Remember How Great California Was? (Los Angeles, Berkeley: car registration, employment, theater)

[Kevroqs]

Any long time California residents here remember how great California used to be when it was a red state? And how it used to be #1 in everything? Now it's been going down the toilet for a long time (You can thank Gray Davis for starting the decline). I'm going to be the Donald Trump of California. Make California Great Again.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by Kevdawgg

Any long time California residents here remember how great California used to be when it was a red state? And how it used to be #1 in everything? Now it's been going down the toilet for a long time (You can thank Gray Davis for starting the decline). I'm going to be the Donald Trump of California. Make California Great Again.

I am a long time resident and yes CA was once a better place. Politics has played a part in its decline in some areas, but the population growth, both legal and illegal, plays an even greater part.

[AlongTheI-5]

We had smoggy air for the Aryan race.

[V8 Vega]

Schools were the best in the nation, you had much much more freedom before the Communists took over with their controlling every aspect of your life. The government was much more business friendly, good paying jobs were everywhere, people had money. The communists weren't in power so they haden't raised taxes on everything, taxes were much lower, gas was cheap, car registration was cheap, people who are poor didn't have to pay for public employee unions to live like kings. Now California is hell with the lid off.

[LaylaM]

Blah, blah, blah. The whole world used to be a better place. Such is life and California is still a wonderful place to live for many of us. Is it perfect? Of course not - and I'm sure, like everywhere, it was less crowded, less expensive and easier for many to thrive in 30 years ago.

If you're not happy here it's a big wide world out there. Choose your nirvana and move on. The bitching gets real old on the California threads...

[CaliRestoration]

California is still pretty darn good if you're rich.

If you're middle class or poor? You're pretty much SOL.

[davidt1]

Reagan was President. I was young and living in Los Angeles, about five miles from downtown. Used to take the bus to the Cameo theater to watch movies. Education was really cheap, about 90% cheaper that it is today. Jobs were everywhere. You could quit one company, walked across the street, and found another job the same day.

I am better off financially today, but if I could relive those days, I would do it over and over again.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by davidt1

Reagan was President. I was young and living in Los Angeles, about five miles from downtown. Used to take the bus to the Cameo theater to watch movies. Education was really cheap, about 90% cheaper that it is today. Jobs were everywhere. You could quit one company, walked across the street, and found another job the same day.

I am better off financially today, but if I could relive those days, I would do it over and over again.

Yep, I used an employment agency one time and after that I was not really out of work for more than a week when I needed another job, except one time when I lived in LA and it took 3 weeks. CA is going through a series of problems and some are not fixable as the population keeps growing and some is by bad government regulations and other actions and unlikely better Governors and legislatures will be voted in.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by davidt1

Reagan was President. I was young and living in Los Angeles, about five miles from downtown. Used to take the bus to the Cameo theater to watch movies. Education was really cheap, about 90% cheaper that it is today. Jobs were everywhere. You could quit one company, walked across the street, and found another job the same day.

I am better off financially today, but if I could relive those days, I would do it over and over again.

Education was cheap because before Reagan, it was FREE. Reagan introduced tuition to the UC system, to keep "communists" and other agitators out of UC Berkeley, when he was governor.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Education was cheap because before Reagan, it was FREE. Reagan introduced tuition to the UC system, to keep "communists" and other agitators out of UC Berkeley, when he was governor.

Look how well that has worked out.


For many CA is still a wonderful place compared to where the live now or came from. The change is in most cases good to them, but not so good to those who have lived in CA for most of their life. They see the deterioration.