Cost of living increase from NYC to Bay Area (Irvine: neighborhoods, buying)

[Chuck5000]

Settle disputes with GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community. Has ratings. While Bay Area schools are disappointing, there are some districts that are not "wealthy" in the super wealthy palo alto sense, that are good.

"By far among the worst"? Exaggeration. Again, go look on that site, or find another, and do some comparison.

[NOLA101]

Originally Posted by andyadhi01

TPlease don't argue about CA public schools because by every measurable index it is by far among the worst public school system in the country.

I know CA schools, as a general rule, are worse than in the NYC area. I actually have lived in the NYC area and in Orange County, and the Orange County schools were far subpar (and I was in Newport Beach school district, which is probably one of the wealthiest and highest performing in the state).

But there are high perfoming districts. At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, upper class Asian majority districts in CA tend to be high performing. Places like Irvine in OC or Cupertino in SV. I suspect it's due to cultural factors, rather than anything specific to the school. Palo Alto schools are extremely high performing and majority white (though obviously there are probably tons of kids of Stanford faculty, and Palo Alto home prices are absurd).

[Chuck5000]

I lived in NYC area, and I am telling you that the suburbs north, east, and west of NYC have many, many nice middle class towns that are affordable and have great or good-enough schools. In the Bay Area, there are far fewer good districts per capita. In NY, a town like Redwood City or even San Leandro would have good-enough schools at a minimum, from k thru 12. RWC and San Leandro do not have good-enough schools all the way from k to 12, no matter where you live; there are a few good ones, but it's not uniform.

Again, you can check greatschools.org and look at ratings. 6 or above is really good enough, '10's' are unnecessary.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by andyadhi01

I always thought food is cheaper in CA but it certainly isn't the case anymore. The food price inflation has been crazy for the last few years... I guess fresh produce is still cheaper here or about the same as rest of the country but everything else is way more expensive. A dozen of eggs are now almost $7 and so is a gallon of milk. Can't comment about meat or poultry price because I don't eat them much. A decent quality Salmon is abotu $20 a pound. Only places that sell affordable veggies are small ethnic food markets... Local and chain grocers are expensive and farmers markets make Whole Foods look dirt cheap! A hotdog or ice cream for the kid cost upwards of $5... A burrito in some rundown Taqueria is now almost $10.. up from about $5 a few years back. Anything from a food truck is over $10... I guess Costco is still cheap if stuffing your body with junk food is your lifestyle. I expect food prices will get worse with the ongoing severe drought.

If you're paying $7 for a dozen eggs, you're a sucker. You must have looked for the most expensive eggs in your area, and decided to buy those. We had a whole thread here on egg prices, and people said $2-$3.50 was the norm. Nobody believes your posts, andy, and with good reason.

[WizardOfRadical]

Actually CA public schools are the 7th worst, not the worst. *Plays theme song from The Jeffersons*

[jade408]

Originally Posted by crouching_tiger

Lol @ eastern US is a dump. Your urine soaked bum infested city is the real dump. It's newer than east coast cities and the weather is (somewhat) better that's about it. And you get California produce on the east coast.

Once the CA produce ahips to the east coast it loses all its tastieness.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by andyadhi01

Nope! Eggs are around $6-7 in Safeway for the regular non-organic variety. There is no way it can be $1.99 in Trader Joe's.

Expert: Record-high average price for eggs is around the corner

Wow Safeway is ripping you off for eggs. I got some pastured organic eggs at whole foods for $6 last week. Organic Clover eggs were $4.

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by Chuck5000

Settle disputes with GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community. Has ratings. While Bay Area schools are disappointing, there are some districts that are not "wealthy" in the super wealthy palo alto sense, that are good.

"By far among the worst"? Exaggeration. Again, go look on that site, or find another, and do some comparison.

Greatschool ratings does not compare between states. Yes by CA standards bay area has some good schools and lot of very bad schools. Countrywide CA has some of the lowest per student spending and the worst teacher to student ratio. NY spends almost twice per student compared to CA. Stop arguing against well documented facts!

[Chuck5000]

Originally Posted by andyadhi01

Greatschool ratings does not compare between states. Yes by CA standards bay area has some good schools and lot of very bad schools. Countrywide CA has some of the lowest per student spending and the worst teacher to student ratio. NY spends almost twice per student compared to CA. Stop arguing against well documented facts!

there are other sites to find any comparison data you want. If I thought more of your intellect and argumentation style, I'd look them up and post here for you.

I'm done with you. What I said stands re: schools, you don't know squat, you're thinking that the stats that you have are proof. They are not. If you want to lump all of the poor central valley districts in with the coastal districts to make your point, that's disingenuous. Of course CA is very big, duh.

Enjoy your delusion.

[CBB_bear]

I imagine comparisons between states with become easier as most states are adopting Common Core and will use the same tests, since greatschools scores are mostly just a 1-10 measurement of test scores. What that tells you about school quality with regard to student:teacher ratio, spending per student, curriculum, teacher qualifications, accelerated coursework, teaching to the "whole student" or whatever else people value in a school is questionable (and requires more research), as test scores correlates most strongly to the socioeconomic status of the school population.