Leaving California!

[Ren]

Yeah I love so-cal. If I need seasons, I’ll buy a vacation rental in the mountains.

I think everyone has a threshold, past which they’ll be forced out by the state government. That threshold may involve cost of living, CARB rules, crime, taxes, etc. Individuals can take more abuse than businesses. I haven’t approached my threshold yet – but $2/gallon higher than any other state might do it, for the insult factor alone.

[no_such_reality]

[quote=ocrenter][img_assist|nid=16743|title=can you imagine if the pollutant level tripled since 1960s along with gasoline use|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=445|height=549][/quote]

So the real question with CARB is what is the right goal?

CARB’s goal is apparently zero ppm.

What’s our economic cost from the roughly 5 PPM in 1990 to the 2 PPM today and the push toward 1PPM in the future with AB32?

what is the real air quality benefit in smog days we see from the mid-90s to today?

That is the complaint against CARB. Essentially, mission accomplished mid-90s.

[spdrun]

CARB doesn’t have a goal. Apparently, the *elected* state assembly has that goal.

[jstoesz]

CA has a strong hand on recreation, one of the strongest. The mountains are the best in the world and largely empty if you avoid quota driven trailheads. But everything else’s about CA blows. The cities are really just poorly developed suburbs as far as the eye can see (unless you have a million bucks to spend on a home or a job where you can remote in). The people are far more image conscious than else where (where else do you find rental apartments with beamers in every stall). The roads and traffic are worse than anywhere I have been. And despite what you have heard, the pay is no better than anywhere else. The government is inefficient and injurious (people here in mn complain about a 20 min DMV line:). Basically California is amazing inspite of the man made.

I will hopefully move back, but only if I can count myself in the upper middle class and can work from home most days, otherwise, I shake the dust from the tires of my well worn crv. 213k miles and counting, hummed like a top the whole way.

Oh, and I am biking in tomorrow, high of 70 baby. Signing up for the birki soon, MN how I missed thee.

[jstoesz]

Squat, I am sure you will appreciate this, the bike to work today was amazing. 15 miles in 45 min, how could you beat that. It was like a bike freeway, flat and fast with nearly no intersections only overpasses, etc. time to buy a road bike.

Btw, the job is amazing, they do no documentation, just a database of solidworks files! I am pinching myself. Forget defense! Real design, and man does my brain hurt.

We looked at a few houses under 300 last weekend. Amazing houses in perfect cosmopolitan neighborhoods. I am going to be able to walk to the grocer, restaurants and church not to mention bike to work on dedicated and separate bike paths. What more could you want?

[paramount]

[quote=jstoesz]What more could you want?[/quote]

Sounds great, it really does. I hope you will report back in February.

Say hello to Garrison!!

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=jstoesz]Squat, I am sure you will appreciate this, the bike to work today was amazing. 15 miles in 45 min, how could you beat that. It was like a bike freeway, flat and fast with nearly no intersections only overpasses, etc. time to buy a road bike.

Btw, the job is amazing, they do no documentation, just a database of solidworks files! I am pinching myself. Forget defense! Real design, and man does my brain hurt.

We looked at a few houses under 300 last weekend. Amazing houses in perfect cosmopolitan neighborhoods. I am going to be able to walk to the grocer, restaurants and church not to mention bike to work on dedicated and separate bike paths. What more could you want?[/quote]
Winter is coming…

Seriously, if Minnesota could be Spring and Fall year round, it would be by far the greatest place to live. But trust me, come winter you won’t be biking to work or walking anywhere.

[spdrun]

Yaddadee, bladdadee, dah. Many European cities are just as cold/snowy as MSP, yet people do manage to walk more than the average obese American in a warm climate.

[jstoesz]

I am excited for winter. When I grew up, it was my favorite season. Recreation is the best in the snow. I fear a winter they had last year, where the lakes barely froze and the snow didn’t last. If it is going to be winter, it might as well be winter with all the recreation it provides.

I missed signing up for the birkinbiner by 3 days, 10k people beat me…sad day. It’s a 54k ski race for the west coast folks.

The job is awesome by the way. Man does my brain hurt? It is the first time my brain has been taxed in 5 years. I lose it by 4pm, and turn into a drooling, stammering fool. Before, I stuggled to not be tortured by boredom by the end of the day. Forget defense.

[no_such_reality]

[quote=spdrun]Yaddadee, bladdadee, dah. Many European cities are just as cold/snowy as MSP, yet people do manage to walk more than the average obese American in a warm climate.[/quote]

No they’re not. Most of Europe is decided warmer than the mid-west.

In January, MSP averages as high of 24F and low of 7F.

Berlin in January is 35F high, 26F low.
Geneva is 38F high and 28F low.
Stockhold is 30F high, 23F low.
Even Prague is warmer, 34F high, 24F low.

It’s because of the Atlantic current, and those 10 degrees and 20 degrees on the low do make a big difference.

[bearishgurl]

Hi jstoesz, I just got an e-mail today with this video attached and after a “disappointing season” last year, it looks like Heavenly is in the process of having a bit of an early season 🙂

For starters, they’re expecting 3 feet this week. That should help build a nice base 🙂 Unfortunately, it’s no longer a ~45 mi drive for you :-{

You might have to fly back this winter if it gets really good . . .

[ctr70]

Good move jstoesz! The main reason I’m in San Diego is the weather, I think it’s average or below average for many other areas. SD pro’s and con’s:

pro’s
1. climate
2. mountains and close hiking
3. beaches (easy to get to, downside water too cold to swim – personally far prefer caribbean/hawaii type water/sand)

con’s
1. architecture SUCKS here – very few homes/buildings with character and the type of leafy beautiful neighborhoods you find east of the Rockies
2. it’s hard to find a cool neighborhood you actually WANT to live in – that inspires you. Most of affordable San Diego is GHETTO with no character & shitty schools & shitty litte strip centers for downtowns (east county, south county, vista, o-side, escondidio) & the better parts & better school districts (PQ, RB, Scripps, 4s, Carlsbad, etc..) are cookie cutter, big box strip center, sterile car culture – with no character shitty architecture
3. No sense of community
4. I just find SD to have a very “low mentality” & “low IQ” overall in so many areas – it’s a very kind of get rich quick scammer environment, throw cheap shit buildings up quick to make developers rich and get out, and very transient. It just has a feeling of cheapness (in the architecture and neighborhood design) here. Very commercialized and mainstream culturally here. It just has an emptiness culturally here. Has more in common with say Phoenix, Dallas or Vegas. It’s just not a very intellectual place. They should have a big statue in PB that represents the whole of SD mentality with a “dude” covered in tatt’s drinking a 40 out of bag with a Chargers tee.
5. So much of SD just has a “ghetto” feel and trash thrown everywhere. Just makes me sick all the trash I see off the highway exits…it’s like people just don’t give a shit.
6. It gets soooo dry & brown here after say May until Dec…the hills are so dead and brown. When I fly back east to New England in the summer, I feel like I’m flying into a rain forest.
7. There is no change of seasons (ok maybe a little rain in the winter)…it can get kind of grounhog-day-ish really boring…the falls are gorgeous in many parts of the county – I was just back in Vermont in late Sept..WOW.

There are a lot of great places like Minnesota out there with green leafy neighborhoods with handsome stately afforable homes, nice parks, good schools, rivers, forests, natural lakes, nice communities, grass, trees, good schools and affordability. But yes you have winter and some gray skies.

The only reason I’m here and not in a place like say Seattle is the weather. I always ask myself WTF I’m here…it always comes back to weather. That is the only reason. And I will probably still eventually move out of here despite the weather. The people on go on about how great SD is make me sick…come on folks, it’s just the weather that makes it a good place to live.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=ctr70] . . . The only reason I’m here and not in a place like say Seattle is the weather. I always ask myself WTF I’m here…it always comes back to weather. That is the only reason. And I will probably still eventually move out of here despite the weather. The people on go on about how great SD is make me sick…come on folks, it’s just the weather that makes it a good place to live.[/quote]

WOW, ctr …. I don’t see the same things you do.

I see well-groomed older hoods, some with sidewalks lined with 80+ yo trees. And I see many older residents who have lived in the same home for 50+ yrs.

And I have access (3 mi or so) to “big box” stores, but being a very small household, I have no need for them so don’t shop there.

Of course, the beach areas and the ~newer~ areas would be far more transient. The beach areas within 4 blocks of the beaches have large populations of young people (college students, etc). The ~newer~ areas (car-oriented & full of big box and strip mall stores) you speak of are full of “transplants” who didn’t know any better when they bought. Many of them (who still “own” their homes) are likely “underwater.” A native San Diegan (with local family guidance in these matters) wouldn’t have been compelled to leave their “home turf” just to move to lizardland. Just an FYI, those “cookie-cutter” areas aren’t considered “move-up” areas for lifelong well-located San Diegans who know better :=)

I’m sorry to see that you feel that SD’s weather is its only redeeming quality and am a little surprised that you haven’t moved away yet.

Have you ever considered moving to Durango (CO)? I think it’s reasonably affordable, has all the modern conveniences (incl nearby challenging skiing and an annual “fall display” that would knock your socks off) and is only a hop and a skip from your hometown of ABQ. Check it out! I might be right behind you 🙂

[ctr70]

ABQ is NOT my hometown and I have never lived there nor would ever. ABQ is a piece of crap ugly sunbelt sprawl city. I grew up in the Boston area and also in Vermont. New England where I’m from is still a place in the U.S. that has very handsome neighborhoods and has retained it’s character. I am looking at moving back to New England or Seattle WA (especially since NH and WA have no state income tax…I hate giving the criminals in the CA democratic legislature almost 10% of my income). San Diego bores the living sh*t out of me and has no architectural character and I hate the culture here. If you think SD has well groomed 80 yr old neighborhoods you either have no taste at all or need to get out more. Go visit some of the neighborhoods outside of Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle, NYC. San Diego’s neighborhood are ugly as sh*t. Either souless, sterile, cookie cutter stip center north county or ghetto east, central and south county

I also do not have kids and if I did I would never, ever raise them in the cultural wasteland of San Diego. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, etc… have the best public schools in the U.S. They have the highest test scores in the U.S. It is just generally a much “higher” culture back there then “Ghettofornia.

[earlyretirement]

[quote=ctr70]ABQ is NOT my hometown and I have never lived there nor would ever. ABQ is a piece of crap ugly sunbelt sprawl city. I grew up in the Boston area and also in Vermont. New England where I’m from is still a place in the U.S. that has very handsome neighborhoods and has retained it’s character. I am looking at moving back to New England or Seattle WA (especially since NH and WA have no state income tax…I hate giving the criminals in the CA democratic legislature almost 10% of my income). San Diego bores the living sh*t out of me and has no architectural character and I hate the culture here. If you think SD has well groomed 80 yr old neighborhoods you either have no taste at all or need to get out more. Go visit some of the neighborhoods outside of Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle, NYC. San Diego’s neighborhood are ugly as sh*t. Either souless, sterile, cookie cutter stip center north county or ghetto east, central and south county

I also do not have kids and if I did I would never, ever raise them in the cultural wasteland of San Diego. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, etc… have the best public schools in the U.S. They have the highest test scores in the U.S. It is just generally a much “higher” culture back there then “Ghettofornia.[/quote]

Wow. If you really feel that strongly against San Diego, you should definitely move out of it. Life is too short to be miserable or not happy in the city you live in.

I don’t see San Diego the same way you do. I think it’s one of the best places you could raise a child if you can comfortably afford it.

[Author]

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