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Hey guys, how's it goin? I have a question to any of you from California, but I don't really know how to phrase it as a question. Ever since I visited California a few years back (Los Angeles and San Diego), it has been my dream to someday live there. I absolutely fell in love with everything about it, especially the weather. I've grown up in the southeast (Florida and Louisiana), and I HATE the weather here!! It's disgustingly hot and humid. Here's my question- what is your opinion on moving out there after college? The only deterents I've been hearing are that it is too expensive to live there and it's too far away. The distance isn't a huge deal, because you can get anywhere in America on a flight less than six hours long. However, how strongly do you think the cost of living there should influence my decision? I mean, I know it's expensive, but its the most populated state in the country--- people must be able to make a living there somehow! I'm about halfway through my junior year at LSU right now, and I have absolutely NO desire to live in LA after I graduate (LA as in lousiana). I don't really know a whole lot of people from California, but I adapt to new environments extremely well. I figured it would be easy to get some good feedback from members here, so I appreciate anything you can tell me! I've never been north of Los Angeles, but I've heard thats amazing. Anyways, what do you guys think??
Sorry for the post being so long! :)
Weston
Well, I have been in San diego just this august and its for the most part sunny and nice. There are many places you can go to have fun at night and lots to see. The real expensive part of town as far as I know is on the island just west of SD. I didn't think it was any more expensive to get stuff there anymore than home. What about the taxes and the stupid laws they seem to like to beta test on the sheeple? Thats the two worst points of California. The traffic isn't all that bad near the 32nd st. naval base until about 4 pm then you won't go anywhere for a while. Do you like earthquakes? I heard there was one nearby when I was there but I didn't feel it. If you like, I think I have a picture or two of the place I just have to look for them on my laptop.
Hi Weston,
I moved to California from the Chicago, IL area in '77, when I was 24 y/o. Oddly enough, I hadn't actually "planned' on making a permanent move to the West; but it sure ended up that way! Cost of living was not so bad out here back in the '70s; but it has slowly gotten to be a place where the "haves" vs the "have-nots" feel farther and farther apart in their daily views and experience, --- yet are pushed to live closer and closer, even side-by-side in some San Francisco neighborhoods (causing a lot of tension). A good example of what I'm talking about is the HUGE # of homeless people in the SF Bay Area nowadays. The problem has always been around; but the numbers have increased to an overwhelming level.
If you end up choosing No. Calif. over Southern, prepare yourself for VERY high rents in the Bay Area, --- and you don't get a whole lot of space for all that $$ you shell out every month!! And if your dream is home-ownership... then best to move to Fresno, Bakersfield, Redding, or other hot interior valley cities. Anything near the Coast is either already spoken for, or so outrageous that you'll probably think it a joke! And now, after all that bubble-bursting, here's why I continue to live here (even though I rent only a tiny studio apartment in a "questionable" SF neighborhood)...
San Francisco, and Northern Calif. in general, is hands-down drop-dead GORGEOUS, --- from the mountains to the coastline to the Redwoods to the desert... you'll have to search long & hard to find a more beautiful place where land so dramatically meets the sea. I love the climate (including our famous freezing summer fog); I love this city (in spite of its many problems); I love all the far-out plants & gardens that look like out of a Dr. Suess storybook; and I'm in-love with the land and scenery in general. And I could still go on & on... but I won't. I'd really rather scare everyone away, so I can selfishly enjoy more of it to myself (and don't forget about our earthquakes)!!
Does that answer your question?
- Ken in San Francisco
My family always travelled in the summer, so I knew I wanted to move to San Francisco, which I did...by way of Berkeley for school. Been here 20 years.
What he said! I wouldn't live anywhere else. Expensive as hell, and totally worth it.
Hi Weston,
I was born and raised in San Diego, CA and have lived there for about 31 years.
Cost of living is a bit steep but not as high as in places like San Francisco or New York City. Rents can be over US $1000 per month. Houses/condos starting at $400K or more. Prices go down a bit as you go inland away from the coast.
The weather is definitely drier and less humid. San Diego averages about 9 inches of rainfall per year.
For employment, Information Technology and Biotechnology are good areas to be in.
As for life north of L.A. CA, I like it up here in Seattle, WA :-)
- Oren
What's going on?
Hi Weston -
As for your deterrents, we here in California obviously don't consider California "too far away". Every place is "too far away" from someplace else :-)
From what I've heard, housing in the San Francisco bay area is insanely expensive. I don't think it's quite so bad here in southern California, and obviously the people who live here (so. Calif) find ways to make ends meet.
Graduation from college is the perfect time to try various options in your career and location. You're young and haven't put down roots, so your life is still fairly portable. If you try a location and don't like it you can always move some place else. There is never a better time for this kind of experimentation. As the years go by, people get crazy notions about settling down, owning their own homes, raising a family, working at the same job for more than a few years, etc. When those things happen you no longer have the same "portable" lifestyle you did a few years earlier.
Just make sure California doesn't cause you to take leave of your senses and cut your hair or that beard I like so much. That I would not approve of. And no tattoos or piercings, either :-P
Hi Weston,
California is a great State. I am originally from the "real northern" California, Mt. Shasta. It is true that housing is expensive, especially in the bay area, LA and San Diego, but California is a big state and pricing varies. I am not sure what your degree is in and what type of work you plan on doing, but take some time and explore the whole state if you can. The climate varies greatly. Today I live in a place called Sierra Valley. It is about 30 miles NNW of Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada range, is very rural, has all four seasons, and suites me well as my interests include most out-door activities. I have a 30-40 minute commute to Reno, NV in mostly very light traffic. Reno is now a medium size city with a great Airport so it is easy to travel worldwide from here.
I guess my advice is take a look at the whole State, you will only like it more.
I've been here all my life and have had a good time. However, extremely expensive housing and crowding are an issue. Traffic in the San Francisco South Bay is a huge hassle.
Suspiciously though, the surrounding states - AZ and NV especially - have been growing like crazy due to large numbers of CA expatriates. I'd study up on why so many people that lived here are moving somewhere else. If my family hadn't bought this house 35 years ago and had bought it right now, it would have a roughly $5000/month mortgage. Typically, a family's husband and wife must work at good jobs to buy a decent SF Bay Area house. The way out of that has been buying a house in outlying areas and having a 4 hour roundtrip daily commute. One day a while back I checked out a co-worker's recent "new" van. Bought just a few months before, it already had 25,000 miles on it.
California is like another country. Its economy is big enough it would be in the G8 if it were. It has more people than Canada.
California is very diverse when it comes to its people, its climate, its terrain, and just about everything else. Texas is bigger, but the sameness that is much of Texas is absent here in California. Here one can go from rugged coastlines, to areas where palm trees grow, to agricultural valleys as big as a Midwestern state, to deserts so isolated that no one lives within miles of where you stand, to mountainous areas that in winter are buried in many feet of snow. As for California's people, it is not populated by two major groups like the American South, but instead by many groups. No one is a majority here or even close to it, so all accept they have to get along, yet many choose to socially hang out among their own. You really do have a choice here when it comes to picking your social environment, your climate environment, and also your work. California's economy is also very diverse. You can do just about anything here.
You talk about traveling back East, but if you're like many Californians, you won't much. On the other side of the mountains are about three days of long driving through nothing to get to anything. Why cross all that when just about anything you'd want is here? We tend to live "on the West Coast", a 250 mile wide strip of populated lands running from Tijuana to Vancouver.
Living near the coast is like living in a garden. Flowers grow everywhere, and even the weeds are covered in flowers. The ocean tempers the climate so it is never hot and never cold. It seldom rains all summer and the plants growing here have acclimated to that so it's not a desert. You can plan outdoors activities all summer long and never worry about rain. Rains arrive in winter, turning all the golden hills of summer a vibrant green. At first this will seem backwards, for everything to be green in winter. In time, you will look forward to the beauty that winter rains brings. By April, flowers will be knee to waist deep just about everywhere. Come here in April and you will never leave.
Is it expensive? Just housing, really. Everything else will be about the same. Salaries tend to be higher in many fields, so don't let the prices of housing scare you. More Americans live here than in any other state - they are all getting by SOMEHOW! You will get by, too!
If you choose one of our crowded cities, there will be tradeoffs. You won't have a huge house and yard, but you'll soon realize the whole city is your yard (and someone else will be mowing the grass). Our rugged terrain makes building everywhere not possible, and much of the unbuildable land has been turned into parkland. No one ever complains "there is nothing to do" here, because the problem is that there is every weekend way too much to do. New Orleans parties certain times during the year, but here the party never stops, no matter what you like to do. Concerts and fairs go on every weekend. We have six major league teams within fifty miles of here, while some whole Midwestern states have not one.
I moved here from the Midwest in 1979, and long ago I began to think of myself more as a Californian than as an American. California is big enough and diverse enough to be a country, so choosing California is not closing doors but opening many. Yes, it can be expensive, but in the case of California, it's worth every penny you'll spend. You only have one life to live - I say go for the best! You'll never regret going for California.
Bill in San Francisco