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Just wanted to drop by and say some great things about Maine vs. California.
Everything is cheaper in Maine, not just in terms of sales tax, but food is cheaper. Alcohol, movie tickets, gas, permits, houses, driving time distance and several other things are just plain cheaper.
City/public water is significantly superior in taste.
Dunkin Donuts coffee > Starbucks coffee
Snow quality is very nice, that BS people said about the texture being overly hard is ridiculous.
The University of Maine presentation, staff, students, and overall organization of buildings and college events are very friendly and just plain fun. Stanford and UCLA are not nearly as exciting or adventurous, and are ridiculously expensive. The cafeteria food swept the floor on California food quality and exceeded my expectations.
I have never met anyone in Maine that wasn't friendly so far, people who said otherwise must be some sort of amazing oddity. Even the oldtimers were friendly!
There is no "Culture Shock" that people from California talk about, Mainers are REAL and I don't feel like I'm talking to some plastic mask with a middle finger hidden behind a text messaging app.
Shop variety; there is ALWAYS another new shop. There are chain stores sure, but I LOVE the uniqueness of many different shops.
Hannafords > Safeway, Savemart, Raleys, etc. Just my opinion, there is SOMETHING NEW IN EACH ONE.
Bangor > San Francisco. A bit of a stretch for some of you perhaps, but I love the Penobscot River view and Seadog's Brewery. There's many other things to say such as.. PARKING yes. A lovely feeling of suburban blend with cool shops.
State access: Vermont and New Hampshire then of course Canada! Okay sure in California you can reach Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona if you drive for 6-12 hours, but the New England atmosphere can't possibly be beat by desert. If I really miss the desert, I'll just visit the desert in Maine
Jobs, jobs, JOBS. Everywhere I look there is someone hiring. Look, the pay might be slightly less, but a job is a job. In California you fight to death for the privilege to MAYBE sweep a floor or clean windshields, here you at least have room to put your foot in the door.
The search for houses here, we have been through many. The first house was a disappointment, but as we continue to look we just keep finding better houses, and honestly I have never seen such unique design between houses, back home all the houses look the same, but these are always another adventure.
All in all, not only was mom impressed she was floored by how amazing Maine is and what it has to offer. The worst part about this trip is going back to California.
Welcome to New England
Maine is truly a wonderful state! But in a couple years you may be sick of the winters-- that really is the only drawback IMO. So. Darn. Cold!!!
Let me do a few more alternatives then: Pollo Loco, Chipotle, La Morenita's, Taco Trucks, and individual small businesses. All are still equal or more expensive than the mexican food options in Maine that are just as good. I've tried them all, nice try though.
Tourist traps and hole in the wall restaurants in San Francisco are expensive and slightly less expensive, and I'm sure you choose the cheapest items to justify SF. We chose the most expensive items at the restaurants here and it was still LESS than the mid-range 'tourist trap' prices in SF. Did you forget to include parking meters and traffic fuel?
My best friends in California are mexican and you are not going to tell me that I should be forced to learn spanish. In high school in California your sense of "tolerance" is forcing students to take 2-3 years of spanish with no other options for french, japanese or german. I'm far from what you make me out to be to defend your urban dependency, camancha.
Last edited by znlwovuhrjw; 04-14-2015 at 08:14 AM..
I love the cold wind and the extra cold mornings, its a breath of fresh air to feel the cold over the overbearing swelter of a "spring" day in Modesto. I pretty much call the spring-fall "summer of different shades", this weather is perfect right now.
Sure it will get biting cold with perhaps more than a few feet of snow, but I appreciate the abundance of water resources this allows access to! The trees are so nice to see all around with the miniature streams.
Have lived in Maine 6 months now and still get that funny look from the natives on occasion but they are warming up to me. People take much loner to accept you in northern NE than in other parts of the country. As far as jobs, yes there APPEARS to be many, but actually landing one is another story. I have been unemployed since landing here and am just going back to work next month, albeit the very same organization I left in West Virginia 6 months ago. You wouldn't like Maine weather if you were here through this last winter. I would take the dry central valley (CA) summers any day. I will agree that houses in Maine are cheaper and the property taxes aren't bad considering other parts of the country. I own a home in Maine and pay just over $1000.00 a year in taxes BEFORE the homestead rebate.
Lived in central California too in the mid 70s to early 80s. There are (or were) a lot of things that are nice about California as well. A lot of food is grown there. Accessibility and things to do. I guess that it is all what you are looking for. Anyway, I am happy that your visit was pleasant. thank you for the nice comments. Welcome to Maine.
Californian taxes are "pissed away" on pointless endeavors like desalination and high speed rails. If you REALLY think desalination will work, you haven't looked at the hydropower loss coupled with natural gas swap over. Largest plant in US, which won't be available until November is only going to give 7% of the water needed for ONE city.
Alcohol is cheaper, maybe something has changed or every place is expensive whenever I coincidentally enter the building in Bevmo, Raleys, and Savemart.
I find it humorous you immediately jump to mexican food. Miguel's is cheaper than Chevy's in California. Avocado is going to be moved to another state like Florida most likely, San Diego can't support crops anymore and mysteriously San Diego members continue to move to New Hampshire.
We might always be outsiders, but we can assimilate pretty well and are more than willing. We have had a lovely time with the locals who don't seem to mind. Why on earth is Mexican food worshipped? Anyone can make that, whereas you can't just wish seafood supply into existence.
Okay perhaps the novelty of Maine is present, but there is no way you can tell me that you enjoy dense heavy traffic, smog, overpopulated cities, and a lack of english. If this is culture shock, then KIND people must be a luxury.
Have you been to SF regularly? Sure there are 4 tollbooths on the way to Bangor but it is $5 just to get IN San Francisco. The traffic to get over the bridge is nearly 30-60min, another $6-7 in fuel, already blown the tollbooth cost in less than 2 hours for HALF of visiting Maine. Can you watch icebergs break off and float down the gulf of SF? Can you even get close to the water without standing on top of a homeless man? Have you EVER seen a 4 HR parking sign or a FIRST HOUR FREE parking garage in SF? I have yet to see a parking meter in Bangor and a restaurant doesn't have to be a hole in the wall to pay below $50. You are jampack sardined into an overpriced joint in SF just to get a sub-par clam chowder.
The farmlands are going extinct in CA and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. The marketing scam of saying CA is the only place that can grow most crops is abundant however, Maine as well as well over many other water abundant states can grow 90% of the crops grown in CA and 100% of the farm animals. CA is outdated, case and point.
Do you think we came all the way across the US for a gigantic urban wasteland? Portland, Portsmouth, Burlington, Brattleboro, Bangor, Concord, Manchester, and Montepelier are perfectly sized.
What kind of jobs did you look for? Hardware, hobby, amusement, restaurants, banks, specialty, and chain stores are ALL hiring. You can't tell me the local Lowes is selling scallops with each additional Husqavarna push mower for the summer months.
Reasons or not, CA is not a stable place to be and it is time to go.
Apparently you missed my last sentence: I LOVE MAINE! If it were not for a life event that forced my hand, I would still be living there, enjoying every minute of it.
As long as you keep bad-mouthing California, you will be loved. Fact remains, though, you will still always be from California no matter how well you assimilate. Even if you lived there the rest of your life, even if you had kids who stayed in Maine who had kids of their own who did the same. None of you, not one, would be "from" Maine. The implications of this could be great, or could be small; really depends on your personality and where in Maine you settle. No matter how much you try to hide it, there will be aspects of "California" that you just cannot shake. You might not think much of it as they will so ubiquitous to your being you believe them to simply be "normal". But these things will irk the heck out of locals, and, eventually you, too.
Coming from Modesto you will fair better than someone from the Bay, or SoCal, or maybe even Sacto in particular because there ain't diddly squat in Modesto but dust, ranchers, rodeos, and wanna-be NASCAR. Look, I been on these forums for nearly 8 years now and have also lived in Maine for many years, too. Believe me, you won't be the first person stoked on Maine only to wonder if the right decision to move to Maine was made or not. Like you, practically ALL of them were really excited to move to Maine; really excited to not have a Starbucks on every corner or "Mexicans" or crime or to live the quite life or to fill in the blank. Then once the novelty wore off and the reality of living in Maine set in, they realized that life in Maine is too quite, too difficult, too boring, that Maine has a set of problems all its own--some of which are baffling (like a strange obsession with Allen's Coffee flavored brandy), that Starbucks is actually missed, and so on.
As someone who is born and raised Californian, as someone who made the decision to move to Maine, I'm just giving you a heads up.
Your comments about burritos and chain-store Mexican are a joke, and you know it. You also know that Mexican food is ubiquitous to California and is something that everyone eats no matter how "white" they are.
By the way, I did take French in high school. The Spanish taught in school was more-or-less proper Spanish as spoken in Spain, and even too formal for them. The Mexican Spanish was what was needed, and I had plenty of opportunity to learn it from friends. Besides, the French Club went on a lot of field trips.
And I am from Northern California, been to the Bay many, many, many times. For a long time growing up--in particular during my teenaged years, before my part of NorCal was built up, going to SF, Berkeley, etc. was the only thing to do outside of shooting tin cans with .22s/shot guns (because a 30 ought 6 was a bit overkill), fishing, hunting, camping, participating in 4H, cruising the local strip mall, learning foul language in Mexican Spanish and so on.
Agriculture will also not leave California and jobs in Maine are very difficult to acquire in particular if you are not from Maine. Period. I struggled finding employment for a very long time. I would go on interviews, only to find out that I was not in Maine "long enough", that they just knew I would leave soon, no point in hiring me, and so on. My employer, when I finally got a job, just happened to be owned by some dude from Boston. Go figure.
Also, your comments about growing agriculture in Maine are flat-out false.
You are correct, I do not enjoy over population, smog, and so on but I do enjoy "non" English speakers. It is one of those things was so a part of my environment that it was the normal: NOT hearing Spanish spoken is weird to me.
Anyways, as I wrote, I'm just giving you a heads up. You have to have the right mentality and personality, or else Maine won't work out for you.
The farmlands are going extinct in CA and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. The marketing scam of saying CA is the only place that can grow most crops is abundant however, Maine as well as well over many other water abundant states can grow 90% of the crops grown in CA and 100% of the farm animals. CA is outdated, case and point.
Yep, and a bunch of us here are trying to prove you right!
Let me do a few more alternatives then: Pollo Loco, Chipotle, La Morenita's, Taco Trucks, and individual small businesses. All are still equal or more expensive than the mexican food options in Maine that are just as good.
Try 'Las Palapas' in Bangor, very good prices.
New Englanders who have never tried Mexican food seem to like Miguels.
Pepinos has some amazing food, but they are more expensive.
... Sure it will get biting cold with perhaps more than a few feet of snow, but I appreciate the abundance of water resources this allows access to! The trees are so nice to see all around with the miniature streams.
First day of June, instead of dry brown dead grass every where, you will see green. Later in August, the hottest month of the year, you will see green.
My wife and I love travelling to Maine and it is one of our favorite state with Denver. Maine has friendly locals, amazing restaurants, beautiful homes with affordable healthy lifestyle. Almost everything taste better in Maine... House market is very affordable and houses are extremely beautiful and well made. Portland also has amazing restaurants. Street & Co, Flatbread Company, Piccolo or Fore Street are amazing restaurants with great food and service. One of our friend has a big farm in Maine so we really enjoy picking from farm and cooking. Everything taste and smells like real vegetables and fruits.
Yes, winters are cold and long. You would hate to clean your driveway in the morning almost all winter long but it is still better than getting stuck in the traffic everyday, living with unfriendly people and paying ridiculous prices for housing and groceries. I would prefer to live in Maine over DC area any day!!!
However, I agree that it is harder to find a job in Maine than in DC. The job market is very limited and pay rate is a lot lower than DC area. I have been looking for jobs for a while but many companies even do not consider me as a candidate because of my current salary. Hopefully, I will be able to find a decent job so my family can move to Maine. Denver is also another great state to live with better job market but it has already started to get overpopulated (Increasing cost of living and housing)
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