Trapped in OC, need to escape (Anaheim, Fullerton: apartments, houses, find a job)

[mollymonk]

Originally Posted by Charles

What's the solution?

I think the government could do a better job in enforcing our borders...We can send a man to the moon, I'm sure enforcing the borders can be done also!

[scorpionleather]

Originally Posted by Charles

What's the solution?

According to the California Legislative Analyst's Office website, "The composition of total state spending (General Fund plus special funds) has evolved over time. Health and social services programs' share has increased over the period while transportation's share has declined." 1966-67 vs 2006-07.

I think the solution would be to reverse this. It would take a lot of pressure on the state legislature, but we would have to battle the influence from San Francisco. If someday San Francisco separates into its own island and we allow it to secede into a separate country, California voters just might be able to shift spending back to restore the transportation infrastructure.

The state legislature policies have a big effect on Orange County.

[mcorrales]

I moved to the "wilds" of western PA a year ago and I have never been as happy. Older person, but still very active, and between gardening, church, fundraisers, volunteer work, I keep busy. I bought a four bedroom, three bath house, with full basement and over half an acre of land for less than $100k and I love living in a small town. I lived in SoCal for over 35 years total, and you could not get me back there. I live in a town of 1700 folks and every one knows you and treats you really nice. Come on back, the spring is glorious, everything is blooming (although we did get an inch or so of snow yesterday). I love it here.

[AKgirlinCA]

I want to escape too. Hopefully to the greater DFW area in the future, a little place by the name of Allen . I am aware of their traffic issues as well, but the crowding is nothing compared to here. Going into downtown Dallas on a Saturday was completely hassle free, how refreshing. I would not DREAM of going into downtown LA on a Saturday. Also, I find salaries and cost of living there to balance each other quite nicely. UNLIKE here. I also like the fact that they actually have weather there. Unfortunately, we will be here for at least another 2 years while I finish school, however we will be planning in the meantime for our escape. I definitely don't want to raise my future children here and I have a feeling it is only going to get worse in the near future as well.

[scorpionleather]

Regions change over time but I wonder how many have changed as dramatically as OC.

Today I found this comment in the OC Register newspaper:

"when I came to OC in the mid 60s it was like the garden of eden. now the little truck farms and orange groves are gone. here goes another one. chock full of overpriced homes. it's a downright dirty shame what has happened here. I used to float hunt the SA River from Prado Dam to Imperial in a canoe."

[JFS in IL]

When we first lived in Orange, in the early 1960's, the local movie house was the old Orange theater near the plaza. There were no malls, not even a Sears nearby (my mom got so excited when the Mall of Orange opened!). On either side of our new tract home just off Glassell/Taft were orange groves - in fact, the grove behind our house (now St. Norbert's playing field) became a great place for kids to play after school - we pretended the old concrete smokepots were WWII bunkers, etc.

By the time I was college age - late 70's/early 80's - we were timing our errands/trips around rush hour, which kept getting earlier and earlier.... I can not imagine how bad it is, now.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by JFS in IL

When we first lived in Orange, in the early 1960's, the local movie house was the old Orange theater near the plaza. There were no malls, not even a Sears nearby (my mom got so excited when the Mall of Orange opened!). On either side of our new tract home just off Glassell/Taft were orange groves - in fact, the grove behind our house (now St. Norbert's playing field) became a great place for kids to play after school - we pretended the old concrete smokepots were WWII bunkers, etc.

By the time I was college age - late 70's/early 80's - we were timing our errands/trips around rush hour, which kept getting earlier and earlier.... I can not imagine how bad it is, now.

I know where you live! I lived in the condos just across Taft to the north on Palmdale for 9 years (moved to Denver 2 years ago). I'm sure I've walked my dog by your house many times over the years!

My grandfather talks about growing up in Orange in the '30s when he used to pick oranges for money. It was more of a country town back then. I bet it was absolutely beautiful, and I can only imagine the smell when the orange blossoms were blooming.

[RAMFEB31]

Something has change on this forum since I've been gone. Early on, I've seen OCBREA advising the original poster on not using this forum as a chat room claiming this is a relocation forum.
Either many of you or I are breaking a lot of rules or someone is mistaken. Maybe I better stay off this forum before I am beaten over the head with a wet noodle. Or worse, the forum police come knocking at my door 2 AM in the morn.

[Texasturkey]

Originally Posted by capoeira

Picking an unusual time to go out is the best solution. If you do shopping for necessities early Saturday morning you can avoid the crowds. It is nice walking into Target or Henry's at 8:00 am and checking out at 8:20 with a cart full of stuff before most people get up on the weekends.

Another suggestion to have fun without driving jammed freeways is to try taking Amtrak into LA for a weekend urban adventure. For example you can take the Pacific Surfliner from Fullerton at 11:36 am and arrive in Union Station (http://www.westworld.com/~elson/larail/laus.html - broken link) at 12:15 pm. Then you can head for lunch at Chinatown , Little Tokyo or Olvera Street.

If you want to be really adventurous,from Union Station you can take the Metro Red Line (http://www.westworld.com/~elson/larail/red.html - broken link) to Universal Studios or many other places.

Another suggestion is to avoid the most likely jammed freeways and take the local roads. Several times I have been on Telegraph driving 35 while the parallel traffic on the 5 is hardly moving at 5 mph. Most of the time the freeways might being faster but when you get a Sigalert they are very stressful so I still prefer local streets if they are a reasonable option.

It is also helpful to always be listening to some interesting CD or tape while driving to avoid getting stressed out by traffic. If your car still has a cassette player,Bookcloseouts has a ton of tape sets on sale for $1.99 each.

Here is an Amtrak schedule:

http://www.amtrak.com/timetable/jan08/W31.pdf

Here are Metro Line shopping & destination guides:

http://www.metro.net/news_info/publications/images/holiday_shopping.pdf (broken link)

http://parkmetro.net/news_info/publications/images/metro_rail_red_line_destinations.pdf (broken link)

I take the Metro Rail Lines all of the time. Today, I took the green line to the blue line to the Passport (LB Transit) to the Pike, Shoreline Village, Pacific Aquarium and Queen Mary in Long Beach.

The MTA day pass is $5.00 and the Passport is free.

Green Line: Norwalk to Redondo Beach
Red Line: Los Angeles (Olvera St. Union Station) to North Hollywood
(Universal Studios)
Blue Line: Long Beach to S. Los Angeles
Gold Line: Los Angeles to Pasadena
Orange Line: San Fernando Valley to the Antelope Valley

www.mta.net
www.socaltrasnport.org (broken link)

Have fun!

[Texasturkey]

Originally Posted by Soccersupporter

When my inlaws lived in the desert we would go out on Easter break, and other holidays. The only thing we dreaded was the drive back. It would take 3+ hours always. If there was an accident it could be worse. When they moved to Temecula before the hords moved there it was an okay drive. The last time we visited them before we moved to TX, Sept. 2007 it tooked us 3 hours to get back to Irvine. They live above the wineries in the hills and don't go into town very often because it is so crowded in Temecula now. They have seen the change in Temecula and the increased crowding. Where is their in SoCal that has not or will be affected by overcrowding?

Besides Southern CA, have you considered any cities or towns in
Central CA, like Kern County?

Imperial County: Almost anywhere
Kern County: North Edwards, Mojave, Oildale, Buttonwillow, Tehachapi
Riverside: Lake Mathews, Indio
San Bernardino: Idylwild, Needles, Baker, Barstow,
Los Angeles: Castaic, Death Valley, Filmore, Angeles Forest
Orange County: Trabuco Canyon, El Toro, San Joaquin Hills
San Diego: Alpine, Barrett Lake

There are some rural regions in Southern and Central CA that have less development, tourism and industry than bigger cities and suburbs.