Why Do You Love California (Redlands: homes, unemployment, DMV)

[TribalCat]

I love California because:

I was born here! How special is that?

The diversity of the people, the cultures, and the food enrich our way of life.

Being able to get fresh fruits and veggies every month of the year is pretty neat.

Being in a beautiful state full of forests, mountains, lakes, deserts and the ocean...what don't we have?

I currently live in Torrance (just south of L.A.), and although this place has way too many people and too much concrete for me, the weather rocks!

Of course there are things I wish we didn't have to deal with in California like the crowds and the traffic and the crime, but no matter where I go to live in the world, I seem to keep finding myself back in this state.

[Tony from Europe]

Why is California sooooooooooooooo beautiful !?

[Twinkle Toes]

Originally Posted by Tony from Europe

Why is California sooooooooooooooo beautiful !?

Take a drive up the coast past Ventura and Santa Barbara. Head inland a little to Solvang, Buellton, Los Olivos and explore the Santa Ynez Valley. This is just one idea of many, many beautiful places California has to offer. I don't think anybody can drive through that area and say "it's ugly".

[Sandpointian]

Sorry, but I used to love California. Its enchantment left ten years ago, perhaps earlier. The SF Bay Area is increasingly like the LA region. All its beauty and simplicity is gone. Now, it is a land that is prohibitively expensive on the wallet and on the soul. And we are a successful professional family pulling down decent numbers.

When I was a kid, life in the BA was simpler: schools better, jobs more stable, and neighborhoods more neighborly. Now the social dynamic is about as plastic as it is was in the LA of my youth. SD is nothing like it was a generation ago. All its charm is gone. Each place is 5x as expensive with far less value for the buck. Both parents working and kids in 24/7 day care. Road rage and massive poluution of every sort. Yeecchhh!

So we moved to Northern Idaho, where the air is clean, the pace is slow, schools are better, life is more affordable, and making stuff by hand is still common. I love it here. My $$ go twice as far and I can enjoy truly four seasons and still save $$ for my kids' university years.

The people here are very open and tolerant and watch out for one another...like it used to be. The people where are diverse in the ways that matter: careers, pathways, hobbies, etc. And we are racially mixed. My neighbors don't care. I am judged on the content of my character. Government is small and does just enough.

The only issue here is the abundance of jobs. Its lack of jobs forces willing immigrants to be more self-sufficient...a good thing. It also keeps the population modest. However, those that are skilled do quite well.

California? It will always be more mythology than reality. The days of when there really was an "Orange" County and "Sunnyvale" where orachards and small family farms dotted the landscape are long over. They have paved over, replaced with zero lot developments a massive increase in traffic, and a tension that is distinctly un-Californian (at least for those who grew up there in the 60s or before).

How there is any middle class remaning is a great economic puzzle, albeit one that is slowly being revealed by the ongoing credit crisis.

Good luck to all who remain...and to those new to California, once upon a time, it really was a golden state...

[wclac]

Originally Posted by IsisIAmBorn

Why Do I Love California? What comes to mind first is the diversity of people, cultures, languages, weather, food and beauty. California is beautiful, the hills, valleys, oceans, amusement parks, and the shopping. Perhaps when other people think of California they think of Rodeo Drive, limo’s, traffic jams, Hollywood, San Francisco etc. There is so much more to California, small seaside villages, deserts, forests, out of the way artist communities; you name it California has it.

There is this tempo to California with its laid back people, beautiful sunrises and sunsets. People seem more relaxed…cooler, hipper; there is this chill man, life happens mentality to being a Californian. There is so much to do! All you have to do is pick up a local paper there are tons of things to do from psychic fairs, scientific fairs, out door camping, hiking, fishing, surfing, day trips, you name it they have it going on somewhere in California.

Entertainment and the arts surround you everywhere you go. I love the people of California from the Great Terminator…"The Arnold", to the immigrant worker working the fields. Okay I must applaud the entertainment industry it just wouldn’t be California without them.

Great schools, colleges, universities and hospitals are in California not to forget the great doctors and surgeons that live and work in California. There is something for everyone. This truly is a great state, no matter what income bracket you fall into or what you do for a living, religious belief or life style, California has and will always have a place for everyone. Including all the dreamers of the world who come here with a dream.

I agree, a lot of diversity. And a lot of people mixin interracially in California. Glad I was born on the West Coast.

[ANewDay2008]

Originally Posted by Screenial

Since March I've had the opportunity to sit outside in my bathing suit, start my tomatoes, pick a ripe orange off a local tree, walk my dog in shorts, go to a TV show taping, sit outside at night on the patio and feel warm, go to a major art exhibit, and drive 3 hours to Las Vegas, see the cacti bloom.

The down-side? Snow birds!

I'm so jealous!!

This sounds like sheer bliss! I can't wait to go there.

[Tony from Europe]

i want to california !!!!!!!!!!!!!
lucky you,guys

[Twinkle Toes]

Originally Posted by Sandpointian

Sorry, but I used to love California. Its enchantment left ten years ago, perhaps earlier. The SF Bay Area is increasingly like the LA region. All its beauty and simplicity is gone. Now, it is a land that is prohibitively expensive on the wallet and on the soul. And we are a successful professional family pulling down decent numbers.

When I was a kid, life in the BA was simpler: schools better, jobs more stable, and neighborhoods more neighborly. Now the social dynamic is about as plastic as it is was in the LA of my youth. SD is nothing like it was a generation ago. All its charm is gone. Each place is 5x as expensive with far less value for the buck. Both parents working and kids in 24/7 day care. Road rage and massive poluution of every sort. Yeecchhh!

So we moved to Northern Idaho, where the air is clean, the pace is slow, schools are better, life is more affordable, and making stuff by hand is still common. I love it here. My $$ go twice as far and I can enjoy truly four seasons and still save $$ for my kids' university years.

The people here are very open and tolerant and watch out for one another...like it used to be. The people where are diverse in the ways that matter: careers, pathways, hobbies, etc. And we are racially mixed. My neighbors don't care. I am judged on the content of my character. Government is small and does just enough.

The only issue here is the abundance of jobs. Its lack of jobs forces willing immigrants to be more self-sufficient...a good thing. It also keeps the population modest. However, those that are skilled do quite well.

California? It will always be more mythology than reality. The days of when there really was an "Orange" County and "Sunnyvale" where orachards and small family farms dotted the landscape are long over. They have paved over, replaced with zero lot developments a massive increase in traffic, and a tension that is distinctly un-Californian (at least for those who grew up there in the 60s or before).

How there is any middle class remaning is a great economic puzzle, albeit one that is slowly being revealed by the ongoing credit crisis.

Good luck to all who remain...and to those new to California, once upon a time, it really was a golden state...

Sorry your experience has been so negative for you, but it's not like that for everyone. I'm a native Californian and come from a long line of native Californians and I can honestly say that I don't feel the same way you do. I love this state and would never leave it. I left once, for a short period of time and probably for all the wrong reasons, but I quickly saw the error of my ways and got my little self back here as quickly as I could. But, if you don't like it here, I am glad you found happiness in Idaho. Different strokes for different folks, ya know?

[sheri257]

Originally Posted by Sandpointian

Sorry, but I used to love California. Its enchantment left ten years ago, perhaps earlier.

The title of this thread is why do you love California.

It's not another California bashing thread ...

This is really getting tiresome.

[jkbatca]

Just visited the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve yesterday [Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve]. Here's what I've seen and why I like CA...

http://mysite.verizon.net/the_bunks/avpp_7.jpg (broken link)

http://mysite.verizon.net/the_bunks/avpp_1.jpg (broken link)