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Many of my friends that I grew up with in the 70's and 80's have left the Bay Area, for "greener pastures". Seattle, Phoenix, Portland, Washington DC, Southern California, San Diego, Dallas, Austin, San Luis Obispo, Raleigh, Boston and New York seem to be the top destinations. Some have tried to move back, but the cost of living adjustment has been shocking, for some.
Back in about 1980 while flying second seat in a military helicopter from Ft. Irwin in the desert to Los Alamitos near the coast and while approaching the mountains we could literally see the smog pouring from L.A. and spilling down the backside of the mountains onto the desert floor. Nasty!
Smog is one thing from the past that I DON'T miss!
Moved to the Bay Area (Cambell) in the early '60s as a kindergartner and it was very much a Wonder Years gentle, white bread suburban existence. There were still plenty of orchards nearby in the area and our huge lot had several different varieties of fruit trees which we harvested. Garbage was burned in the can in the back yard and my brothers and I used to love to have the aerosol cans explode
We moved to Modesto in the mid sixties and although it is hard to imagine it now it actually was a great town to grow up in. Bicycling our Stingrays everywhere, dirt clod fights in the alleys and vacant lots, exploring and swimming in the dangerous canals with not one speck of parental oversight. We lived near the community college area (my father was a Dean there) and it still today is chock full of beautiful homes in idyllic, tree lined streets.
Moved up to the Gold Country, Sonora in 1970 and it couldn't have been a more amazing place to grow up. It still only had one traffic signal in the County when we arrived, a T intersection upon entering Sonora that began blinking yellow at 6:00 PM and during our nearly 10 years of living there right in the middle of town our doors were never locked once and we always left the keys in the ignition of the family truck parked on the street. It was a beautiful, connected mountain town nestled in the little valley and one could explore the surrounding hills, abandoned mines and caves, creeks, swimming holes with all the joy that a young boy has in such an area. In High School it was all about hunting and fishing, skiing Dodge Ridge or Bear Valley, cruising Main Street, and partying; smoking pot, taking mushrooms and drinking- very much right out of Dazed and Confused
Moved to Hollywood in 1979 for a summer (very much an apostate thing to do for a rural Northern California resident) to help my Dad renovate a house he bought off of Bronson Ave. and it was a complete culture shock! Driving on freeways and trying to figure out how to make left turns without any left turn signals (why does LA do this?) was trying to say the least. Hollywood was a skanky, smoggy, freak show and so much fun to experience as 17 year old country bumpkin, I would walk down Hollywood or Santa Monica Blvd with my shirt off that summer and wonder confusingly "why did all these middle aged men continually pull up next to me on the sidewalk and ask me if I needed a "ride"?" (I was that cluless lol). I remember going up to the Griffith Observatory one day with my Dad and it was so smoggy you literally couldn't see the other side of the canyon. There were still a couple of single family homes and yards right on Hollywood Blvd.
Moved to the Palm Springs area with a couple of high school buddies the end of that summer, and most of Palm Desert had just been washed away by a summer monsoon so witnessed the rebuilding and overall development along Hwy 111 from La Quinta to Palm Springs while going to College of the Desert during the Disco and Spring Break era.
Went to Chico State for the College experience in a perfect College Town. Was there during the declaration by Playboy magazine in 1987 that Chico State was the number one party school in the nation, the "riots" that followed and the ultimate, sad demise of the infamous Pioneer Days
Moved to San Diego in 1987 after graduating and have subsequently witnessed the city transform from a Navy Town version of "Des Moines by the Sea" to the vibrant, happening city that is has become- fortunately bought our house for a song in the mid-nineties so can afford to stay and watch it continue to improve.
So, even though the traffic is way worse, Modesto sucks, Sonora was ruined by the Hwy bypass, the Bay Area and San Diego are out of reach financially to nearly everyone, schools are challenged (no kids) Chico State became respectable and way too much open space has been consumed by development, I still love this state and have found a little corner of paradise to continue to be a part of its great experiment.
This is how it was in Mexico City until they started studying it, and prohibited some of the causes, like the use of coal-fired or wood-fired cooking, auto/bus pollution, etc. I never saw LA when smog was a factor, but Mexico City was scary, it was so bad. It's weird what people more or less adjust to, and take to be "normal", or inevitable, or something. And now both cities are vastly improved in air quality.
Yep, while I feel many regulations are bad, the clean air regulations in general are good and have worked. Still bad air there, but the LA basin is a big bowl that air is trapped in, so ................
Living near the beach in So OC the sea breeze really helped.
Moved to the Bay Area (Cambell) in the early '60s as a kindergartner and it was very much a Wonder Years gentle, white bread suburban existence. There were still plenty of orchards nearby in the area and our huge lot had several different varieties of fruit trees which we harvested. Garbage was burned in the can in the back yard and my brothers and I used to love to have the aerosol cans explode
We moved to Modesto in the mid sixties and although it is hard to imagine it now it actually was a great town to grow up in. Bicycling our Stingrays everywhere, dirt clod fights in the alleys and vacant lots, exploring and swimming in the dangerous canals with not one speck of parental oversight. We lived near the community college area (my father was a Dean there) and it still today is chock full of beautiful homes in idyllic, tree lined streets.
Moved up to the Gold Country, Sonora in 1970 and it couldn't have been a more amazing place to grow up. It still only had one traffic signal in the County when we arrived, a T intersection upon entering Sonora that began blinking yellow at 6:00 PM and during our nearly 10 years of living there right in the middle of town our doors were never locked once and we always left the keys in the ignition of the family truck parked on the street. It was a beautiful, connected mountain town nestled in the little valley and one could explore the surrounding hills, abandoned mines and caves, creeks, swimming holes with all the joy that a young boy has in such an area. In High School it was all about hunting and fishing, skiing Dodge Ridge or Bear Valley, cruising Main Street, and partying; smoking pot, taking mushrooms and drinking- very much right out of Dazed and Confused
Moved to Hollywood in 1979 for a summer (very much an apostate thing to do for a rural Northern California resident) to help my Dad renovate a house he bought off of Bronson Ave. and it was a complete culture shock! Driving on freeways and trying to figure out how to make left turns without any left turn signals (why does LA do this?) was trying to say the least. Hollywood was a skanky, smoggy, freak show and so much fun to experience as 17 year old country bumpkin, I would walk down Hollywood or Santa Monica Blvd with my shirt off that summer and wonder confusingly "why did all these middle aged men continually pull up next to me on the sidewalk and ask me if I needed a "ride"?" (I was that cluless lol). I remember going up to the Griffith Observatory one day with my Dad and it was so smoggy you literally couldn't see the other side of the canyon. There were still a couple of single family homes and yards right on Hollywood Blvd.
Moved to the Palm Springs area with a couple of high school buddies the end of that summer, and most of Palm Desert had just been washed away by a summer monsoon so witnessed the rebuilding and overall development along Hwy 111 from La Quinta to Palm Springs while going to College of the Desert during the Disco and Spring Break era.
Went to Chico State for the College experience in a perfect College Town. Was there during the declaration by Playboy magazine in 1987 that Chico State was the number one party school in the nation, the "riots" that followed and the ultimate, sad demise of the infamous Pioneer Days
Moved to San Diego in 1987 after graduating and have subsequently witnessed the city transform from a Navy Town version of "Des Moines by the Sea" to the vibrant, happening city that is has become- fortunately bought our house for a song in the mid-nineties so can afford to stay and watch it continue to improve.
So, even though the traffic is way worse, Modesto sucks, Sonora was ruined by the Hwy bypass, the Bay Area and San Diego are out of reach financially to nearly everyone, schools are challenged (no kids) Chico State became respectable and way too much open space has been consumed by development, I still love this state and have found a little corner of paradise to continue to be a part of its great experiment.
Yep, while I feel many regulations are bad, the clean air regulations in general are good and have worked. Still bad air there, but the LA basin is a big bowl that air is trapped in, so ................
Living near the beach in So OC the sea breeze really helped.
Yes, I hear the beach areas are the place to be, down there. They say the weather is cooler in those neighborhoods, too, which makes obvious sense, of course. Sounds heavenly, as long as you can afford it.
Yep, while I feel many regulations are bad, the clean air regulations in general are good and have worked. .
How curious it is that people like regulations that serve their individual interests and preferences. And kvetch about regulations that they feel go against their interests. Who would ever think it would be so? Life is a mystery. (To some.)
Location: SF Bay Area, aka, Liberal Mecca/wherever DoD sends me to
713 posts, read 1,081,132 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by T. Damon
Moved to the Bay Area (Cambell) in the early '60s as a kindergartner and it was very much a Wonder Years gentle, white bread suburban existence. There were still plenty of orchards nearby in the area and our huge lot had several different varieties of fruit trees which we harvested. Garbage was burned in the can in the back yard and my brothers and I used to love to have the aerosol cans explode
We moved to Modesto in the mid sixties and although it is hard to imagine it now it actually was a great town to grow up in. Bicycling our Stingrays everywhere, dirt clod fights in the alleys and vacant lots, exploring and swimming in the dangerous canals with not one speck of parental oversight. We lived near the community college area (my father was a Dean there) and it still today is chock full of beautiful homes in idyllic, tree lined streets.
Moved up to the Gold Country, Sonora in 1970 and it couldn't have been a more amazing place to grow up. It still only had one traffic signal in the County when we arrived, a T intersection upon entering Sonora that began blinking yellow at 6:00 PM and during our nearly 10 years of living there right in the middle of town our doors were never locked once and we always left the keys in the ignition of the family truck parked on the street. It was a beautiful, connected mountain town nestled in the little valley and one could explore the surrounding hills, abandoned mines and caves, creeks, swimming holes with all the joy that a young boy has in such an area. In High School it was all about hunting and fishing, skiing Dodge Ridge or Bear Valley, cruising Main Street, and partying; smoking pot, taking mushrooms and drinking- very much right out of Dazed and Confused
Moved to Hollywood in 1979 for a summer (very much an apostate thing to do for a rural Northern California resident) to help my Dad renovate a house he bought off of Bronson Ave. and it was a complete culture shock! Driving on freeways and trying to figure out how to make left turns without any left turn signals (why does LA do this?) was trying to say the least. Hollywood was a skanky, smoggy, freak show and so much fun to experience as 17 year old country bumpkin, I would walk down Hollywood or Santa Monica Blvd with my shirt off that summer and wonder confusingly "why did all these middle aged men continually pull up next to me on the sidewalk and ask me if I needed a "ride"?" (I was that cluless lol). I remember going up to the Griffith Observatory one day with my Dad and it was so smoggy you literally couldn't see the other side of the canyon. There were still a couple of single family homes and yards right on Hollywood Blvd.
Moved to the Palm Springs area with a couple of high school buddies the end of that summer, and most of Palm Desert had just been washed away by a summer monsoon so witnessed the rebuilding and overall development along Hwy 111 from La Quinta to Palm Springs while going to College of the Desert during the Disco and Spring Break era.
Went to Chico State for the College experience in a perfect College Town. Was there during the declaration by Playboy magazine in 1987 that Chico State was the number one party school in the nation, the "riots" that followed and the ultimate, sad demise of the infamous Pioneer Days
Moved to San Diego in 1987 after graduating and have subsequently witnessed the city transform from a Navy Town version of "Des Moines by the Sea" to the vibrant, happening city that is has become- fortunately bought our house for a song in the mid-nineties so can afford to stay and watch it continue to improve.
So, even though the traffic is way worse, Modesto sucks, Sonora was ruined by the Hwy bypass, the Bay Area and San Diego are out of reach financially to nearly everyone, schools are challenged (no kids) Chico State became respectable and way too much open space has been consumed by development, I still love this state and have found a little corner of paradise to continue to be a part of its great experiment.
How curious it is that people like regulations that serve their individual interests and preferences. And kvetch about regulations that they feel go against their interests. Who would ever think it would be so? Life is a mystery. (To some.)
true, I object to the regulations that go against a LOT of peoples interests. Some people just have no clue ....................
Yes, I hear the beach areas are the place to be, down there. They say the weather is cooler in those neighborhoods, too, which makes obvious sense, of course. Sounds heavenly, as long as you can afford it.
It is cooler and in the summer you can have fog to about noon. The further South you go the better it gets. In Newport the cliffs above the area stop a lot of the fog and Costa Mesa is warmer, bit still benefits from the breeze. Further down the coast San Clemente and Dana Point can be very nice. Once you get to SD County it gets a bit warmer and less expensive in areas near the beach, bit not a lot. A few miles inland is less costly though.
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and my brothers and I used to love to have the aerosol cans explode 
