Give some good reasons to stay in ... Sacramento... food for thought... (Richmond: to rent, how much)

[bluevelo]

I'm going to be cutting and pasting parts of another post I have on the Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA forums, but, in a nutshell, I have an opportunity to apply (again, I passed on the first opportunity in Jan) for a promotion to Vancouver, WA...

I've lived in Sacramento since April 2007, before that, I lived in Jackson, MS for almost 7 years, and the Virginia I-95 corridor between DC and Richmond from '91-'99... before that, I had a series of transportation planning jobs (this is what I do) in SD, MN (Wayzata), MI (Battle Creek), IN (Indianapolis), OH (Dayton) after getting my Master's degree from the University of Iowa in 1987 (I'm an Iowa native, from Des Moines).

In January, when I posted about this opportunity on the WA and OR forums I got some great advice, but passed as I really, really, really hate rain. As you can see from the above, I've lived in a variety of climates and all of them had much greater degrees of cloudiness and cloud than SMF... and I about freaked out this winter as it seems we had a more "normal" winter in terms of the amount and number of rainy days.

I really hate rain. I also hate cold and snow. But I also dislike working in an office where I'm quite frankly, underutilized, underappreciated and where the morale issues are becoming - at least for me - a major issue.

This is not an easy decision for me to make - applying - as I think I would have a very good chance of getting the job and it would be very bad for my career to turn it down.

I have a fairly serious GF that I have very mixed feelings about leaving behind; she is 5 years service from being able to retire with full benefits from UC-Davis med center, and as a Type 1 diabetic having relatively free health care in retirement is very important to her. I do not think she will move with me, and I have asked her to consider marriage several times, but she keeps telling me she is not ready.

That said, the promotion would bump my salary about 5K a year to 100. I obviously would live on the WA side, and instead of having the feds suck away my take home gains in taxable income I would put more in the retirement account.

I like the idea of having much lower overall taxes, I really resent what the state of California takes out of my check to pay for the huge underclass we have here in California, that, from what I've seen on light rail, and around Sacramento, is fully capable of working but refuses to do so - although its really good about whining about how they'll all wither up and die if they're actually required to work for their benefits.

I know the politics up there is going to be even more liberal than SMF (or even SF) and that is a concern to me. California is already wacko liberal on far too many things.

I'm 48, male, divorced, with two young children that live in CT with their Mom most of the year. One consideration that weighs in on my decision of whether I should apply is that the public schools in Vancouver appear to be much - MUCH - better than what's available in general in Sacramento, and if my children decide - when they are older - that they want to live with me (10 and 8 now, will be entering 3rd and 5th grade this fall), the only really decent public schools are at least an hour's drive in from the burbs to my office downtown here... and Sacramento just seems completely overrun with 'bangers and tackiness compared to a lot of other places I've lived.

I have 0 interest in spending more than an hour driving to downtown SMF every day to have my kids in a decent, safe school. But just watching the news I'm not sure aside from parts of Roseville, Rockling and Folsom that there are any decent schools in a neighborhood that I can afford to live in here. I'm not going to rent forever... but the idea of having to pay $400K for a house is just absolutely ridiculous. If I wasn't worried about the school issue, I would probably buy a house down here in Tahoe Park where I live right now. Its a fine neighborhood if you don't have to worry about sending your kids to the school, which is pretty ghetto in my estimation.

I hate the idea of leaving someone I love for the uncertainty of an office that may not be any better where I am right now, and moreover, moving to darkness and mizzle a great deal of the year. OTOH, spending 40 hours a week pretty much being miserable in a position isn't a good thing either, no matter how much sunshine there is outside... and when you add in California's dsyfunctionality, incredibly high taxes, and wacko liberalism, it seems like Vancouver might be a good solution.

I love the sunshine, the outdoor recreational opportunities, and if I was happier in my office (5K really isn't that much of a raise) and was sure my children would be staying in CT I wouldn't be considering this move at all...

[Curmudgeon]

Lemme see here. You dislike and resent California's high taxes, Sacramento's ghetto culture, the states politics and general dysfunction, you don't like your job, the move will be good for your career....have I missed anything?....and you want good reasons to stay to add to those your girlfriend, the sunshine, the recreational opportunities and your dislike for PNW weather.

Eenie Meenie Minie Mo!

[bluevelo]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Lemme see here. You dislike and resent California's high taxes, Sacramento's ghetto culture, the states politics and general dysfunction, you don't like your job, the move will be good for your career....have I missed anything?....and you want good reasons to stay to add to those your girlfriend, the sunshine, the recreational opportunities and your dislike for PNW weather.

Eenie Meenie Minie Mo!

I've already *done* that. :-p

I'm sure Oregon/Washington have their own lovely little levels of dysfunctionality too... What I was hoping is that someone who has lived in both places would be able to give me a wee bit of perspective. I realize that there is no perfect place in the world...

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by bluevelo

I've already *done* that. :-p

I'm sure Oregon/Washington have their own lovely little levels of dysfunctionality too... What I was hoping is that someone who has lived in both places would be able to give me a wee bit of perspective. I realize that there is no perfect place in the world...

When we were looking for someplace to retire we considered the PNW but almost immediately rejected it due to the weather -- too many cloudy days and too much rain. We also wanted four distinct seasons, none of them particularly harsh.

Once I retired we left Sacramento, where my wife was raised and spent much of her life and where I lived for my last 19 working years. Deciding where to go took years of research, a lot of number crunching, weather watching and, finally, travelling.

No quick fix that I know of. Good luck!

[bluevelo]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

When we were looking for someplace to retire we considered the PNW but almost immediately rejected it due to the weather -- too many cloudy days and too much rain. We also wanted four distinct seasons, none of them particularly harsh.

Once I retired we left Sacramento, where my wife was raised and spent much of her life and where I lived for my last 19 working years. Deciding where to go took years of research, a lot of number crunching, weather watching and, finally, travelling.

No quick fix that I know of. Good luck!

When I was growing up in Des Moines, I knew a lot of people that had 2nd vacation homes in the Ozarks or were making plans to retire down there. How close are you to Springfield, MO?

Its not a bad compromise for retirement... its cheap, its not overrun like places like FL and AZ are (I would likely opt for someplace in TX if I were actually close enough to retirement to seriously contemplate it, somewhere on the side closer to the Gulf so I'd have the beach option - Corpus Christi is very nice, but you gotta be OK with lots of Hispanic culture (I'd have no prob with that)).

Lake of the Ozarks is gorgeous.

Actually, if winter wasn't such a beotch, I'd consider retiring in one of the South or North Dakota metros. Those are also nice, clean, safe and cheap places to live.

[Curmudgeon]

We're on the shore of Table Rock Lake about 23 miles SE of Branson and about 60 miles from Springfield. This winter, snow began with a white Christmas (it snowed Christmas Eve night) and we received about a foot overall before Spring with four or five snowfalls. Piece of cake and the roads are cleared rapidly, even here in the boonies.

[79caligirl]

I grew up in Sacramento and lived there my whole life up until we moved to Southeastern Idaho 4 years ago. Married, 2 girls under kindergarten age, I work from home. We only moved because of personal finances and my wanting to stay home with my girls while they were young, and that is hard to do anywhere in California. Well, they are school-age now, and I am going NUTS living here!

I researched the weather before I moved here, along with everything else. Although the elevation is higher, the numbers were super close to Placerville-type snow, which I thought would be no big deal. And actually, there isn't much overall snow or precipitation, BUT it is pretty much constantly cold and cloudy for 9 months out of the year, and no month is sacred (still snows in June, I always freak out when I see cotton or blossom pieces floating through the air out my window with a little panic in my heart thinking it's snow)! We are moving out of here next year because I can't take it. Not just the weather, but the boring people, the boring landscape, and the boring, boring, commerce. We just visited Sac last week and I want to move back but am hesitant because of the schools and politics (I hear you loud and clear on all of that!), and logically Texas seems a better option for us because it is much more like California but without many of it's problems. But I just feel at home there and LOVE the energy, nature, diversity, and sunshine of Sacramento. I love being able to get in the car and drive a few hours to be somewhere different (where as Texas is flat, ugh). Where I am now (12 hour drive to Sac, 5 hours to Boise (yucky, not an option either), 3 hours to Salt Lake) I am going INSANE. No wonder everyone is on Prosac here.

I am telling you, weather makes a BIG difference in your overall happiness, and if you know you can't handle it, don't do it. I KNEW I couldn't handle it, but thought it was a decent choice and a good mixture (thought it would be more like 4 seasons, but its only two...9 months of crap and 3 months of great beautiful, not-too hot summer!). The trees are barren from September to Mid May....seriously! No color, no green, no flowers, no birds, NO LIFE for 6 solid months, and the other transitional periods are super short. Too much of a dramatic change for me from living in Sacramento. Also, the city here doesn't much care about landscaping and 10 foot weeds along the sidewalks, mainly because the season is too short and not much can grow here. I know that this is much different from where you are talking about, but we are not too far from OR and WA, we are neighbors in the frigid, dreary North.

It took me a while to figure out what was wrong with me. All it took was a trip back to Sac where I realized this place is stealing my soul! I feel like myself when I am in Sac, and although there are problems, I grew up there so I know way more about it than someone coming in without having lived there. Not to mention all my family, friends and connections are there.

[bluevelo]

Good luck on your move back from Your Own Private Idaho. I've passed on two opportunities to apply for Vancouver; my GF was actually in Portland for work-related training the past 3 days, liked it, but was saying today (she grew up in Sac) that it was too cold and cloudy for her tastes... and she likes cloudy weather... just not all the time.