LAT: California, Here They Come

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dream26jun26,1,823191.story?coll=la-headlines-california
From the Los Angeles Times

California, Here They Come

Be it for love, money or just the good food, folks keep moving to the Golden State, despite its flaws, where newcomers still surpass defectors.
By Maria L. La Ganga and David Streitfeld
Times Staff Writers

June 26, 2006


(snip)

Even as real estate prices rise to fearsome heights and freeways become impassable, even as wildfires consume some homes and rampaging mud swallows others, even as experts declare the state ungovernable and a major earthquake inevitable, the refugees from New York and Manila and Tehran, from Texas and Nepal and Washington, D.C., continue to come to California.

For all the attention focused of late on illegal immigration, California is by far the favorite destination of legal immigrants to the United States — about 200,000 in 2005 alone. Moreover, although the numbers fluctuate with the economy, the Golden State remains a powerful domestic magnet as well, with about 600,000 people from other states arriving here last year.

No matter how taxing life sometimes seems here in the most populous state in America, newcomers still outnumber defectors, drawn by varying notions of the California dream.

(snip)

Why do they come? One of the strongest and most enduring reasons is the sunshine itself. "A Climate for Health & Wealth Without Cyclones or Blizzards," boasted an 1885 booklet from the Chicago-based California Immigration Commission.

(snip)

even in the central agricultural part of the atate. I was going to move to OK where homes, and life in general, ae more affordable, but my grandkids are here, so have decided to stay and make the best of it.

prop 13, we were lucky, we bought when my town was still affordable.

just starting to improve after about 20 years of being largely rental housing and completely trashed. It's not much of a standard, but I would be unable to achieve it in California even if I could return to nursing full time with overtime.

I couldn't do it back in Boston, either, which is why I fled.

Eventually they're going to find themselves in the predicament of having lots of executives and professional types and no one left to do the real day to day work of maintaining a community.

We've seen that in quite a few areas out west like Palm Springs, Telluride, Aspen, and other enclaves of the rich and exclusive. Right now, they've been able to find people who are willing to live in tents and campers outside town to do enough of the shitwork to keep them going. That isn't going to last forever, though.

At some point, the people who make this country function are just going to start giving up on places like California and moving back to the south, the midwest, to wherever they can live decently on their earnings. At that point, all those paper profits on real estate will show their true cost.

I was born in LA in 1939 and for many years life was wonderful. I can't remember when I stopped liking the place, but sometime in the 70's. Too many people there......sunshine is nice, but not when it's accompanied by loads of smog!

Lalaland bears no resemblance to the Mendocino coast. Lalaland, despite attempts to create wine theme parks in Simi Valley, bears no resemblence to Napa Valley. Lalaland is not Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, Berzerkly, or even the Golden Gate.

Every time we'd drive north I wanted to stay wherever we visited and really hated returning. My daughter lived near Napa for a while and we loved it there.

to live.That makes our freeways a tiny bit better. :hug:

When people put down our city that delights us because it takes a certain kind of personality to adore Los Angeles.

Stay away please and enjoy all the freezing snow in the Midwest and all the rest. :)

Enjoy the hurricanes in Florida and surrounding areas, we'll take our earthquakes. :)


Note: I was in the Mid West once and felt ---- an earthquake.:scared:

No one believed me until they read about it in the Newspaper the next day.


Enjoy the "No There There" of other areas.

I have lived in the East, Midwest and the South and I ALWAYS long to return to my hometown ~ Los Angeles California.

It is a magical land with everything as a choice. In that way it reminds me of my other favorite city, NEW YORK!

:hug:

I learned to swim at Key Pool on Verdugo, across from Glendale Community College. I moved back to California in 1983 - to Santa Clara County - and I was "home." Even though I was born and (mostly) raised in Michigan, I'll always regard the Bay Area as "home." That said, I'll take any place in California over almost anyplace in the rest of the country to live. My ideal, if I had the money (not an awful lot), would be Pacific Grove. (But Lalaland should never be equated to California.)

so it is definitely in California.

I do enjoy the beauty of the entire state however.

I live in a simply beautiful area that suits us just fine.
To each his/her own.



Once again, We are not begging anyone to come here.

I know there are many areas of L.A. that are vibrant communities but as a whole L.A. holds no appeal for me as a place to live.

NYC on the other hand -- if money were no object I'd live in the city in a New York minute.

born and raised in LA and remembered the view of the mountains - that later disappeared in the smog. After leaving for college never expressed any desire to move back.

But then there was a job offer in Orange County and we really enjoyed riding our bicycles say, on Christmas Day, when there were blizzards "back east."

Still, another job change caused us to leave again and, once you move out it is impossible to move back, not with the housing prices.

She and her hubby moved to the midwest to be near his folks.

They lasted two years.

They were lucky that it was long enough ago that they weren't prevented from moving back by skyrocketing prices, but it was still a bit of a shock. Their second California home was a bit more modest than their first.

i like it for many reasons but the biggest is the diversity on my street and at my daughters school. At our annual 4th of July bbq every year we have friends and neighbors from Pakistan, India, Vietnam, Laos and Nigeria.

But there's no way in hell that I would live in California. Too many people and population related problems for my tastes.

one of the smallest populations for a county in the state and one of THE bluest counties in the NATION. Second only to our neighboring county, Humboldt. I live "in town" and bought my house 3 years ago for $279K. 3 bedroom 2 bath, two parcel lot with a huge backyard. San Francsico is just a coupla hours away if we want to get our city on. Happy as a clam. Good place to raise the kids. My hubby is a special ed teacher, I work at a domestic violence advocacy agency. We're not rich by any means and we manage to live a pretty happy little life in California.

And the population of Mendocino County is over twice the county where I live in Missouri. In addition, my wife and I were able to buy a three bedroom/2 bath 2700 ft house on twenty acres of land out in the middle of the country for $140,000. It is quiet both day and night, with abundant wildlife around. If we want to visit an urban area, Columbia Mo is a half hour away, a fine college town with all the cultural amenities one could ever want. Beautiful country, lovely to be out in the middle of nature. Granted, it is one of the redder areas around, but hey, one can't get everything:shrug: But my wife and I love where we're at, and aren't planning on moving unless we absolutely have to.

Sorry, while California is a nice place to visit I wouldn't want to live there.

just as soon as someone buys this house :-).

We're retiring.