Fires, earthquakes, high living costs etc.--is the "California Dream" Dying?

[LA21st]

At least I don't bring politics into this.
But people like YOU, always DO. You can't help it.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by LA21st

At least I don't bring politics into this.
But people like YOU, always DO.

Politics is pretty much the reason California is in its current state of affairs.

And it doesn't mean you have to be right wing to see the failures of a uni-party state that supports insane pension obligations and wastes money left and right while overspending and taxing the population to a practically malicious degree.

California regularly enacts policies that are just downright sadistic to small business owners.

[LA21st]

It just lets me know where you bias against the state comes from.
It's really all I need to know.

[Centropolis]

i think that the LA city-boosters are conflating people highlighting very obvious and very real trends that are happening at the california macro-level as a personalized assault on the city of LA or something.

california is a highly dynamic state of 40 million people not just cool LA hoods.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by LA21st

It just lets me know where you bias against the state comes from.
It's really all I need to know.

I dont have bias against your state, you gotta relax.

[Centropolis]

i don’t know that regulation per say has as much of an impact on these massive trends as people who want to frame this in a left/right box think...in fact lack of regulation of pg+ e has been a massive disaster.

paying for a plastic bag isn’t a big deal, not having power and asphyxiating due to offline medical equipment is. dozens of people died in the santa rosa area from wildfire impacts a few years ago, watching the power outages in person in sonoma county last month i watched people likely suffering from forms of ptsd in gas stations yelling and screaming over bagged ice.

[Sun Belt]

Originally Posted by Crawford

As long as California has fantastic weather and scenery, the best public university system on the planet, and remains the innovation center of the planet and the gateway to the Pacific Rim, it will remain extremely desirable.

Hopefully more Californians are admitted into the California university system, now that Chinese nationals' enrollment figures have "plummeted".

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

i don’t know that regulation per say has as much of an impact on these massive trends as people who want to frame this in a left/right box think...in fact lack of regulation of pg+ e has been a massive disaster.

paying for a plastic bag isn’t a big deal, not having power and asphyxiating due to offline medical equipment is.

I dont think anyone really cares that much about a plastic bag ban yes. But if you are already of the opinion that California is a nitpick punitive place to live and conduct business and then you read the LA times to find out just one more asinine thing on your plate.

Its not that on its own such a needless regulation will be a big deal but its the kind of thing that can drive you crazy. Like when you are already having a shitty week and then you get a flat tire. etc.

[Chisouthside]

As an outsider I always felt that California was run well enough, I would rather have a California government at local and state level than places like texas and georgia that equate not doing anything with good policy.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Obadno

I dont think anyone really cares that much about a plastic bag ban yes. But if you are already of the opinion that California is a nitpick punitive place to live and conduct business and then you read the LA times to find out just one more asinine thing on your plate.

Its not that on its own such a needless regulation will be a big deal but its the kind of thing that can drive you crazy. Like when you are already having a shitty week and then you get a flat tire. etc.

its interesting how that just one more thing factor has been pushing places like chile over the edge. i'm not sure how close we are to this in the u.s. but after seeing ferguson in person i don't think we are as far as some believe.

i agree, it is a bit asinine to expect working people who are stretched to the limit to do certain things but then not have things like a first world health care system to bring material relief elsewhere.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

its interesting how that just one more thing factor has been pushing places like chile over the edge. i'm not sure how close we are to this in the u.s. but after seeing ferguson in person i don't think we are as far as some believe.

i agree, it is a bit asinine to expect working people who are stretched to the limit to do certain things but then not have things like a first world health care system to bring material relief elsewhere.

I think everywhere is closer to "one more thing" than not at most times but generally speaking despite everyone being especially dickish to each-other online the USA is an extremely stable place with a 150+ year track record of improving living standards and growth which is something virtually unknown in pretty much the entire rest of the world.

I think we are still extremely far from the unrest levels of the 1960's and 1970's let alone like the unrest you see in South America.

There is a lot of noise out there but when you turn down the volume and look around things are actually quite good and have been for a very long time here.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Obadno

I think everywhere is closer to "one more thing" than not at most times but generally speaking despite everyone being especially dickish to each-other online the USA is an extremely stable place with a 150+ year track record of improving living standards and growth which is something virtually unknown in pretty much the entire rest of the world.

I think we are still extremely far from the unrest levels of the 1960's and 1970's let alone like the unrest you see in South America.

There is a lot of noise out there but when you turn down the volume and look around things are actually quite good and have been for a very long time here.

i don't think these things really hit the wall until the upper working class and middle class starts to really feel cornered, not sure we are there yet overall as the u.s. is a huge place with lots of COL and otherwise "relief valves" (sort of how for example texas has functioned) but there is a limit...people won't just keep moving their entire lives.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

i don’t know that regulation per say has as much of an impact on these massive trends as people who want to frame this in a left/right box think...in fact lack of regulation of pg+ e has been a massive disaster.

paying for a plastic bag isn’t a big deal, not having power and asphyxiating due to offline medical equipment is. dozens of people died in the santa rosa area from wildfire impacts a few years ago, watching the power outages in person in sonoma county last month i watched people likely suffering from forms of ptsd in gas stations yelling and screaming over bagged ice.

PG+ E is a nightmare.

Can't PG+E face real onsquences for their screw ups? Most of these fires are coming from their end.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by LA21st

PG+ E is a nightmare.

Can't PG+E face consquences for their screw ups? Most of these fires are coming from their end.

PG + E execs should be in jail.

[LA21st]

Agreed. Anyone responsible should be in serious trouble and the state needs to step in and do something, soon.

[homebucket]

I think most of the people have hit the nail on the head in this thread. I'm fortunate to have a high enough income and savings to have purchased multiple properties in and around the Bay Area. For folks like me, and there are plenty, the California "dream" is still alive. We live in one of the greatest places on Earth, and are able to afford it comfortably.

The main concern obviously is for the lower, and even middle classes. Our service workers and other working class types. It's increasingly difficult for them to live a sustainable lifestyle here, and eventually it's going to hurt everyone. What will happen when no one is around to prepare our $20 avocado toast and $10 third wave lattes? Or fight our fires, repair down power lines, fix our roads, build our housing, etc. Not everything can be automated and I'd rather not be served my coffee by a robot. And we need more housing, period. I think most Californians are aware of these issues. We just need to figure out the best way to get it done.

Btw, it's a myth that the fires barely affect people. I read that the smoke from the Sonoma County fires that has spread to the central Bay Area causes the equivalent lung damage of smoking a cigarette every day for a whole year. And that's on top of people whose homes aren't lost, or had power cut, resulting in spoiled food, medications, and exacerbated medical conditions.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by homebucket

Btw, it's a myth that the fires barely affect people. I read that the smoke from the Sonoma County fires that has spread to the central Bay Area causes the equivalent lung damage of smoking a cigarette every day for a whole year. And that's on top of people whose homes aren't lost, or had power cut, resulting in spoiled food, medications, and exacerbated medical conditions.

I was personally affected by the prices of California wines going up

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by homebucket

Btw, it's a myth that the fires barely affect people. I read that the smoke from the Sonoma County fires that has spread to the central Bay Area causes the equivalent lung damage of smoking a cigarette every day for a whole year. And that's on top of people whose homes aren't lost, or had power cut, resulting in spoiled food, medications, and exacerbated medical conditions.

I left before the kincade fire flared up but the near county-wide pg+e power outages and working next to an active fire (breathing smoke myself) in sonoma county had everyone on edge. signals were out, supplies were being raided where they could be found, it wasn't nothing...and i think people just think sonoma county is wineries, i guess, but its a county of 1/2 million people, mostly "working" people either commuting to SF or otherwise going to a job everyday.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by homebucket

What will happen when no one is around to prepare our $20 avocado toast and $10 third wave lattes?

Goddamn, do people really pay 20 bucks for fucking avocado toast? Something you can make yourself at home??

I've been making avocado toast for decades, ever since I was a small child.

[edale]

Originally Posted by LA21st

What? Who dreams of going to Texas or Arizona?
Or Georgia? I've never of anything like that in my life.

That's really arrogant and elitist. I was talking to my Lyft driver a few nights back, and she is one of those Californians who is dreaming of moving to Texas or Georgia. She's from South LA, and has been feeling the squeeze more and more. Said a lot of her neighbors and friends have been moving out to the IE and desert communities of Palmdale and Lancaster, and she doesn't feel like LA is 'for' her or people who look like her or earn what she earns (Lyft was a second job). She lit up talking about how she could even own a house in Atlanta or Houston. Also, those cities have much stronger black communities than what we have in CA anymore. Outside of a pretty small (and shrinking) part of south LA and parts of Oakland, you don't really have much in the way of true black communities in the state anymore, and I think more and more black people here are starting to feel 'othered'. That might not be a concern for you, but it is for a lot of people.