Will Californians move after the fires? (not an anti-Cal thread) (insurance, low crime)

[ZeApelido]

4 weeks of **** poor air quality in the Bay Area now.

[CA4Now]

“This is not the scene we see in the magazines when we think of the City of Angels,” said Echo Park resident Angie Cisneros. “Somehow, we have to take better care of our environment to come back to those bright, beautiful photos. But really, these fire tragedies made me rethink why I want to be here.”

‘Brutal’ smog from fires to worsen L.A. air, prompting some to weigh relocating:
https://www.latimes.com/california/s...Dwork%20waiter.

[MrIndependent]

Originally Posted by WestGuest

I just wonder where people will go. If your area burned, would you stay perhaps thinking it wont burn again? Would you live in a heavily-treed area again? Washington and Oregon are no respite except the areas on the coast. Might you move to a big city?



What are people thinking?

A couple of thoughts:

1.) I would not live inside a heavily treed wilderness area. I strongly prefer urban living, so that was never a real option for me anyway. I do enjoy hiking and camping in the wilderness though.

2.) COVID restrictions on indoor activities have made this fire season worse. Patio dining and physical activity outdoors are not feasible right now. If people could enjoy a meal/drink/movie/workout inside their favorite establishments, we wouldn't be so miserable right now. Instead, we're all stuck inside our homes with no outlet for fun.

3.) This is the first prolonged bad air quality I've experienced since moving to California. Obviously I have seen smog and I have seen wildfires, but I purposely don't live in a fire zone and I purposely live fairly close to the beach (no smog). This year is the exception for my location, not the norm.

4.) As I write this, Seattle and Portland both have worse air quality than coastal LA/OC/SD counties. So it seems like the entire West Coast metro areas are suffering greatly.

5.) As of right now, I intend on staying in California. I believe that within the next 2 - 4 years, state government will be forced to get serious about this issue and significantly ramp up control burns. That will help starve mother nature of fuel for these apocalyptic wildfires. I acknowledge that fires are part of the ecosystem here. I also acknowledge that climate change has magnified the frequency/intensity. However, I do know that our new normal demands more aggressive controlled burning & forest management. If no meaningful action is taken by local government, and the severity of fire season repeats every year, I would leave the entire western 1/3 of America and relocate to the Midwest or to the East Coast.

6.) What I have learned living all over this country is that it's very hard to be 100% safe from natural disasters. Hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, sadly I've seen it all. And for the places that don't get those disasters, they often have lousy weather 4 - 6 months out of the year. It's a trade off.

[MrJester]

Originally Posted by ZeApelido

4 weeks of **** poor air quality in the Bay Area now.

Just makes you start to wonder what percentage of the PM 2.5 pollution annually in the Bay Area or Los Angeles is actually from the wildfires rather than from industrial and vehicular pollution.

[saibot]

Originally Posted by MrJester

Just makes you start to wonder what percentage of the PM 2.5 pollution annually in the Bay Area or Los Angeles is actually from the wildfires rather than from industrial and vehicular pollution.

Human-caused pollution is still a factor, but much less of a factor than it used to be. Like a previous poster, I grew up in the LA area in the 1970s and 80s and I remember those smoggy days when we schoolkids weren't even allowed to go out to play at recess because the air was so unhealthy. Except when there is a wildfire, that never happens any more.

Back in March/April of this year, the air was very crisp and clean and some people speculated that it was because there was much less traffic on the road due to Covid. It wasn't. It rained quite a bit in April and the cool rainy weather is when the air is cleanest, Covid or not.

[MrJester]

Originally Posted by saibot

Human-caused pollution is still a factor, but much less of a factor than it used to be. Like a previous poster, I grew up in the LA area in the 1970s and 80s and I remember those smoggy days when we schoolkids weren't even allowed to go out to play at recess because the air was so unhealthy. Except when there is a wildfire, that never happens any more.

Back in March/April of this year, the air was very crisp and clean and some people speculated that it was because there was much less traffic on the road due to Covid. It wasn't. It rained quite a bit in April and the cool rainy weather is when the air is cleanest, Covid or not.

I know that. In the past forty years air quality has dramatically improved not only in LA but all across the nation.

I also know that Orange County has cleaner air than LA County. I also know that while LA still ranks tops in the country for ozone pollution and in the top five for particle pollution, not all of LA is the same. The Inland Empire is more polluted than LA County, for instance.

I know well that winter air quality in SoCal is good due to all the rain and winds, until there's fires. I know that summer air quality in the Inland Empire is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the nation, but that summer air quality is better in LA than it is in the Inland Empire and it's even better in Orange County, which is really not bad overall in terms of air quality. So I suspect that a huge part of Orange County air pollution is from the fires, as Orange County has the cleanest air out of all Greater LA counties.

But Inland Empire? Even without fires, San Bernardino gets lots of bad air quality in the summer dry season.

https://images.app.goo.gl/2yVBXhZA23KaPoXw6

Look at this image. The bad air days occur during the long dry season, summer really sucks for Inland Empire air quality. Especially during a heat wave--not only is it hot, you can hardly breathe!

As you can see, though, very good air quality during the winters from all the rain .

[sav858]

Originally Posted by roadwarrior101

No, why would I do that? If I relocate, I want a step up in lifestyle.

Although, I'd say I'm not looking for a mansion or anything. Our place now is ~2,600 sq ft, so we'd probably be looking around 3,500, given that we'd likely be indoors more. We are in a top school district in a desirable community in the East Bay, so we'd want schools of similar quality.

Being able to breathe outside isn't a "step up in lifestyle"?

[Bert_from_back_East]

Originally Posted by Thaitea

I hope some people will move. Please

Maybe all of the Asian and Latino immigrants will return to their native countries?

[JGC97]

I don't know if it has anything to do with the fires or if there's something else motivating them but, in the past six months, eight homes on my block and the one behind me have sold. Before now, only one house had sold in the past three years. Definitely something going on.

[T. Damon]

You have to remember, or perhaps because of this seemingly unrelenting, devastating year one cannot, that a mere five months ago we were marveling at the pristine air of LA and other cities in the west. These fires are horrible but temporary, yes, they likely will be more common in the future because of bad forest management coupled with climate change but that doesn’t mean we can’t get some handle on it nor that the winter rains and natural air movement precludes clear skies ever ahead.

I can remember the spring, and the delightful summer (COVID-19 notwithstanding) of just a couple of weeks ago. Good times are still ahead, with winters full of rain and snow (we had one of the snowiest/wettest winter in history two years ago). Climate change is real, but the end of the world is not upon us today.