Should I move to California?

[POBEP]

Originally Posted by Humdizzle

could you elaborate on that.

i've heard the traffic is terrible. and even the back roads, like big tejunga or whatever mountain roads matt farah uses get busy later in the day (he says he goes at the crack of dawn to avoid traffic).

i do see there are big car meets all the time there, but how much can you actually drive and push the car before traffic gets in the way compared to the midwest.

Bay Area: traffic is a major concern during rush hour(s)

The are multiple factors - large number of cars, limited highway capacity, inability to merge, too busy using mobile device, lack of basic driving skills (decent percentage), SF special - tourists believe it is a good idea to explore city by driving themselves (instead of taxi/rideshare/public transport)

On major holidays, you may see rural roads turn into parking lots.

Rain makes above worse, snow ... no comments.

It is true that some (but not all) destinations are better to travel after sunset before sunrise.

15 years ago I remember being stuck on 101 in LA at 2AM.

Having said all the above, I found tricks to avoid traffic most of the time.
Mostly time of the day, sometime side streets.

[JasonDot]

What no one else will tell you here:

Go where your energy feels vibrant. Birds of a feather...

[Crimson92]

I will never leave California.

Weather is perfect.
Food is great
Plenty of things to do.

That being said.

Don't come here. Too many people. 😜

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by Humdizzle

could you elaborate on that.

Sure

(1.) Name anything with a motor - there's more innovation and tuning of that thing here in California that anywhere I've been (including Texas, ohio, the south, NY, etc)

(2.) Better roads for power driving than anywhere i"ve ever been. If you like road course driving it's a fucking dream - there are so many to pick from you couldn't drive them all in 10 years

(3.) There are a ton of like-minded people everywhere always. Wanna run with a ferrari, a mclaren, a lambo? np.

(4.) Lots of great tracks but I rarely use them cause why? Fun for events though.

(5.) Tons of modders - some of the best shops in the country are right here.


For me, 80% of the miles on my M4 were driven in anger.

Don't forget to budget tires & brake pads.


Anybody who lives in cali who wants to but isn't sport driving has no idea what they're doing.

[rwheels]

Originally Posted by 3.0L

We're a little short on water right now, so...

Yeah, and people who live in "flood zones" are still required to have flood insurance.

[Nickco43]

I think I should come out for Bimmerfest West next year. I want to explore OC and San Diego.

[Esteban]

I've lived in Southern California my whole life and I love it here. Have visited many places but this is my home. Love the winters - cool weather, in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Summers can get pretty hot here. I'm in Alta Loma, in the Inland Empire. It keeps getting hotter. Thank god for AC.

Sun, ocean, mountains - with snow and hiking, etc, it's all here. And I enjoy it all. Yeah, it's crowded. I try to avoid the crowds. It's expensive. My home is paid for and so are our cars. We're doing fine, financially.

OP, I'm probably not helping much. Check out Orange County. The weather is great. But it's expensive. As others have said, rent first, get a feel for things. See if it's for you.

I could never live in snowy winters with sub or near zero temperatures. Yes, it gets hot here but I'd personally rather have that than freezing temps. I'm happy here.

[Tommysalami]

Originally Posted by Humdizzle

could you elaborate on that.

i've heard the traffic is terrible. and even the back roads, like big tejunga or whatever mountain roads matt farah uses get busy later in the day (he says he goes at the crack of dawn to avoid traffic).

i do see there are big car meets all the time there, but how much can you actually drive and push the car before traffic gets in the way compared to the midwest.

Angeles crest highway and neighboring roads where Farah tests can get a little crowded on weekends. Gotta go early, like 8 am or earlier, before the Karens in their SUVs start clogging the road and not letting you pass. The gas station at the start of the road in La Canada is like a car meet, always filled with cool cars before they hit the canyons. And make sure to obey the speed limit thru the town as there's always cops there.

If you get there early you'll have tons of room to push the car on the best roads in the country

[TiMSport]

Originally Posted by Esteban

I've lived in Southern California my whole life and I love it here. Have visited many places but this is my home. Love the winters - cool weather, in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Summers can get pretty hot here. I'm in Alta Loma, in the Inland Empire. It keeps getting hotter. Thank god for AC.

Sun, ocean, mountains - with snow and hiking, etc, it's all here. And I enjoy it all. Yeah, it's crowded. I try to avoid the crowds. It's expensive. My home is paid for and so are our cars. We're doing fine, financially.

OP, I'm probably not helping much. Check out Orange County. The weather is great. But it's expensive. As others have said, rent first, get a feel for things. See if it's for you.

I could never live in snowy winters with sub or near zero temperatures. Yes, it gets hot here but I'd personally rather have that than freezing temps. I'm happy here.

Oh and not having to worry about buying a set of winter tires/wheels is a plus too.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by TiMSport

Oh and not having to worry about buying a set of winter tires/wheels is a plus too.

Very true.

Also, I don't live near L.A. so I don't have to deal with the crowds of people that much. Used to live there, but that was more than 30 years ago and it's different now.

[shimmy23]

Haha! All these comments crack me up. Love seeing the comical side to the truth on several of the comments! I'm still laughing as I post this.

FWIW, I live in Washington state… not Seattle. I love it here and the weather is actually not as bad as people complain. If you like doing outdoor activities who gives a shit if it rains on you while you're on a hike!

You can find negatives for every state, city or town. I love Washington, but would never live jn Seattle area. I'm out in the woods here. 😛

[TiMSport]

Originally Posted by Esteban

Very true.

Also, I don't live near L.A. so I don't have to deal with the crowds of people that much. Used to live there, but that was more than 30 years ago and it's different now.

Yeah, everything is different now over there. I know people in the same boat as you who bought a house many years ago and are doing fine. Crazy how much value homes have over there now. I wish that I had bought a house a long time ago somewhere in OC.

It's kind've like "I wish I bought Microsoft stock...."

[TiMSport]

Originally Posted by shimmy23

Haha! All these comments crack me up. Love seeing the comical side to the truth on several of the comments! I'm still laughing as I post this.

FWIW, I live in Washington state… not Seattle. I love it here and the weather is actually not as bad as people complain. If you like doing outdoor activities who gives a shit if it rains on you while you're on a hike!

You can find negatives for every state, city or town. I love Washington, but would never live jn Seattle area. I'm out in the woods here. 😛

Which woods in Washington do you live in?
Oh and I very much agree with your assessment having grown up in WA state.

[F32Fleet]

Taxes/Levies are multiples higher in California.

They also have some serious infrastructure issues (Roads, Zoning, Water, Power).

Hard Pass.

[Maestro]

Op,

I might be able to put some perspective on your decision. I too grew up in PA, actually in Pittsburgh and now live outside Philly today. PA can be two completely different places when it comes to how people treat each other, Western PA is far nicer than the south eastern PA. I understand what you mean how people in PA can be cold to one another. Eastern PA has lots of people who came from somewhere else, and western PA has lots of people who been there a long time. Where I live now there are lots of NJ and NYC people who moved in over the last 10 yrs to get away from the high taxes. It has gotten far worse in the last 12 months.

I also lived in the Silicon Valley for 7 yrs and worked in high tech, move there right out of college. I also spent time in Colorado due to my job since we had an operation there. I lived in CA from the late 80's to mid 90's. When I was there the traffic in the Valley was not too bad as long as you commuted against traffic which was no hard to do. After moving back east I spent time off and on in CA over the last 20 yrs both in the Valley and San Diego since the companies I worked for had operations there. I saw the traffic slowly get worse in the Valley to the point it did not matter which direction you were heading it was all bad, and the traffic was bad from 7 to 10 to 11 in the morning and again bad from 4 to 7 or 8 at night. As far as I am concern there is no getting away from it.

When we lived in Valley we enjoyed it very much, we traveled all over the place on the weekends saw and did lots of thing. That was the best part of living out there the ability to be at the ocean in 2 hours and 4 hours to the mountain and skiing. You have lots of diversity in activities. When I first visited the Valley before deciding to take the job it was February, the best time to see the Valley, the skies are usually clear, winter storm blow out the smog and everything is green. We drove out there and arrived in July and everything was brown (everyone will tell you it is golden not brown) and hazy. The winters in the Valley are generally the best time.

When we decide to buy a place verse renting anymore it was a task, it took lots of time to find a place and we had to make one fundamental decision that many people who live in the Valley make. How important is your time. You can find a small place 1000sqft to 1500sqft that cost lots of money but your commute was fairly short less than an hour depending on where you worked and lived. Or you could find a larger place with land at a reasonable price but you were commuting 2 to 3 hours each way. At the time people were moving out of the Valley to Tracy and areas just west of Sacramento so they did not live on top of each other.

The wife I decide on the short commute with small expense townhome which happen to have a detached 2 garage for my car hobbies. We figure we could always make more money but never make up more time lost in commuting. My boss at the time decided the opposite, since he had two big dogs and wants space for them so he left the valley for Tracey and a larger 3000sqft home with a large fenced in yard. It was not long before he started to rent a trailer in a mobile home park for the weekdays since the commute was killing him. This was not unusual, I heard of people renting a bedroom from co-workers to help avoid the commute on a daily bases.

One of our friends who still live and work out there. Their main home is now an hour outside Tahoe, and they commute into the valley. They also kept their home in the Valley right outside Fremont and they actually rent rooms out to commuters, when they have to come into the Valley for work they stay at their old house during the week. The last time we spent time with them in Tahoe they were talking about getting rid of the house since they manage to spend less and less time in the Valley.

Keep in mind this was 25 yrs ago, the situation is far worse now. The problem, you have the people who lived out there before it got really crazy so they have their nice home centrally located and most likely close to where they work, they could care less and tell you all the great things. Then you have all the new people who got there recently and have to deal with all the commute issues and costs since they have to buy really expensive homes just to live and not necessarily where they want to be either.

The reason we left the Valley, first was a good opportunity back east, secondly, and most important, we had our son and we decide CA was no place to raise kids. The Valley is filled with people who think they are entitled to everything and this spread to the kids. My wife was an educator and the stories she could tell you about the schools in Calif. Her job allowed her to go into lots of different schools around the Valley she saw and heard the issues first hand. When we had our son more people told us we had to get him on the waiting list at one of various private school since the public schools were mostly bad unless you lived in one of the few good areas like Los Gatos or Palo Alto. When we left it was time when lots of people began leaving due the large build up in the 80's and companies downsizing. We could not sell our townhouse the value was under water since people were either leaving the valley to central valley or leaving the state completely. Luckily we had friend in real-estate who managed and rented the property until it recovered 5 yrs later when the DOT.com era happen. It is happen again in CA, it has negative outflow of 600K just last year. People are getting the hell out of there for lots of reasons.

The other things that surprise me about CA was all the homelessness. Back in the 80's SF had serious homelessness problem. Growing up back east when you though of homeless people it was the typical bum on the street corner who was mostly wasted on drugs or alcohol. This was not the case in SF. The first time we visited SF we saw entire families living in entry ways of building in the city. This was also the same time they began setting up tent camps in various parks. We are now 30+ yrs later and SF still has not solved the problem they only made it worse over the years. Everyone thinks this is new problem, it is not, it was a problem back in the 80's and 90's and when I was in the city back in the 2000's visiting with my kids it was still bad to the point any tourist would get harassed. The police would not do anything as long as the homeless did not touch you. But they would just stand there smelling really bad and acting crazy until you gave them something to go away.

The other thing you will find in CA, everyone is fighting some sort of cause. Everyone was trying to save something. Generally not a bad things and we learned we could always be a better citizen. You can image how that is today. Most of these people have no clue just because they have a bright idea they think everyone should do what they say. I was out there when the tree huggers were spiking trees and logger were getting killed because the spotted owl was more important than lumber to build a home. Keep in mind the tree huggers already had their home they just did not want anyone else to have one. One of these spiking tree huggers is up for the Cabinet position in the White House the only reason she did not do jail time she ratted her friends out.

As I said I spend time in Colorado, did not live there, but visited enough. Beside the fact you need lots of skin lotion due to the low humidity that dries out your skin CO offer most everything CA offers except the 2 hour ride to the ocean, however, the CA ocean is nice to visit and see, but too damn cold to enjoy. We have friends who live in Santa Cruz, they call the going to the beach The Red White and Blue experience. You arrive White, while you are there you turn Blue from the cold air and water and when you leave you're Red from being sun burn since you had no idea how hot the sun was. This is true for Northern CA, Southern has a nicer beach experiences.

I know that some people may disagree with this, but this is coming from someone who grew up on the east coast with a set of values and enjoy my time and family over all the fun you could possible have. Today I live in the suburbs I have 40 minute commute on all back roads and the most I spend in traffic is 5 minutes. We also bought 7.5 Acres and planning to build our retirement downsize home this is because of all the money we saved not living in CA. You will not find this in CA.

I will tell you what I miss, it is definitely the car scene, I belong to a car club when living out there and there is lots of support around the cars scene I have never see anywhere else and PA use to have a very active car culture. Even with that it is becoming limited due to all CA laws. The club I belong to use to run a swap meet every year to help raise money to support the club. We had chapters all over the state and we would have a north/south run and meet in the middle of the state. Right before I left it was became harder and harder to find a place which would allow us to setup. Places did not want the liability of someone doing something stupid with their cars. We also would have CA sale tax people showing harassing's people if they did not have resale license. This is not CA unique it is happening everywhere.

The other thing we miss was the food, lots of great places to eat and could go out every day and never eat at the same place twice. Growing up in PA we had your standard comfort foods. Living in Ca we learn about lots of different foods from all over the place. We have few favor places which are still out there any time we go back we always stop in, one is for Breakfast and it is called Hobbies, they have couple of locations around the Valley.