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you're missing the point, it's not about people being from california that pisses people off, in fact it has nothing to do with california for locals in places like idaho. It has to do with the amount of uncontrolled growth and strain it causes.
If you own a home or at least have a mortgage than that growth only benefits you in the form of a higher home value. It also brings more jobs and increased pay. Conversely, if you rent as a permanent means for living then I honestly don't know what you are doing in America. Socialist countries are better if you are poor, want the basic necessities, and have no ambition to elevate yourself within society.
If you don't want change, move to Italy, where my family is from... every time I visit it is the same... in fact it has been the same for over 2000 years.
If you own a home or at least have a mortgage than that growth only benefits you in the form of a higher home value. It also brings more jobs and increased pay. Conversely, if you rent as a permanent means for living then I honestly don't know what you are doing in America. Socialist countries are better if you are poor, want the basic necessities, and have no ambition to elevate yourself within society.
If you don't want change, move to Italy, where my family is from... every time I visit it is the same... in fact it has been the same for over 2000 years.
don't get me wrong, I personally like growth for idaho and I'm well aware of the benefits of growth. I'm only pointing out the position of people here in idaho who don't like the growth..which is understandable. Everything in life is not about money. Higher home values, and being rich vs poor has very little to do with it. However, your generalizations of more socialist countries is a bit skewed...
The bigger picture involves the effects of individual ambition to make a buck and better yourself on everything around us.. from the environoment to our families, our ways of life and our neighbors. Some would argue it's a high price to pay to see their beloved home become the next plastic fantastic orange county.
Importance on the individual in America has made for great innovations and technologies as well as economic rewards. We have one of the most hyper-individualistic societies on the planet. But it is interesting how this individualistic nature allows for "other" costs upon society to go unnoticed or taken into consideration with little regard. As long as everyone's making a buck and "bettering" themselves that's all that matters.. and I'm sorry.. that's not all that matters.
[quote=boiseguy;12924793]you're missing the point, it's not about people being from california that pisses people off, in fact it has nothing to do with california for locals in places like idaho. It has to do with the amount of uncontrolled growth and strain it causes.
I think the reason Idahoan are not happy about the folks from California coming to Idaho has to do with the following. Because Californian tends to have more liberal views, they will ultimately change the political landscape.
There is an undisputed fact that their migration to Oregon, Colorado and Arizona mainly because of low real estate values has changed those states. By changing it at the state level it eventually trickles down to the county level. Look at the laws and taxes passed, look at all the entitlements that have been instituted. This only leads to the erosion of our way of life.
Having said that, what can we really do? I think probably nothing can be done!
Just my opinion.
you're missing the point, it's not about people being from california that pisses people off, in fact it has nothing to do with california for locals in places like idaho. It has to do with the amount of uncontrolled growth and strain it causes.
I think the reason Idahoan are not happy about the folks from California coming to Idaho has to do with the following. Because Californian tends to have more liberal views, they will ultimately change the political landscape.
There is an undisputed fact that their migration to Oregon, Colorado and Arizona mainly because of low real estate values has changed those states. By changing it at the state level it eventually trickles down to the county level. Look at the laws and taxes passed, look at all the entitlements that have been instituted. This only leads to the erosion of our way of life.
Having said that, what can we really do? I think probably nothing can be done!
Just my opinion.
That could be the case, but most people I've met from california are politically conservative. Most the other liberal people I meet in boise are from portland or seattle like myself and NOT california. So if political views are the reason, I would think that the anger and frustration is severely misplaced then.
One reason why I feel that political views has nothing to do with it is because most liberals that move here move to older established neighborhoods while the more conservative californian transplants have been the cause of suburban sprawl which has more greatly influenced the physical change upon the cities.
I could be wrong, but Meridian and west boise are a prime example. Hardly area's full of liberal views, but one of the common complaint areas by old time residents who have watched beautiful farmland and pastures gobbled up to become "valley meadows" and "tuscany lakes" with rows and rows of identical looking house after house..
Wow! The anti-Californian sentiment is scary. I will add my two cents.
My husband and I lived in Washington State for years. Then, during a recession, his company closed their business in Washington. Since there were NO other jobs available, we decided to accept his company's offer to transfer to San Jose, CA. What a shock! The San Jose area is 40% Asian, 25% Hispanic, and 35% "Other."
Here are my experiences:
I went to the library and asked the reference librarian for help locating information on some topic. To my surprise, the reference librarian did not speak English well enough to understand what I was asking. I went and asked for the library supervisor. I told the supervisor that I did not feel the reference librarian spoke English well enough to be qualified for the job. She asked me, "How long have you lived in California?"
We bought a house in an above average neighborhood. Most of the people on our street did not speak English. You could yell fire and no one would know what you had said. We only got to know three of our neighbors: one from Indonesia, one from the Philippines, and one from Mexico. They were all professional people and very nice. The rest of the people on our street were from China, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, etc. They only socialized with people who spoke their language.
When I went to the grocery store, some Asian lady who didn't speak English would inevitably get behind me in line and be pushing into me. I guess in Asia, physical contact with strangers is normal behavior. It upset me and upset me more when I would say, " Would you please not bump into me" and the person turned out not to understand any English.
I tried to buy apple butter at the local Safeway. They had lots of Asian products, but not apple butter. There were lots of other typical American products that I could not find at the local major grocery chains. I had to hunt for things I have eaten all of my life.
The freeways were bumper to bumper. There was terrible smog. The landscape was brown. It seldom rained. It was hotter than hades most of the time. I regularly got mail in Spanish, including bills. There were 33 million other people living in the state.
Now, consider the changing ethnic make-up of California. If you look at the population statistics by ethnicity, California will be 50% hispanic in about 10 years. The second biggest ethnic group is Asian. People of European ancestry are the minority in California. Not only is the percentage of "white" people shrinking. The actual number of "white" people in California is declining rapidly as the number of Asians and Hispanics are growing rapidly.
I mostly like people from anywhere in the world. (There are always a few people who are obnoxious or have obnoxious world views and/or are trying to kill us that I don't care for.) But I feel more comfortable with people who are of similar background. Let's face it, living in California has become like living in a foreign country.
When my husband was lucky enough to get a job in Oregon, we were suddenly coming from evil California. Ouch!
So, now that I have told you my experience, I will give you my two cents.
First of all, when people move to Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, etc. from California consider that they are moving from a "foreign country" experience back to the America they grew up in and have a little understanding. Most of you don't know what it is like to live somewhere so foreign feeling.
Secondly, the population of the United States is growing and therefore, the populations of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, etc. are also going to grow. There is a normal amount of flux from state to state. People are also leaving Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, etc. The people who replace them will be from other states. Otherwise, the state's population would shrink.
Thirdly, nothing ever stays the same. Life if a state of flux. Those who don't want people from other states moving to their state are people who are phobic of change. Grow up. Change is the normal state of life. Nothing you do or say is going to stop change from happening. The only thing you can decide is where you are going to live. (And that depends on having a job or enough money to live where you want, instead of where you can get a job.)
Fourthly, characterizing people from California (or for that matter people from western Oregon and western Washington) as liberal is an erroneous generalization. In my experience, most people are middle of the road. Just because there are always a few who are at the extremes of political ideas does not mean than most people have extreme points of view.
Fifthly, xenophobia is not an attractive quality. When people bash Californians they are judging people without knowing a thing about them. I ask you, would you rather have a pedophile or murderer from your home state living next door to you or a nice, family and community oriented family from California? Don't judge people before you have had a chance to find out what they are really like.
For those of you who would prefer to have a pedophile or murdered living next to you than a nice family from California, STAY OUT OF OREGON!!!
Many small towns in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming will not change much in the coming years. There is an influx of migration when there is a high demand or opportunity for people to find and fill employment vacancy. Considering manufacturing usually leads in job creation and the fact that the US has been outsourcing these types of jobs in record numbers, future growth and expansion looks bleak. Many of us are pioneers at heart. We will move west for the open spaces and the slower pace of life.
The NID and CDA areas has seem amazing growth in the past few years, subdivisions have sprung up on mountain tops and farm field. People that lived here or moved here for pristine mountain and valley views obviously resent it. We did not move here to have a big box store on every corner or to sit in traffic just to go a few miles down the road. Californians as a majority are blamed, because they had the financial means to purchase bigger homes and bid higher on property. This inflated all the real estate values. Second generation Idahoan will have to leave the towns they grew up in and leave behind all the memories, for they will not be able to afford to live here. The one good thing about the recent slump in real estate is that it will slow down the unavoidable change.
I'm thinking about moving to Idaho, so I'm glad someone posted this. I'd certainly like to get some input, Idaho seems like a good place to live. I'm going to be moving there from PA. Does anybody know people who moved to Idaho from PA and didn't like it, or moved and loved it? My problem with trying to get there is I'm trying to buy farmland, and there doesn't seem to be much listings on the web.
The problems Idahoans have with folks from other places come from the differences between urban and rural lifestyles and expectations. It's not politics at all. Idaho attracts just as many liberals as conservatives, but most of all, it's city dwellers vs. country folks.
Moving to Idaho for political reasons is a poor reason to move here. Just because an urbanite is conservative won't change his expectations that come from living a lifetime in a very large community. Californians get dumped on mostly because of the pervasiveness of the L.A. lifestyle they see daily on TV, the net, and all the gossip mags.
Lots of Idahoans have never been out of the state, and quite a few haven't even been from one end of Idaho to the other. These folks have lived their lives in small, relatively isolated towns, or even more remote farms and ranches.
California is a large and rapidly changing state, and a 1 1/2 day drive from Idaho, so Idahoans see lots of Cal license plates. We see lots of other plates, too, but fewer from the East. To Idahoans, Colorado is mid-west, and Illinois is East. Some folks get a pass, depending on where they're from. Since Utah is the Mormon motherland, they tend to get a pass in the smaller towns. So does Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, and sometimes Oregon and Washington, if the folks are from the eastern parts of those two states.
Urbanites don't understand Idahoan ways, either. In Idaho, if your truck goes off the road, you get out and start digging yourself out with the shovel in back. If your shed catches on fire, you call the fire dept. and go out and fight it until they show up. When the snow falls, you shovel your walk and your neighbor's too. If you have a snow blower, you blow off as much walk as you can, even if one belongs to the cranky old woman who's a hag to your kids. You don't get upset when the neighbor kids play in your front yard sometimes.
When you're taking a long drive, you take some water and a blanket. You don't depend on a cell phone to bail you out of trouble, because there are a lot of dead spots. Idahoans are used to driving on narrow 2-lane roads, and few have skills driving 6-lane freeways.
In Idaho, you don't go far out into the country without shoes and long pants. You don't head to the mountains in a pair of shorts and flip-flops. If you're hiking around and come across a gut pile from a killed deer, you don't get upset.
You don't bum your neighbor's stuff, and you don't expect anyone to automatically call authorities of any kind. An Idahoan can go for many days in lots of the state where they don't see many other people at all.
Idahoans get upset when a forest fire breaks out and the firefighters have to be taken off the fire line to protect a huge summer cabin that shouldn't have been built in the middle of a bunch of pine trees to start with. If a Californian built that cabin, all the worse.
In Idaho, a guy can go to a to a bank with cow **** all over his boots and take out a million dollar loan. In Idaho, there are as many truck drivers as car drivers- in some places, far more pickups than cars. Most folks are modest. A guy will ogle a girl in a deeply cut top, but he won't allow his daughter to wear one. If a boy has droopy pants with his shorts showing, he'll get a lot of disapproving stares.
All this stuff is more tolerated in bigger places. All this stuff becomes common to urban thinking. It is very hard for someone raised in a big city to learn these attitudes. Some never accept them and move out, and others find them to their liking, adapt and stick around.
People everywhere practice too much lumpage. Californians all get lumped together due to the L.A. culture, Idahoans get lumped into nothing but a bunch of Nazi loving Mormon hicks, you name it. Lumpage is just over-generalization and ignorance of the other places. Since everything gets a political tag hung on it now, politics just adds more lumpage.
If anyone from a big city is looking at moving to Idaho, and has never been here, expect things to be different from what you are used to, and be prepared to accept the differences.
Ask the folks of Donnelly Idaho what they think of Californian migration.
What's even funnier some of these people are from California their selves, even if it was 30-40 yrs ago.
At this time I'm sure Donnelly would welcome people from California buying them out. There's more Californians here then most admit. It's the ones that come and try to change it to the place they came from or complain that " California has this, California has that" attitude that gets old. They make there unwanted changes and then leave back to California. Most can't handle the winters in McCall at all. It's not like in the movies and the snow is around 6-7 months, summers we are lucky to reach the 90's for 2 weeks in a row.
Maybe, those from Southern Calif. should try Susanville or Truckee area to see if they can handle those winters before venturing to Idaho.
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California's White Flight
