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I know I have read your posts on this topic before too, we see eye to eye on it for sure. LOL at prisoner, I know the feeling. Are you relocating with your job or are you retired? It's so hard to make a move and find a new job, etc.....
I am very lucky to be retiring from teaching after almost 30 years. My wife is currently trying to get a job in a private school. She is flying out to CA for a couple of hiring fairs to try and get interviews.
We have decided that even if we have to both work as supermarket cashiers we will move either this summer or next. Personally, I do not want to spend even one more winter here. My wife was in LA on Feb 4. It was 30 something degrees and snowing in NYC and 75 in LA. I was very jealous.
I am very lucky to be retiring from teaching after almost 30 years. My wife is currently trying to get a job in a private school. She is flying out to CA for a couple of hiring fairs to try and get interviews.
We have decided that even if we have to both work as supermarket cashiers we will move either this summer or next. Personally, I do not want to spend even one more winter here. My wife was in LA on Feb 4. It was 30 something degrees and snowing in NYC and 75 in LA. I was very jealous.
I hear that, the winters kill me here. never ending. I wish I could move tomorrow but with the prices in LA...I would need a good job etc.
I was born and raised in the Northeast, but I never much cared for the brash, surly attitudes; parochial, conformist mindset; short temperaments; aggressive driving habits; judgmental stares and glares; wearing a winter coat from October to May; blizzards; black ice; mosquitoes; seasonal allergies; corruption and cronyism in state and local politics; crude, sarcastic sense of humor (often at the expense of minority groups); general orneriness of the working-class communities and aloofness of the rural areas; etc.
I could go on and on.
To say that I was a fish out of water on the East Coast, despite having grown up there, is a complete understatement.
The best decision I ever made was move to California. I love it here, and felt as if I assimilated overnight. I think that I was one of those souls who was just born in the wrong place - I have a lot more in common with people here than most other places in the US, especially the East Coast.
Needless to say, I've never been homesick for the East Coast, and I have zero desire to ever move back. Ditto a few other friends and acquaintances of mine out here in CA who grew up on the East Coast.
It seems like there were more ex-Nor'easters in Florida who seemed to be "looking back" than in California. YMMV.
But in the little corner of the Northeast where I grew up, if you mentioned to a local that you had just moved there from California or moved back, they would call you crazy.
I know what you mean, I went to high school in NJ and hated every min of it. Spent time in Philly, rudest city on earth, however every time I visted NY I had a good time. The people in NY are straight forward and never had any issues interacting with people when getting help or casual conversation.
For someone from back east, Pasadena is "L.A." They don't really care if the city has its own fire department. (And what city doesn't have its own school district?)
No, I actually thought Pasadena was under LAUSD for some reason. I hadn't really checked very far into that, though, as my kids weren't going to be going there.
Sorry for the confusion.
Regardless of the specific school district, most people I know who live in Pasadena say the schools are a horror, the (comparatively) "good" schools are fought for tooth-and-nail by the parents and many many kids just go to private school instead. We couldn't afford either price tag - the homes themselves or the private education - so we passed on Pas although we both love it there.
I am very lucky to be retiring from teaching after almost 30 years. My wife is currently trying to get a job in a private school. She is flying out to CA for a couple of hiring fairs to try and get interviews.
We have decided that even if we have to both work as supermarket cashiers we will move either this summer or next. Personally, I do not want to spend even one more winter here. My wife was in LA on Feb 4. It was 30 something degrees and snowing in NYC and 75 in LA. I was very jealous.
Be careful. Depending upon where you settle, GO THERE IN THE SUMMER FIRST. For example, where I am, home prices are comparatively low, and it's a commutable distance into LA. But we have over-95 days pretty much daily for about three months here with the very very odd less-than-90 day, and many of those over-95s will include 100+. Yes, it's a dry heat but...please.
We're pretty far east, though, almost on the border of LA/SB counties.
Just beware. Don't be tempted by great winter temperatures without trying the summer on for size first. It is what it is, we're a lot closer to the Equator than you guys are plus this is a semi-arid (like an inch more rain than desert, technically) zone.
Winter IS our fabulous time here weather-wise (IMO). Sometimes you can actually wear a light jacket and a trendy scarf and look cute. Other times we might actually have some rain (winter into spring - this year has been great for rain!), hence saving on the surprisingly (or it was to me, anyway) water bill and also giving you a green v. brown lawn (willingness to pay be damned, there's also an ongoing water issue here, obviously - that's not L.A.'s fault, of course, but it's another thing to consider).
I know people will cry out that it's not that bad, just drive (an hour and a half) to the ocean and get your feet wet and cool, there's such a thing as air conditioning (um yerp, again, at quite a price tag, LOL) but I can tell you that you won't actually know that this is fine with you (and it is for many people!) until you've been in it for three or more loooooooooooong months. We are talking HEAT.
It's cooler closer to the coast...Again, watch that price tag. It gets outchier the more desirable you go, as with anywhere, and much of the coast is certainly considered desirable.
Again, many people don't mind this aspect one bit so I'm not saying it's some kind of negative in and of itself, but it's not something to be ignored, either. My family is by no means poor, quite far from it, but I spend the summers either in some air-conditioned place other than my home, or with everything closed up except our living/dining room with a wall unit AC going as with central, we were upwards of $400+/month to run the air. Would love to be outside all summer but it's just...so bad, urghhhhhhhhh. We are outside constantly in the very late fall through late spring instead, that part certainly is nice and rain days are the exception rather than a coin toss like they are in the NY tri-state area and surrounds.
Pretty much what you have, or what we have right here - not just me but most of my neighbors, including "natives" - is a reverse situation to the northeast. There, unless you're a cray-cray who loves to freeze you're indoors all winter, longing for the season to change. Here, we're indoors or else at the movies, the mall, hell, anywhere that they're paying air conditioning instead of you, longing for the season to change. AGAIN, THIS WILL NOT BE EVERY SINGLE PERSON, so nobody go putting the smackdown on me for that statement...and no, I'm not saying this makes SoCal "bad."
My recommendation: take a long vacation in September, at least three weeks if you can, to see how you feel about it.
Good luck and hope you find that perfect place or if SoCal is that perfect place, that you get here eventually.
No, I actually thought Pasadena was under LAUSD for some reason. I hadn't really checked very far into that, though, as my kids weren't going to be going there.
Sorry for the confusion.
Regardless of the specific school district, most people I know who live in Pasadena say the schools are a horror, the (comparatively) "good" schools are fought for tooth-and-nail by the parents and many many kids just go to private school instead. We couldn't afford either price tag - the homes themselves or the private education - so we passed on Pas although we both love it there.
Don't feel bad, didn't figure it out til last week while helping my wife search for jobs.
Be careful. Depending upon where you settle, GO THERE IN THE SUMMER FIRST. For example, where I am, home prices are comparatively low, and it's a commutable distance into LA. But we have over-95 days pretty much daily for about three months here with the very very odd less-than-90 day, and many of those over-95s will include 100+. Yes, it's a dry heat but...please.
We're pretty far east, though, almost on the border of LA/SB counties.
Just beware. Don't be tempted by great winter temperatures without trying the summer on for size first. It is what it is, we're a lot closer to the Equator than you guys are plus this is a semi-arid (like an inch more rain than desert, technically) zone.
Winter IS our fabulous time here weather-wise (IMO). Sometimes you can actually wear a light jacket and a trendy scarf and look cute. Other times we might actually have some rain (winter into spring - this year has been great for rain!), hence saving on the surprisingly (or it was to me, anyway) water bill and also giving you a green v. brown lawn (willingness to pay be damned, there's also an ongoing water issue here, obviously - that's not L.A.'s fault, of course, but it's another thing to consider).
I know people will cry out that it's not that bad, just drive (an hour and a half) to the ocean and get your feet wet and cool, there's such a thing as air conditioning (um yerp, again, at quite a price tag, LOL) but I can tell you that you won't actually know that this is fine with you (and it is for many people!) until you've been in it for three or more loooooooooooong months. We are talking HEAT.
It's cooler closer to the coast...Again, watch that price tag. It gets outchier the more desirable you go, as with anywhere, and much of the coast is certainly considered desirable.
Again, many people don't mind this aspect one bit so I'm not saying it's some kind of negative in and of itself, but it's not something to be ignored, either. My family is by no means poor, quite far from it, but I spend the summers either in some air-conditioned place other than my home, or with everything closed up except our living/dining room with a wall unit AC going as with central, we were upwards of $400+/month to run the air. Would love to be outside all summer but it's just...so bad, urghhhhhhhhh. We are outside constantly in the very late fall through late spring instead, that part certainly is nice and rain days are the exception rather than a coin toss like they are in the NY tri-state area and surrounds.
Pretty much what you have, or what we have right here - not just me but most of my neighbors, including "natives" - is a reverse situation to the northeast. There, unless you're a cray-cray who loves to freeze you're indoors all winter, longing for the season to change. Here, we're indoors or else at the movies, the mall, hell, anywhere that they're paying air conditioning instead of you, longing for the season to change. AGAIN, THIS WILL NOT BE EVERY SINGLE PERSON, so nobody go putting the smackdown on me for that statement...and no, I'm not saying this makes SoCal "bad."
My recommendation: take a long vacation in September, at least three weeks if you can, to see how you feel about it.
Good luck and hope you find that perfect place or if SoCal is that perfect place, that you get here eventually.
Our first two western summers were actually spent in Las Vegas. It really is a drier heat!!!
We have spent three and a half summers in California, mostly in LA. We tried San Francisco and San Diego, too. In LA we have traveled from Malibu to Pasadena and Long Beach to Santa Barbara in July/August.
Nothing bothered us, even near 100's in SFV. For us, all of that beat NYC humid summers and freezing winters.
Totally understand your observations about "natives", and who knows maybe that will be us one day, but for now we know that the worst in LA beats the best in NYC for us.
Our first two western summers were actually spent in Las Vegas. It really is a drier heat!!!
We have spent three and a half summers in California, mostly in LA. We tried San Francisco and San Diego, too. In LA we have traveled from Malibu to Pasadena and Long Beach to Santa Barbara in July/August.
Nothing bothered us, even near 100's in SFV. For us, all of that beat NYC humid summers and freezing winters.
Totally understand your observations about "natives", and who knows maybe that will be us one day, but for now we know that the worst in LA beats the best in NYC for us.
Oh, that's great! Good luck to you two then and I hope you make it out here soon!
Be careful. Depending upon where you settle, GO THERE IN THE SUMMER FIRST. For example, where I am, home prices are comparatively low, and it's a commutable distance into LA. But we have over-95 days pretty much daily for about three months here with the very very odd less-than-90 day, and many of those over-95s will include 100+. Yes, it's a dry heat but...please.
...
Pretty much what you have, or what we have right here - not just me but most of my neighbors, including "natives" - is a reverse situation to the northeast. There, unless you're a cray-cray who loves to freeze you're indoors all winter, longing for the season to change. Here, we're indoors or else at the movies, the mall, hell, anywhere that they're paying air conditioning instead of you, longing for the season to change. AGAIN, THIS WILL NOT BE EVERY SINGLE PERSON, so nobody go putting the smackdown on me for that statement...and no, I'm not saying this makes SoCal "bad."
Oh yeah. We moved a few years ago and bought a house near the beach when prices were much lower than they are now. Whenever we have to go inland during the summers, I'm extremely thankful that we live in an area where it's comfortable year round. We probably wouldn't be as ecstatic if we lived somewhere that regularly hit the 90s.
I'm gonna post my question again since I think OP may have missed it a few pages back:
JerZ, You may have mentioned this somewhere in the past 10 pages, but did you ever get assimilated to CA? The internet is pretty crazy in that you can look back on a thread from 9 years ago and see what your thoughts were back then! If you are assimilated by now, how long did it end up taking you? Do you still have a desire to move back east?
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