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Leaving California

Posted by $ Abaco 2 years, 5 months ago to News
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More details to follow. Finally got my prettier half to come along... Bittersweet, as I have so many memories here. I keep saying that being a Californian this long has been like knowing a gorgeous blue-eyed girl in high school, only to see her show up at your reunion as a crack whore. (I've actually experienced that....so I should know). Not a happy thing to see. Even this morning, in my walk to the donut shot to get my daughter a treat...I observed and experienced a couple things that were so symbolic of this place. Blew my mind....

SOURCE URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bliNQwjNH74


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  • Posted by CaptainKirk 2 years, 5 months ago
    I lived there for about 90+ days. Broke my lease, and came to FL.

    1992, just out of college. But it only took 3 months to realize the weather was the last redeeming quality, and the Fruits & Nuts were not coming from trees... Worse, the FLAKES they were electing to run the place.

    Oh, and having to team up with 5 other people to buy a 3 bedroom house, and cycle through a couple of those before you had a down payment on your own property. It was all INSANE to me.

    Glad I left. I have a friend or two that are still out there. They love the weather. Hate the driving, and keep their heads down, and their mouths shut.
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  • Posted by mccannon01 2 years, 5 months ago
    My experience of Kalifornia is limited. Changed flights in LAX a few times on my way to someplace else so no big deal there. Went to Disneyland with some family out of Phoenix and had a good time.

    I've mentioned this in the Gulch before. I had two job contracts in Oakland. One for the city itself for a month and a second one for another month at the Chevron refinery just north of the city. Although the jobs and coworkers were very good, I definitely did not like Oakland or San Francisco across the bridge. I have no desire to ever go back there for any reason. I have an old friend who lives in a town northeast of Oakland who came to have dinner with me one night after work. His statement and observation was he hasn't come to the communist sector of the state for some time and things appear worse than the last time he was there.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 2 years, 5 months ago
    I've gone to CA so many times for business over the past 22 years. A few times I had a notion to move there. It just feels like most of the tech eco system in the US is out there, although that's probably an exaggeration. The grass looks greener on the other side. The first time I went there in the late 90s, I was surprised at how much more expensive it is than WI. It's the same today.
    I'm also always shocked at how long it takes to go a short distance in traffic. I think it would get tiresome fast.
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  • Posted by Rex_Little 2 years, 5 months ago
    I got out of there five years ago, moved to the Phoenix area. At least according to Zillow, home prices in CA are crazy. A crackerbox I used to own in Burbank (2 br, 1 bath, built 1930) is evaluated at $845K. My question: is anyone actually paying those prices?
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    • Posted by $ jdg 2 years, 5 months ago
      The rumor around me is that Blackrock is buying up all the available housing stock at above-market prices, for the purpose of tearing the houses down and replacing them with high-rise apartments with no place to park. The state's urban planning lords are determined to keep the remaining unbuilt land unbuilt -- so everyone else is going to be stuck in a dense-pack apartment with no car unless he's got both the money and political pull of a Hollywood star to be able to keep his single family home.

      Of course these apartments won't be safe because they're not about to discriminate against the bums that are now everywhere in tents. They'll force the rest of us to subsidize them. And they'll keep petty theft unpunished so that even food becomes super expensive. (And I haven't even touched yet on the tax picture, which will only get worse because the state constitution makes all those unfunded civil service pensions an untouchable, guaranteed right.)

      This is what awaits anyone who doesn't make it out of California in the next year or so.
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  • Posted by $ CBJ 2 years, 5 months ago
    Moved from California to Nevada in 1990; never regretted it. Nevada's run by Dems at the moment, but that may change in the next election. And zero state income tax is written into the state constitution.
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    • Posted by $ 2 years, 5 months ago
      I've made several friends in Nevada and all of them are anything but liberal - which is nice. When I play golf over there I see big "Trump" flags trailing from the golf carts, which cracks me up. Their governor is a Dem but is walking on egg shells, you can tell. He's surrounded by a very right population there in northern Nevada.
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  • Posted by $ 25n56il4 2 years, 5 months ago
    Okay where did you go when you left California? I was born in LA but mother and dad got back to Texas as fast as the could after the Great Depression. I still get physically ill if I go across the State Lines. Went to Nebraska for a funeral in the Spring time and almost froze to death!
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    • Posted by $ 2 years, 5 months ago
      After research and mixed signals from "the chief" we decided on Nevada. Just closed a deal on a big place with a killer view. The clock is ticking in Kalifornia...there's a quickening here. You can see it all coming unraveled. I'm selling some real estate here, moving, transitioning....The high school where my son will go gave him a tour a couple days ago and he loved it...as did the kids spoken with there. Want to get my kids to adulthood without the ghouls chasing us like they do here...from commie propaganda hanging in the schools, to the racist comments hurled at my son, to the "civil servants" who don't give a shit what kids and their parents need...let alone what they want. In know many families with kids. Most are gone. The rest, except one family, have been very open about planning to leave.
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      • Posted by cranedragon 2 years, 5 months ago
        Do get good tax advice. The CA Franchise Tax Board habitually refuses to believe that people actually leave the formerly golden state and will chase their loot for a long, long time. If you must return to CA, document not only the days that you're there but also the days when you're elsewhere, and make sure to change your voting, addresses on all bank accounts, get new doctors, veterinarians, and barbers -- the whole nine yards. And make sure that you get certified RRR proof mailing on the last tax return that you file in California so they have notice of the new address and don't keep sending notices to an address that you're no longer occupying.
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        • Posted by $ 2 years, 5 months ago
          I'm very familiar with that issue. When my mom left California with a lot of money Franchise Tax went after her, locking up any accounts they knew of. A friend of mine works in the organization and I'm certainly being tactical on my move.
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      • Posted by $ 25n56il4 2 years, 5 months ago
        My roommate and her husband, a Col in the Strategic Air Command retired in Nevada and they loved it. She had asthma really bad and he researched the subject and picked Nevada for their climate and conditions best for her.
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  • Posted by SamAnderson 2 years, 5 months ago
    I left California 24 years ago and have used the "so sad my beautiful ex-girlfriend became a crack whore" explanation countless times. I visit ~once a year, just often enough (about 4-6 days suffice) to remember why the heck we moved on.
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  • Posted by JohnWesley 2 years, 5 months ago
    I feel so bad for California. Was there for two years in the early sixties, during my USAF days. My duties had me traveling between Fort Bragg, in the north, down to the Mexican border. I loved it. Great people, wild hippies, (leaders now), and some of the best food ever. Such a beautiful state that has been destroyed by politics.
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