I knew a fellow in Cincy from the wine tastings. We'd chat from time to time, and I mentioned we were headed to CA next week once to him. That really lit him off, he delivered a veritable torrent about how horrible CA was and why would anyone go there.
I asked him when was the last time he had been there, and his response was "Never, and I hope never to go there too.".
His perspective was entirely from the "news".
Now, I can take a video around here and if that is all your know about ATL, I can create an illusion very easily that it is the land of milk and honey, OR a complete failed city that is all slums and homeless, easily.
The reality of course is that the city has nice spots, very nice spots, some so so spots that are a bit trashy, and some bad spots.
Exactly. 40M people live here, and despite the fact that we do have net negative domestic migration (
our rate is narrowly in the top 10 nationally), the population keeps growing through births and immigration. It's not like population here is decreasing.
We have problems. Taxes are high. Cost of living is high. Traffic sucks. Fiscally, our state is not in good shape, but we're hardly unique there.
Homelessness is a problem, sure, but I also credit a portion of that to our amazing weather and the fact that panhandlers only beg because people give them stuff. If I were homeless, I'd much rather do it in Los Angeles than freezing to death in Minneapolis...
But California also has a lot of awesomeness. Weather, of course, is better IMHO than basically anywhere else in the nation. There's tons of natural beauty, from the oceans to the mountains to the Redwoods to the High Sierra. The high population density and high cultural mixing means that quite literally we are awash in cultural enrichment opportunities. There's TONS of things to do, whether it's beaches or hiking/mountain biking/skiing, or if you enjoy breweries or wineries, or plentiful restaurants of EVERY ethnic type and quality, or museums, or shopping, or whatever floats your boat. We have a very large and high quality university system. Oh, and there are JOBS. One of the things that attract people here in the first place is employment, and our job market is just fine. Which also means that people looking to change jobs for better opportunities have more chances than in areas where there are 1-2 dominant employers and those are your only options.
California, like anywhere, has its positives and negatives. I personally have a theory that the more people WANT to live someplace, the worse taxation gets, because they know that people will put up with it to stay there. I.e. taxation is very high here BECAUSE people love living in California. The government knows that high-tax California is still more desirable than a lot of other low-tax areas.
The truth is that I'd definitely consider leaving California, and the reason [for me] is taxation and cost of living. That said, the list of places I'd consider leaving FOR is very, very small. Which to me suggests that California is NOT a shithole, because if it were I'd be casting a much wider net
if I choose to leave.
