold winters were no longer appealing.

My wife and I have always been rather private people who thoroughly enjoy each other. We have no children, and we sold our Maine home and moved to south OC to semi-retire. We have been here for ten years, and I can see why people who have lived here from childhood want to leave, and at the same time, although I seriously doubt I could have tolerated much that is southern California if I had to drive the freeways every day and compete to make a living, I too would want to get out. The place would become deplorable...expensive, shallow, and crowded and hurried. That said....being semi-retired, the place is a great place to spend the senior years. Great medical facilities, terrific restaurants and entertainment, lovely beaches, mountains, and deserts to enjoy, the best weather in the country, and a home base which affords trips to some of the most spectacular country anywhere.

If you were born and raised in OC, by all means, get out for a while. The rest of the country is very different than this little bubble on the south western coast. Most of the kids will never be able to afford to live here anyway unless their parents front the money, or the kids get high paying jobs. For those of you who are a little older and want a nice life and can afford the place, south OC is a great place to live.

Boy did that strike a chord. We moved mainly because we saw the change first hand and did not like it. We wanted to take our remaining children to a more affordable place to live and hopefully give them a chance to have a less stressful life style. If we were done raising our children we would have probably moved to a cheaper area less populated place in CA and possibly could have been satisfied. I can't say how we will feel when we are ready to retire because that is about 10 years away at least. I think having grand-babies here in TX would make it hard to leave though, that and the fact that we will be much better off financially here in TX. CA is great but the affordability factor drives many away.