Is this really true about California any more? (Los Angeles, San Francisco: house, buy)

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Harpaint

Hippies? For heaven sakes they were a small portion of the baby boom generation. They grew up, most became mainline middle class folks, and they are now retirement age.

Precisely! I know because I married an original, native California hippie who also became a midwife, had an organic farm in Arkansas and later worked as a political and legislative analyst for the state of CA from which she's now retired. You can't get much more mainstream than state civil service. Other than marrying me, another California native who is a 60s combat veteran and former state narcotics agent, she's remained pretty true to her hippie values of organic agriculture and sustainability. I'm also a state retiree and we're in the Missouri Ozarks not far from where she farmed in the 70s.

Originally Posted by goodie2shoes

The people who leave are mostly those who couldn't make it and are very, VERY bitter about life. That's why all they do is come to the forums to cry about CA on a daily basis just to make themselves feel better.

You really need to get over yourself and stop with the gross generalizations. You clearly have no idea about what California was and was like in the 40s, 50s and 60s when many of us retired natives were born and grew up. The blush is off the rose so some of us have moved-on to more welcoming areas to relax and enjoy our "twilight" years. Not all of us have experienced penury and my wife and I, both with state pensions and Social Security as well as savings never felt forced to leave CA. We simply chose to. We were both military brats and I spent many years on active duty so we've both lived in many other places and made a knowing choice once retired.

Originally Posted by nmnita

Has it dawned on you, some people leave, not because they can't afford to live there, but because they want to live with truly friendly people, people who value something other than money and who prefer to be around those who are not don't put themselves above others.

Quite right, Nita. "How sweet it is!"

[aslowdodge]

Originally Posted by goodie2shoes

The people who leave are mostly those who couldn't make it and are very, VERY bitter about life. That's why all they do is come to the forums to cry about CA on a daily basis just to make themselves feel better.

I mean, you moved. Great! Awesome! You found a better place. You should be happy? So why so bitter? Enjoy life instead of wasting it crying and complaining because you couldn't afford to live here.

That's funny because as usual you just spout off random thoughts with no basis. I stopped working early with a six figure income from owning rental properties and can pretty much live wherever I want. Do you even work? I don't have to and can still afford Ca if I want to. I owned multiple properties in the San Francisco Bay Area in Ca, how many do you have? I'd say I was able to make it in Ca, much more so than you so I wouldn't make foolish statements about me not being able to afford to live there.

Are you living in Ca because you earned your way to everything or does a spouse support you? I'm going to guess you're still pretty young because of all the naive things you say.

You sound angry because you been made to look foolish on statements you made on posts that you can't back up. Not just by me but by others. I haven't seen a huge backing of your statements by others either. You make statements that people disagree with and you can't defend them. Why?

The sad thing is how you just spout off about your inferred superiority over others because they moved out of Ca and you are there. You are a classic example of why many don't like Californians because of their arrogance, snobbishness, and how they look down at others. I wouldn't make too many comments about bitter people who couldn't afford Ca and moved out-many have way more money than you.

I'm not bitter, I just made truthful statements that don't agree that Ca is the ultimate place. When I was young and stupid I pretty much made boastful prideful statements about living in Ca, the greatest place in the world like you are doing now.

It wasn't until I became more educated about life in other parts of the country that I realized how wrong I was. Back then Ca was actually quite a bit better than it is now. If I am bitter about anything, it's that Ca is not as great as it once was which made it easier to move. For everything I did in Ca, I can do here in Atlanta plus I save about $25K a year on housing which allows me to travel the world quite frequently as I desire. Living in Ca I can still travel, but not as much. My three trips back to Ca this year allowed me to compare my life in Ca and in Atlanta and for me Atlanta was the winner. I spent all my life in Ca and want to explore life in other places. My early retirement allows me to move and live wherever I want. Maybe the next place I live will be Seattle or Boston, who knows.

[aslowdodge]

Originally Posted by nmnita

Has it dawned on you, some people leave, not because they can't afford to live there, but because they want to live with truly friendly people, people who value something other than money and who prefer to be around those who are not don't put themselves above others.

Lol. Maybe they moved because goodie2shoes was their neighbor and not very nice to them

[blueskywalker]

Originally Posted by msgsing

You people are all talking about a mythical California that never existed even in the 60's. It's pretty much Iowa or Kansas with a better climate and some palm trees.

It most certainly did exist in the 60's and into the 70's.

[blueskywalker]

Originally Posted by nmnita

Has it dawned on you, some people leave, not because they can't afford to live there, but because they want to live with truly friendly people, people who value something other than money and who prefer to be around those who are not don't put themselves above others.

You think that's unique to California? The competitive, consumer / money driven b.s.?
It's a big state so generalizations are just silly.

[blueskywalker]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

You can see a little of that in Berkeley/Oakland. Also, Santa Cruz is a breath of fresh air, in that it seems to be a buzz-cut-free zone, lol! The college students and recent grads around town keep their hair, and some wear it long. Some of those people seem to have migrated to Taos, NM, too, and some are up in Shasta, and around Humboldt. They've moved to more affordable but artsy, creative areas.

Santa Cruz county is now (and will become more and more so) a bedroom community of Silicon Valley. It is swarming with BMW's (i counted 40 bmw's in only an hour of doing errands a few weeks ago and i'm not exaggerating), Tesla's, Jaguars, Mercede's, et al.
The rat race has arrived. The entitled, arrogant, money grubbing a-holes are taking over. The freeway is now a parking lot by 2:30 in the afternoon and back-ups on 1 and 17 begin before 7 a.m. now.
It's over.
There are very few truly counter culturally oriented people around. The county has become unaffordable and is being taken over by an entirely different ilk of people. This has been happening over quite a number of years but it is now impossible to avoid / ignore. The county is now a very different place than it was only a few years ago and radically different than it was when the counter cultural revolution was at it height and very alive in this area.
And it's certainly not a "buzz-cut-free" zone if by that mean conservative / tight assed people.
People tend to not have very accurate perceptions about S.C..

[Bubble99]

Originally Posted by expatCA

Several reasons including the Hispanic population, the separation from the North due to camp Pendelton, the many military bases, a more laid back beach type atmosphere, less issues about how much money you have and a lot of open land still around it compared to OC and LA. Can't speak for the Bay area, etc, but I was born and raised in SoCal and SD is different than the balance of SoCal.

Funny when I was growing up OC was a "rural" county with a lot of farms and orange groves, Not any more.

I also notice San Diego has lot more younger homeless people than Los Angeles that have lot more older homeless people.

There seem to be lot more homeless punks, homeless punks rockers and homeless hippies in San Diego that you don't see in Los Angeles area.

[Bubble99]

Originally Posted by RosieSD

Guess you missed the news from the election last month. Marijuana is legal in California now. Marijuana is now legal in California - LA Times

That said, the 1960s "flower children" grew up decades ago. California has over 38 million residents, and almost as many lifestyles (that includes San Diego, by the way). Stereotypes -never describe everyone ; all stereotypes do is blind you. And thinking you "know" a place after a short visit is a fool's errand.

Happy holidays.

I wonder how this is going to play out with Los Angeles and San Francisco being more conservative and San Diego being more liberal.

[V8 Vega]

Originally Posted by DMenscha

I think your characterization sort of explains many of your posts. Drug addicted hippies? My my.

Perhaps you thought the movie "Reefer Madness" was a documentary.

I was 18 in 61 thats how I know, I was there.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by V8 Vega

I was 18 in 61 thats how I know, I was there.

"In '61"? So what? What was happening in '61? Nothing. No LSD and Tim Leary. No pot revolution. No free-love. No Haight-Ashbury. No Whole Earth Catalogue. No Carlos Castaneda books. No Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters. Those dynamics all started half a decade after "61". (And I was there for all of it.)