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Dec 5, 2018 14:20:15   #
FRENCHY Loc: Stone Mountain , Ga
 
...Hal Bray, Special to the California Political News and Views, 10/31/18

My wife and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. But like 46% of Bay area residents in a June 2018 Bay Area Council poll, we are considering leaving California. Arizona looks like our destination although many friends have already moved to Texas, Nevada, Idaho, and Tennessee.
Why? Simple. California’s Progressive culture and the government has turned the state into a filthy, debt-ridden, congested third world country with high taxes, high crime, and the highest housing costs in the country.
Our little piece of bliss is a third world country, made up of a large, wealthy population (Hollywood and Silicon Valley tech giants), an enormous poor population, and a declining middle class that elected officials only view as a large, distributed human ATM machine from which they withdraw money for “sanctuary cities” (actually sanctuary everything, cities, universities, the State, etc.), social justice programs, using the Trump administration, and “free” everything for everyone.
(The federal government has informed California this year, for example, that as it [California] tries to implement free health care for everyone, it illegally enrolled 400,000 people on Medicaid at a cost of $1 billion plus per year).
According to the Census Bureau, California has the highest poverty rate in the country at 19%. And, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, California has 12% of the country’s population and 43% of its TANF (welfare). California spends $103 billion per year on welfare, more than the next two states combined (New York at $61.4 billion and Texas at $35.4 billion).
California has the one of the highest GINI, or inequality, the ratio in the country. A GINI ratio measures the difference between the richest residents and its poorest residents. According to Chapman University’s Center for Demographics and Policy, the state’s inequality is worse than Mexico and equal to Guatemala and Honduras (ironically, where many of our new voters appear to be coming from).
San Francisco, proud to be what it thinks of itself as America’s most Progressive city, is a good surrogate for the state as a whole. The city has:
— hundreds of complaints weekly (more than 1600 in one recent week) about human feces (or “shit” to our progressive friends) on the street, in parks, and in other public places; residents in the city, therefore, implemented a “POOP” or “Human Waste” Map, that tells visitors and residents which neighborhoods to avoid because of the overwhelming amount of human waste on the streets and other public places.
As if feces and urine everywhere are not bad enough, the city government is, in effect, turning the city into one large, outdoor illegal drug market. The city distributes more than 4.5 million hypodermic syringes and needles yearly to its growing horde of drug addicts; so many drug addicts clog the city’s commuter train (BART) stations.
But filth is not the city’s only issue. the FBI recently ranked San Francisco as the city with the highest crime rate in the country. For example, in 2017 the city’s residents were burdened with 32,000 car burglaries (residents put signs in their car windows begging people not to break their windows or steal anything from their cars).
The city of San Diego, adjacent to the Mexican border, is itself recovering from a Hepatitis A outbreak from human waste by washing its downtown streets nightly with bleach.
The State has the country’s highest income tax (and the highest capital gains tax in the WORLD), sales tax, gasoline tax, unemployment tax, and workers compensation tax. And, lucky us, we have the only Cap and Trade tax in the country, a secret “tax” administered by a State of California Corporation formed in Delaware.
Under the heading of criminal justice reform, the State has recently reduced many crimes in the State from felonies to misdemeanor status and released thousands of inmates from prison early. This August Governor Moonbeam (Jerry Brown) signed bail reform into law outlawing money bail. Combined, these new laws have added to both the crime problem and the homelessness problem.
Speaking of homelessness, since the government began focusing on solving the problem, the state’s homeless population has doubled; it is like a homeless manufacturing and marketing plan. Five years ago, L.A.’s homeless population was 32,000; last year’s count was 57,000.
The average price of a home in California is 2.5 times higher than the price of homes in other states (Average price of a home in San Francisco and many surrounding suburbs is more than $1million). This means owning a house is difficult, at best and the median homeowner property tax bill is 93% higher than the average for the other 49 states.
In the last election, 70 California cities raised their sales tax rates (primarily to pay for escalating pension costs for our failing pension systems). In addition, repealing last years new gas and vehicle registration taxes in Proposition 6, will likely be defeated next week.
Reform Network ranks California as the second worst “Judicial Hellhole” in the Country. CEO magazine has ranked California the worst state in the Country to do business in for the 14 th straight year.
California’s public schools are among the worst in the country. National tests place California students 44th (reading) and 46 th (math) in the nation.
While private sector workers in the State (and Country) who retire this year with at least 30 years of full-time work will receive, on average, a Social Security pension of $15,800 ($38,000 maximum), State and most city workers in the CalPERS pension system will receive a pension of $70,000 (police and fire more than $100,000 at age 50).
Teachers in the State make, on average, $81,000 per year and retire at 60 with an average pension of $55,000 per year. Yet both pension systems (CalPERS and CalSTRS) are only 2/3 funded with unfunded liabilities of close to $1 trillion. Employer contributions (read taxpayer contributions) that are already unsustainably high are doubling over the next five years to try to keep the systems from bankruptcy.
TRIP, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit, reported this month that California is home to six of the 20 U.S. cities of 200,000 or more people with the highest percentage of their streets and roads whose pavement condition is rated in poor condition: No. 1 San Francisco; No. 2 San Jose; No. 3 Los Angeles; No. 12 Sacramento; No. 13 Riverside; No. 16 Fresno.
According to the Federal government, California’s Cost of living is 41% higher than the national average.
Kiplinger has ranked California the 3 rd worst state, behind New York and New Jersey, to retire in. They clearly missed something because from where I live, we’re number one and as a result we are all moving.
Not to be all negative, the State and many cities in California have one BIG accomplishment for 2018: they have banned plastic straws. Yes, plastic straws. I guess they wanted to make sure there is enough plastic for the free hypodermic syringes they are giving out. And, oh, another big accomplishment, by golly, was banning all drinks for children meals in restaurants except water and milk. This may sound stupid, but we have all seen progressive parenting.
Maybe “Progressive” works when the progressive population is small and can be mostly ignored and/or tolerated by the population that pays the tab for it. But when its population becomes something closer in size to the mainstream population it is painful to live with and financially unsustainable.
My advice to Arizonians: get ready for the onslaught. Accept those coming to Arizona to flee the devastation of California and join your culture, your values. Be wary, however, of those coming to bring their devastation to Arizona. My request, as we plan our move to Arizona, is please don’t duplicate California’s failures; don’t “Californicate” Arizona.

Reply
Dec 5, 2018 14:51:21   #
rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona
 
That is a concern. We've seen some of the influences already. Not all of them good.
--Bob
FRENCHY wrote:
...Hal Bray, Special to the California Political News and Views, 10/31/18

My wife and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. But like 46% of Bay area residents in a June 2018 Bay Area Council poll, we are considering leaving California. Arizona looks like our destination although many friends have already moved to Texas, Nevada, Idaho, and Tennessee.
Why? Simple. California’s Progressive culture and the government has turned the state into a filthy, debt-ridden, congested third world country with high taxes, high crime, and the highest housing costs in the country.
Our little piece of bliss is a third world country, made up of a large, wealthy population (Hollywood and Silicon Valley tech giants), an enormous poor population, and a declining middle class that elected officials only view as a large, distributed human ATM machine from which they withdraw money for “sanctuary cities” (actually sanctuary everything, cities, universities, the State, etc.), social justice programs, using the Trump administration, and “free” everything for everyone.
(The federal government has informed California this year, for example, that as it [California] tries to implement free health care for everyone, it illegally enrolled 400,000 people on Medicaid at a cost of $1 billion plus per year).
According to the Census Bureau, California has the highest poverty rate in the country at 19%. And, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, California has 12% of the country’s population and 43% of its TANF (welfare). California spends $103 billion per year on welfare, more than the next two states combined (New York at $61.4 billion and Texas at $35.4 billion).
California has the one of the highest GINI, or inequality, the ratio in the country. A GINI ratio measures the difference between the richest residents and its poorest residents. According to Chapman University’s Center for Demographics and Policy, the state’s inequality is worse than Mexico and equal to Guatemala and Honduras (ironically, where many of our new voters appear to be coming from).
San Francisco, proud to be what it thinks of itself as America’s most Progressive city, is a good surrogate for the state as a whole. The city has:
— hundreds of complaints weekly (more than 1600 in one recent week) about human feces (or “shit” to our progressive friends) on the street, in parks, and in other public places; residents in the city, therefore, implemented a “POOP” or “Human Waste” Map, that tells visitors and residents which neighborhoods to avoid because of the overwhelming amount of human waste on the streets and other public places.
As if feces and urine everywhere are not bad enough, the city government is, in effect, turning the city into one large, outdoor illegal drug market. The city distributes more than 4.5 million hypodermic syringes and needles yearly to its growing horde of drug addicts; so many drug addicts clog the city’s commuter train (BART) stations.
But filth is not the city’s only issue. the FBI recently ranked San Francisco as the city with the highest crime rate in the country. For example, in 2017 the city’s residents were burdened with 32,000 car burglaries (residents put signs in their car windows begging people not to break their windows or steal anything from their cars).
The city of San Diego, adjacent to the Mexican border, is itself recovering from a Hepatitis A outbreak from human waste by washing its downtown streets nightly with bleach.
The State has the country’s highest income tax (and the highest capital gains tax in the WORLD), sales tax, gasoline tax, unemployment tax, and workers compensation tax. And, lucky us, we have the only Cap and Trade tax in the country, a secret “tax” administered by a State of California Corporation formed in Delaware.
Under the heading of criminal justice reform, the State has recently reduced many crimes in the State from felonies to misdemeanor status and released thousands of inmates from prison early. This August Governor Moonbeam (Jerry Brown) signed bail reform into law outlawing money bail. Combined, these new laws have added to both the crime problem and the homelessness problem.
Speaking of homelessness, since the government began focusing on solving the problem, the state’s homeless population has doubled; it is like a homeless manufacturing and marketing plan. Five years ago, L.A.’s homeless population was 32,000; last year’s count was 57,000.
The average price of a home in California is 2.5 times higher than the price of homes in other states (Average price of a home in San Francisco and many surrounding suburbs is more than $1million). This means owning a house is difficult, at best and the median homeowner property tax bill is 93% higher than the average for the other 49 states.
In the last election, 70 California cities raised their sales tax rates (primarily to pay for escalating pension costs for our failing pension systems). In addition, repealing last years new gas and vehicle registration taxes in Proposition 6, will likely be defeated next week.
Reform Network ranks California as the second worst “Judicial Hellhole” in the Country. CEO magazine has ranked California the worst state in the Country to do business in for the 14 th straight year.
California’s public schools are among the worst in the country. National tests place California students 44th (reading) and 46 th (math) in the nation.
While private sector workers in the State (and Country) who retire this year with at least 30 years of full-time work will receive, on average, a Social Security pension of $15,800 ($38,000 maximum), State and most city workers in the CalPERS pension system will receive a pension of $70,000 (police and fire more than $100,000 at age 50).
Teachers in the State make, on average, $81,000 per year and retire at 60 with an average pension of $55,000 per year. Yet both pension systems (CalPERS and CalSTRS) are only 2/3 funded with unfunded liabilities of close to $1 trillion. Employer contributions (read taxpayer contributions) that are already unsustainably high are doubling over the next five years to try to keep the systems from bankruptcy.
TRIP, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit, reported this month that California is home to six of the 20 U.S. cities of 200,000 or more people with the highest percentage of their streets and roads whose pavement condition is rated in poor condition: No. 1 San Francisco; No. 2 San Jose; No. 3 Los Angeles; No. 12 Sacramento; No. 13 Riverside; No. 16 Fresno.
According to the Federal government, California’s Cost of living is 41% higher than the national average.
Kiplinger has ranked California the 3 rd worst state, behind New York and New Jersey, to retire in. They clearly missed something because from where I live, we’re number one and as a result we are all moving.
Not to be all negative, the State and many cities in California have one BIG accomplishment for 2018: they have banned plastic straws. Yes, plastic straws. I guess they wanted to make sure there is enough plastic for the free hypodermic syringes they are giving out. And, oh, another big accomplishment, by golly, was banning all drinks for children meals in restaurants except water and milk. This may sound stupid, but we have all seen progressive parenting.
Maybe “Progressive” works when the progressive population is small and can be mostly ignored and/or tolerated by the population that pays the tab for it. But when its population becomes something closer in size to the mainstream population it is painful to live with and financially unsustainable.
My advice to Arizonians: get ready for the onslaught. Accept those coming to Arizona to flee the devastation of California and join your culture, your values. Be wary, however, of those coming to bring their devastation to Arizona. My request, as we plan our move to Arizona, is please don’t duplicate California’s failures; don’t “Californicate” Arizona.
...Hal Bray, Special to the California Political N... (show quote)

Reply
Dec 5, 2018 14:52:17   #
buckwheat Loc: Clarkdale, AZ and Belen NM
 
In the '70s Colorado suffered the onslaught of Californians. The newcomers did everything in there power to make Colorado just like California, but with better skiing. I was born in Boulder, actually enjoyed life there because I bought my three bedroom home for $35,000. When the invasion took place, I sold it for $200,000.00, after owning it for less than five years. I enjoyed a decent income and quality of life, and now retired, I could no more return to Colorado than fly to the moon. Boulder is now neck and neck with Berkley for weirdness! I wanted to introduce my wife to my home state, as she has never been there. I haven't been back since 1985. Boulder would not allow my Airstream to be parked overnight. I still haven't been back.

Reply
 
 
Dec 5, 2018 14:57:16   #
Rose42
 
rmalarz wrote:
That is a concern. We've seen some of the influences already. Not all of them good.
--Bob


Nevada is changing too. Friends there say they'd like to build a wall between them and California and they're only half joking. Las Vegas has changed and not for the better due to so many Californians moving there. Oregon and Washington residents resent Californians moving into their state as well.

Reply
Dec 5, 2018 15:10:22   #
jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ
 
I'm moving to AZ in 2 years or so. I hope things don't change there too. They just elected a Democrat to the Senate and I believe they might have a Democrat Governor too. This might change things fast there.

Reply
Dec 5, 2018 15:17:51   #
thom w Loc: San Jose, CA
 
FRENCHY wrote:
...Hal Bray, Special to the California Political News and Views, 10/31/18

My wife and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. But like 46% of Bay area residents in a June 2018 Bay Area Council poll, we are considering leaving California. Arizona looks like our destination although many friends have already moved to Texas, Nevada, Idaho, and Tennessee.
Why? Simple. California’s Progressive culture and the government has turned the state into a filthy, debt-ridden, congested third world country with high taxes, high crime, and the highest housing costs in the country.
Our little piece of bliss is a third world country, made up of a large, wealthy population (Hollywood and Silicon Valley tech giants), an enormous poor population, and a declining middle class that elected officials only view as a large, distributed human ATM machine from which they withdraw money for “sanctuary cities” (actually sanctuary everything, cities, universities, the State, etc.), social justice programs, using the Trump administration, and “free” everything for everyone.
(The federal government has informed California this year, for example, that as it [California] tries to implement free health care for everyone, it illegally enrolled 400,000 people on Medicaid at a cost of $1 billion plus per year).
According to the Census Bureau, California has the highest poverty rate in the country at 19%. And, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, California has 12% of the country’s population and 43% of its TANF (welfare). California spends $103 billion per year on welfare, more than the next two states combined (New York at $61.4 billion and Texas at $35.4 billion).
California has the one of the highest GINI, or inequality, the ratio in the country. A GINI ratio measures the difference between the richest residents and its poorest residents. According to Chapman University’s Center for Demographics and Policy, the state’s inequality is worse than Mexico and equal to Guatemala and Honduras (ironically, where many of our new voters appear to be coming from).
San Francisco, proud to be what it thinks of itself as America’s most Progressive city, is a good surrogate for the state as a whole. The city has:
— hundreds of complaints weekly (more than 1600 in one recent week) about human feces (or “shit” to our progressive friends) on the street, in parks, and in other public places; residents in the city, therefore, implemented a “POOP” or “Human Waste” Map, that tells visitors and residents which neighborhoods to avoid because of the overwhelming amount of human waste on the streets and other public places.
As if feces and urine everywhere are not bad enough, the city government is, in effect, turning the city into one large, outdoor illegal drug market. The city distributes more than 4.5 million hypodermic syringes and needles yearly to its growing horde of drug addicts; so many drug addicts clog the city’s commuter train (BART) stations.
But filth is not the city’s only issue. the FBI recently ranked San Francisco as the city with the highest crime rate in the country. For example, in 2017 the city’s residents were burdened with 32,000 car burglaries (residents put signs in their car windows begging people not to break their windows or steal anything from their cars).
The city of San Diego, adjacent to the Mexican border, is itself recovering from a Hepatitis A outbreak from human waste by washing its downtown streets nightly with bleach.
The State has the country’s highest income tax (and the highest capital gains tax in the WORLD), sales tax, gasoline tax, unemployment tax, and workers compensation tax. And, lucky us, we have the only Cap and Trade tax in the country, a secret “tax” administered by a State of California Corporation formed in Delaware.
Under the heading of criminal justice reform, the State has recently reduced many crimes in the State from felonies to misdemeanor status and released thousands of inmates from prison early. This August Governor Moonbeam (Jerry Brown) signed bail reform into law outlawing money bail. Combined, these new laws have added to both the crime problem and the homelessness problem.
Speaking of homelessness, since the government began focusing on solving the problem, the state’s homeless population has doubled; it is like a homeless manufacturing and marketing plan. Five years ago, L.A.’s homeless population was 32,000; last year’s count was 57,000.
The average price of a home in California is 2.5 times higher than the price of homes in other states (Average price of a home in San Francisco and many surrounding suburbs is more than $1million). This means owning a house is difficult, at best and the median homeowner property tax bill is 93% higher than the average for the other 49 states.
In the last election, 70 California cities raised their sales tax rates (primarily to pay for escalating pension costs for our failing pension systems). In addition, repealing last years new gas and vehicle registration taxes in Proposition 6, will likely be defeated next week.
Reform Network ranks California as the second worst “Judicial Hellhole” in the Country. CEO magazine has ranked California the worst state in the Country to do business in for the 14 th straight year.
California’s public schools are among the worst in the country. National tests place California students 44th (reading) and 46 th (math) in the nation.
While private sector workers in the State (and Country) who retire this year with at least 30 years of full-time work will receive, on average, a Social Security pension of $15,800 ($38,000 maximum), State and most city workers in the CalPERS pension system will receive a pension of $70,000 (police and fire more than $100,000 at age 50).
Teachers in the State make, on average, $81,000 per year and retire at 60 with an average pension of $55,000 per year. Yet both pension systems (CalPERS and CalSTRS) are only 2/3 funded with unfunded liabilities of close to $1 trillion. Employer contributions (read taxpayer contributions) that are already unsustainably high are doubling over the next five years to try to keep the systems from bankruptcy.
TRIP, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit, reported this month that California is home to six of the 20 U.S. cities of 200,000 or more people with the highest percentage of their streets and roads whose pavement condition is rated in poor condition: No. 1 San Francisco; No. 2 San Jose; No. 3 Los Angeles; No. 12 Sacramento; No. 13 Riverside; No. 16 Fresno.
According to the Federal government, California’s Cost of living is 41% higher than the national average.
Kiplinger has ranked California the 3 rd worst state, behind New York and New Jersey, to retire in. They clearly missed something because from where I live, we’re number one and as a result we are all moving.
Not to be all negative, the State and many cities in California have one BIG accomplishment for 2018: they have banned plastic straws. Yes, plastic straws. I guess they wanted to make sure there is enough plastic for the free hypodermic syringes they are giving out. And, oh, another big accomplishment, by golly, was banning all drinks for children meals in restaurants except water and milk. This may sound stupid, but we have all seen progressive parenting.
Maybe “Progressive” works when the progressive population is small and can be mostly ignored and/or tolerated by the population that pays the tab for it. But when its population becomes something closer in size to the mainstream population it is painful to live with and financially unsustainable.
My advice to Arizonians: get ready for the onslaught. Accept those coming to Arizona to flee the devastation of California and join your culture, your values. Be wary, however, of those coming to bring their devastation to Arizona. My request, as we plan our move to Arizona, is please don’t duplicate California’s failures; don’t “Californicate” Arizona.
...Hal Bray, Special to the California Political N... (show quote)


No governing board is setting property values. If housing in California costs more, it's because it's worth that to someone to live there. Just saying.

Reply
Dec 5, 2018 15:39:26   #
skylane5sp Loc: Puyallup, WA
 
buckwheat wrote:
In the '70s Colorado suffered the onslaught of Californians. The newcomers did everything in there power to make Colorado just like California, but with better skiing. I was born in Boulder, actually enjoyed life there because I bought my three bedroom home for $35,000. When the invasion took place, I sold it for $200,000.00, after owning it for less than five years. I enjoyed a decent income and quality of life, and now retired, I could no more return to Colorado than fly to the moon. Boulder is now neck and neck with Berkley for weirdness! I wanted to introduce my wife to my home state, as she has never been there. I haven't been back since 1985. Boulder would not allow my Airstream to be parked overnight. I still haven't been back.
In the '70s Colorado suffered the onslaught of Cal... (show quote)


I went to tech school at Lowry AFB in the early '70's. I remember seeing a lot of "Don't Californicate Colorado" bumper stickers.

Reply
 
 
Dec 5, 2018 15:56:53   #
thom w Loc: San Jose, CA
 
Rose42 wrote:
Nevada is changing too. Friends there say they'd like to build a wall between them and California and they're only half joking. Las Vegas has changed and not for the better due to so many Californians moving there. Oregon and Washington residents resent Californians moving into their state as well.


I was curious where you live, that you are so proud of, so I checked, and I found you aren't proud enough of it to have listed it. How is what someone in California is doing effecting your life? If it isn't effecting you, why do you care? I spent some time in Colorado several years ago. Just because a road was called a highway, didn't mean it was paved. Clay and gravel everywhere. Saw lots of backyard rodeos, and lots of beer drinking toddlers. Don't know if it's changed. You could drink 3.2 at 18. No opinion on whether that was good or bad. Lived in Nevada a couple of years. If people mean Tonopah when they say "the city" you are rural. California (at least most of it) is different than that. I like it here. If you like it where you are, good for you. Why all the fixation? Colorado springs had grapefruit sized hail stones. I can live without that. Denver had stop lights in the middle of the block. What is that for besides getting traffic fine money from out of towners? Even then Boulder had a reputation. Most college towns do.

I had to check as the article sounded like something from the Onion. I had never heard of Stephen Frank, but he seems to be a piece of work.

Reply
Dec 5, 2018 16:11:43   #
Rose42
 
thom w wrote:
I was curious where you live, that you are so proud of, so I checked, and I found you aren't proud enough of it to have listed it. How is what someone in California is doing effecting your life? If it isn't effecting you, why do you care?


What difference does it make? I grew up in Northern Cali. Used to regularly visit a great aunt in Campbell which is near San Jose. From SF to there it was virtually all farmland. Today its solid development. From LA to San Diego there used to be a lot of empty space. Not anymore.

Was there for the mudslides when part of I-80 to Richmond slid down the hill and houses built on the sides of hills in SF came down. Was there for droughts when Southern Cal. would take more Northern Cal's water so they could water their lawns and wash their cars rather than be conscientious how they used their water. Was there when they decided to let people who couldn't speak any English vote so they had ballots printed in Spanish too. People used to move to California because they had some of the best welfare and there were many leeches on the welfare system. Illegals got better medical care than residents. It was bass ackwards.

As beautiful as the state is - Yosemite, the Sierra Nevada, Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta, the coastal redwoods and so much more - I will never go back.

Reply
Dec 5, 2018 16:56:27   #
thom w Loc: San Jose, CA
 
Rose42 wrote:
What difference does it make? I grew up in Northern Cali. Used to regularly visit a great aunt in Campbell which is near San Jose. From SF to there it was virtually all farmland. Today its solid development. From LA to San Diego there used to be a lot of empty space. Not anymore.

Was there for the mudslides when part of I-80 to Richmond slid down the hill and houses built on the sides of hills in SF came down. Was there for droughts when Southern Cal. would take more Northern Cal's water so they could water their lawns and wash their cars rather than be conscientious how they used their water. Was there when they decided to let people who couldn't speak any English vote so they had ballots printed in Spanish too. People used to move to California because they had some of the best welfare and there were many leeches on the welfare system. Illegals got better medical care than residents. It was bass ackwards.

As beautiful as the state is - Yosemite, the Sierra Nevada, Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta, the coastal redwoods and so much more - I will never go back.
What difference does it make? I grew up in Northe... (show quote)


If they are voting, they are citizens. If the ballot in their native tongue lets them vote more informed, that doesn't seem like a bad thing. Don't know much about the welfare, I've never used it. At least 30 states have ballots in various languages. A lot of the problems you point out have their origins in over population, but there are groups out there trying to stop contraception. Go to a right to life booth at a fair and they will push anti contraception literature on you, even though it only makes sense that nothing cuts back on abortions as much as contraception. I never engage them. If they engage me, they need to be ready to hear whatever I have to say, but that rarely happens. Oh, I know where Campbell is. The tech industry here is a major economical engine fore the whole country. Where would you put the people who work in it. The Southern California water issue is more about building a major population center in a desert than it is about watering lawns. The only places in the country without the problems you gripe about are places where no one can earn a living. The fact that more and more of the pie is being scooped off the top by a few is also a major contributor. Why don't you see that as a tax on the working and middle class? (I'm not sure where that divides). Major retailers cause where and tear on the infrastructure, and they are typically given tax breaks. As far as you not coming back to California, I would never tell you to stay away, but if you are happier, do what makes you happy.

Reply
Dec 6, 2018 10:44:34   #
ole sarg Loc: south florida
 
Lots of reasons to leave but that is only half the story here is the rest about those who have move back!

https://www.sfgate.com/expensive-san-francisco/article/People-who-left-the-Bay-Area-tell-us-why-they-12710664.php


FRENCHY wrote:
...Hal Bray, Special to the California Political News and Views, 10/31/18

My wife and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. But like 46% of Bay area residents in a June 2018 Bay Area Council poll, we are considering leaving California. Arizona looks like our destination although many friends have already moved to Texas, Nevada, Idaho, and Tennessee.
Why? Simple. California’s Progressive culture and the government has turned the state into a filthy, debt-ridden, congested third world country with high taxes, high crime, and the highest housing costs in the country.
Our little piece of bliss is a third world country, made up of a large, wealthy population (Hollywood and Silicon Valley tech giants), an enormous poor population, and a declining middle class that elected officials only view as a large, distributed human ATM machine from which they withdraw money for “sanctuary cities” (actually sanctuary everything, cities, universities, the State, etc.), social justice programs, using the Trump administration, and “free” everything for everyone.
(The federal government has informed California this year, for example, that as it [California] tries to implement free health care for everyone, it illegally enrolled 400,000 people on Medicaid at a cost of $1 billion plus per year).
According to the Census Bureau, California has the highest poverty rate in the country at 19%. And, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, California has 12% of the country’s population and 43% of its TANF (welfare). California spends $103 billion per year on welfare, more than the next two states combined (New York at $61.4 billion and Texas at $35.4 billion).
California has the one of the highest GINI, or inequality, the ratio in the country. A GINI ratio measures the difference between the richest residents and its poorest residents. According to Chapman University’s Center for Demographics and Policy, the state’s inequality is worse than Mexico and equal to Guatemala and Honduras (ironically, where many of our new voters appear to be coming from).
San Francisco, proud to be what it thinks of itself as America’s most Progressive city, is a good surrogate for the state as a whole. The city has:
— hundreds of complaints weekly (more than 1600 in one recent week) about human feces (or “shit” to our progressive friends) on the street, in parks, and in other public places; residents in the city, therefore, implemented a “POOP” or “Human Waste” Map, that tells visitors and residents which neighborhoods to avoid because of the overwhelming amount of human waste on the streets and other public places.
As if feces and urine everywhere are not bad enough, the city government is, in effect, turning the city into one large, outdoor illegal drug market. The city distributes more than 4.5 million hypodermic syringes and needles yearly to its growing horde of drug addicts; so many drug addicts clog the city’s commuter train (BART) stations.
But filth is not the city’s only issue. the FBI recently ranked San Francisco as the city with the highest crime rate in the country. For example, in 2017 the city’s residents were burdened with 32,000 car burglaries (residents put signs in their car windows begging people not to break their windows or steal anything from their cars).
The city of San Diego, adjacent to the Mexican border, is itself recovering from a Hepatitis A outbreak from human waste by washing its downtown streets nightly with bleach.
The State has the country’s highest income tax (and the highest capital gains tax in the WORLD), sales tax, gasoline tax, unemployment tax, and workers compensation tax. And, lucky us, we have the only Cap and Trade tax in the country, a secret “tax” administered by a State of California Corporation formed in Delaware.
Under the heading of criminal justice reform, the State has recently reduced many crimes in the State from felonies to misdemeanor status and released thousands of inmates from prison early. This August Governor Moonbeam (Jerry Brown) signed bail reform into law outlawing money bail. Combined, these new laws have added to both the crime problem and the homelessness problem.
Speaking of homelessness, since the government began focusing on solving the problem, the state’s homeless population has doubled; it is like a homeless manufacturing and marketing plan. Five years ago, L.A.’s homeless population was 32,000; last year’s count was 57,000.
The average price of a home in California is 2.5 times higher than the price of homes in other states (Average price of a home in San Francisco and many surrounding suburbs is more than $1million). This means owning a house is difficult, at best and the median homeowner property tax bill is 93% higher than the average for the other 49 states.
In the last election, 70 California cities raised their sales tax rates (primarily to pay for escalating pension costs for our failing pension systems). In addition, repealing last years new gas and vehicle registration taxes in Proposition 6, will likely be defeated next week.
Reform Network ranks California as the second worst “Judicial Hellhole” in the Country. CEO magazine has ranked California the worst state in the Country to do business in for the 14 th straight year.
California’s public schools are among the worst in the country. National tests place California students 44th (reading) and 46 th (math) in the nation.
While private sector workers in the State (and Country) who retire this year with at least 30 years of full-time work will receive, on average, a Social Security pension of $15,800 ($38,000 maximum), State and most city workers in the CalPERS pension system will receive a pension of $70,000 (police and fire more than $100,000 at age 50).
Teachers in the State make, on average, $81,000 per year and retire at 60 with an average pension of $55,000 per year. Yet both pension systems (CalPERS and CalSTRS) are only 2/3 funded with unfunded liabilities of close to $1 trillion. Employer contributions (read taxpayer contributions) that are already unsustainably high are doubling over the next five years to try to keep the systems from bankruptcy.
TRIP, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit, reported this month that California is home to six of the 20 U.S. cities of 200,000 or more people with the highest percentage of their streets and roads whose pavement condition is rated in poor condition: No. 1 San Francisco; No. 2 San Jose; No. 3 Los Angeles; No. 12 Sacramento; No. 13 Riverside; No. 16 Fresno.
According to the Federal government, California’s Cost of living is 41% higher than the national average.
Kiplinger has ranked California the 3 rd worst state, behind New York and New Jersey, to retire in. They clearly missed something because from where I live, we’re number one and as a result we are all moving.
Not to be all negative, the State and many cities in California have one BIG accomplishment for 2018: they have banned plastic straws. Yes, plastic straws. I guess they wanted to make sure there is enough plastic for the free hypodermic syringes they are giving out. And, oh, another big accomplishment, by golly, was banning all drinks for children meals in restaurants except water and milk. This may sound stupid, but we have all seen progressive parenting.
Maybe “Progressive” works when the progressive population is small and can be mostly ignored and/or tolerated by the population that pays the tab for it. But when its population becomes something closer in size to the mainstream population it is painful to live with and financially unsustainable.
My advice to Arizonians: get ready for the onslaught. Accept those coming to Arizona to flee the devastation of California and join your culture, your values. Be wary, however, of those coming to bring their devastation to Arizona. My request, as we plan our move to Arizona, is please don’t duplicate California’s failures; don’t “Californicate” Arizona.
...Hal Bray, Special to the California Political N... (show quote)

Reply
 
 
Dec 6, 2018 10:51:19   #
yhtomit Loc: Port Land. Oregon
 
FRENCHY wrote:
...Hal Bray, Special to the California Political News and Views, 10/31/18

My wife and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. But like 46% of Bay area residents in a June 2018 Bay Area Council poll, we are considering leaving California. Arizona looks like our destination although many friends have already moved to Texas, Nevada, Idaho, and Tennessee.
Why? Simple. California’s Progressive culture and the government has turned the state into a filthy, debt-ridden, congested third world country with high taxes, high crime, and the highest housing costs in the country.
Our little piece of bliss is a third world country, made up of a large, wealthy population (Hollywood and Silicon Valley tech giants), an enormous poor population, and a declining middle class that elected officials only view as a large, distributed human ATM machine from which they withdraw money for “sanctuary cities” (actually sanctuary everything, cities, universities, the State, etc.), social justice programs, using the Trump administration, and “free” everything for everyone.
(The federal government has informed California this year, for example, that as it [California] tries to implement free health care for everyone, it illegally enrolled 400,000 people on Medicaid at a cost of $1 billion plus per year).
According to the Census Bureau, California has the highest poverty rate in the country at 19%. And, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, California has 12% of the country’s population and 43% of its TANF (welfare). California spends $103 billion per year on welfare, more than the next two states combined (New York at $61.4 billion and Texas at $35.4 billion).
California has the one of the highest GINI, or inequality, the ratio in the country. A GINI ratio measures the difference between the richest residents and its poorest residents. According to Chapman University’s Center for Demographics and Policy, the state’s inequality is worse than Mexico and equal to Guatemala and Honduras (ironically, where many of our new voters appear to be coming from).
San Francisco, proud to be what it thinks of itself as America’s most Progressive city, is a good surrogate for the state as a whole. The city has:
— hundreds of complaints weekly (more than 1600 in one recent week) about human feces (or “shit” to our progressive friends) on the street, in parks, and in other public places; residents in the city, therefore, implemented a “POOP” or “Human Waste” Map, that tells visitors and residents which neighborhoods to avoid because of the overwhelming amount of human waste on the streets and other public places.
As if feces and urine everywhere are not bad enough, the city government is, in effect, turning the city into one large, outdoor illegal drug market. The city distributes more than 4.5 million hypodermic syringes and needles yearly to its growing horde of drug addicts; so many drug addicts clog the city’s commuter train (BART) stations.
But filth is not the city’s only issue. the FBI recently ranked San Francisco as the city with the highest crime rate in the country. For example, in 2017 the city’s residents were burdened with 32,000 car burglaries (residents put signs in their car windows begging people not to break their windows or steal anything from their cars).
The city of San Diego, adjacent to the Mexican border, is itself recovering from a Hepatitis A outbreak from human waste by washing its downtown streets nightly with bleach.
The State has the country’s highest income tax (and the highest capital gains tax in the WORLD), sales tax, gasoline tax, unemployment tax, and workers compensation tax. And, lucky us, we have the only Cap and Trade tax in the country, a secret “tax” administered by a State of California Corporation formed in Delaware.
Under the heading of criminal justice reform, the State has recently reduced many crimes in the State from felonies to misdemeanor status and released thousands of inmates from prison early. This August Governor Moonbeam (Jerry Brown) signed bail reform into law outlawing money bail. Combined, these new laws have added to both the crime problem and the homelessness problem.
Speaking of homelessness, since the government began focusing on solving the problem, the state’s homeless population has doubled; it is like a homeless manufacturing and marketing plan. Five years ago, L.A.’s homeless population was 32,000; last year’s count was 57,000.
The average price of a home in California is 2.5 times higher than the price of homes in other states (Average price of a home in San Francisco and many surrounding suburbs is more than $1million). This means owning a house is difficult, at best and the median homeowner property tax bill is 93% higher than the average for the other 49 states.
In the last election, 70 California cities raised their sales tax rates (primarily to pay for escalating pension costs for our failing pension systems). In addition, repealing last years new gas and vehicle registration taxes in Proposition 6, will likely be defeated next week.
Reform Network ranks California as the second worst “Judicial Hellhole” in the Country. CEO magazine has ranked California the worst state in the Country to do business in for the 14 th straight year.
California’s public schools are among the worst in the country. National tests place California students 44th (reading) and 46 th (math) in the nation.
While private sector workers in the State (and Country) who retire this year with at least 30 years of full-time work will receive, on average, a Social Security pension of $15,800 ($38,000 maximum), State and most city workers in the CalPERS pension system will receive a pension of $70,000 (police and fire more than $100,000 at age 50).
Teachers in the State make, on average, $81,000 per year and retire at 60 with an average pension of $55,000 per year. Yet both pension systems (CalPERS and CalSTRS) are only 2/3 funded with unfunded liabilities of close to $1 trillion. Employer contributions (read taxpayer contributions) that are already unsustainably high are doubling over the next five years to try to keep the systems from bankruptcy.
TRIP, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit, reported this month that California is home to six of the 20 U.S. cities of 200,000 or more people with the highest percentage of their streets and roads whose pavement condition is rated in poor condition: No. 1 San Francisco; No. 2 San Jose; No. 3 Los Angeles; No. 12 Sacramento; No. 13 Riverside; No. 16 Fresno.
According to the Federal government, California’s Cost of living is 41% higher than the national average.
Kiplinger has ranked California the 3 rd worst state, behind New York and New Jersey, to retire in. They clearly missed something because from where I live, we’re number one and as a result we are all moving.
Not to be all negative, the State and many cities in California have one BIG accomplishment for 2018: they have banned plastic straws. Yes, plastic straws. I guess they wanted to make sure there is enough plastic for the free hypodermic syringes they are giving out. And, oh, another big accomplishment, by golly, was banning all drinks for children meals in restaurants except water and milk. This may sound stupid, but we have all seen progressive parenting.
Maybe “Progressive” works when the progressive population is small and can be mostly ignored and/or tolerated by the population that pays the tab for it. But when its population becomes something closer in size to the mainstream population it is painful to live with and financially unsustainable.
My advice to Arizonians: get ready for the onslaught. Accept those coming to Arizona to flee the devastation of California and join your culture, your values. Be wary, however, of those coming to bring their devastation to Arizona. My request, as we plan our move to Arizona, is please don’t duplicate California’s failures; don’t “Californicate” Arizona.
...Hal Bray, Special to the California Political N... (show quote)


Californistan is bringing the whole country. Please secede, please...

Reply
Dec 6, 2018 12:16:08   #
slo Loc: Longmont Colorado
 
skylane5sp wrote:
I went to tech school at Lowry AFB in the early '70's. I remember seeing a lot of "Don't Californicate Colorado" bumper stickers.


Its done happened! Lifelong Coloradan here, born on the western slope in the 1960's, live on the front range now. Used to be a lot of farmland between towns, now it is pretty much city from Ft. Collins to Colorado springs. Every day I notice more out of state license plates. Driving to work this morning, (Boulder), with a few snow flakes falling and everyone that was driving 80 yesterday is now driving 25 down the just wet highway. Not ranting, it was inevitable, the brutal marketing by the ski industry, legal weed and a good economy have made it the place to come to. Now we have a newly elected progressive democratic governor who has a democratic majority house and senate and has already stated he wants free medical care and free college tuition for everyone. Coupled with more and more sanctuary cities, it doesn't take an economist to see where the taxes are going. I hear you OP FRENCHY, time to go. I have already applied for another job in one of the flyover states and this spring I will put my house up for sale. The good news for me is I expect to get four times what I paid for it. We are in the process of loving Colorado to death. Anyway, back to work, I will close with some sarcasm from one of my favorite Californians:

Eatin' rainbow stew in a silver spoon
Underneath that sky of blue
We'll all be drinkin' that free bubble-ubb
And eatin' that rainbow stew

Reply
Dec 6, 2018 14:37:07   #
SharpShooter Loc: NorCal
 
FRENCHY wrote:
...Hal Bray, Special to the California Political News and Views, 10/31/18

My wife and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. But like 46% of Bay area residents in a June 2018 Bay Area Council poll, we are considering leaving California. Arizona looks like our destination although many friends have already moved to Texas, Nevada, Idaho, and Tennessee.
Why? Simple. California’s Progressive culture and the government has turned the state into a filthy, debt-ridden, congested third world country with high taxes, high crime, and the highest housing costs in the country.
Our little piece of bliss is a third world country, made up of a large, wealthy population (Hollywood and Silicon Valley tech giants), an enormous poor population, and a declining middle class that elected officials only view as a large, distributed human ATM machine from which they withdraw money for “sanctuary cities” (actually sanctuary everything, cities, universities, the State, etc.), social justice programs, using the Trump administration, and “free” everything for everyone.
(The federal government has informed California this year, for example, that as it [California] tries to implement free health care for everyone, it illegally enrolled 400,000 people on Medicaid at a cost of $1 billion plus per year).
According to the Census Bureau, California has the highest poverty rate in the country at 19%. And, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, California has 12% of the country’s population and 43% of its TANF (welfare). California spends $103 billion per year on welfare, more than the next two states combined (New York at $61.4 billion and Texas at $35.4 billion).
California has the one of the highest GINI, or inequality, the ratio in the country. A GINI ratio measures the difference between the richest residents and its poorest residents. According to Chapman University’s Center for Demographics and Policy, the state’s inequality is worse than Mexico and equal to Guatemala and Honduras (ironically, where many of our new voters appear to be coming from).
San Francisco, proud to be what it thinks of itself as America’s most Progressive city, is a good surrogate for the state as a whole. The city has:
— hundreds of complaints weekly (more than 1600 in one recent week) about human feces (or “shit” to our progressive friends) on the street, in parks, and in other public places; residents in the city, therefore, implemented a “POOP” or “Human Waste” Map, that tells visitors and residents which neighborhoods to avoid because of the overwhelming amount of human waste on the streets and other public places.
As if feces and urine everywhere are not bad enough, the city government is, in effect, turning the city into one large, outdoor illegal drug market. The city distributes more than 4.5 million hypodermic syringes and needles yearly to its growing horde of drug addicts; so many drug addicts clog the city’s commuter train (BART) stations.
But filth is not the city’s only issue. the FBI recently ranked San Francisco as the city with the highest crime rate in the country. For example, in 2017 the city’s residents were burdened with 32,000 car burglaries (residents put signs in their car windows begging people not to break their windows or steal anything from their cars).
The city of San Diego, adjacent to the Mexican border, is itself recovering from a Hepatitis A outbreak from human waste by washing its downtown streets nightly with bleach.
The State has the country’s highest income tax (and the highest capital gains tax in the WORLD), sales tax, gasoline tax, unemployment tax, and workers compensation tax. And, lucky us, we have the only Cap and Trade tax in the country, a secret “tax” administered by a State of California Corporation formed in Delaware.
Under the heading of criminal justice reform, the State has recently reduced many crimes in the State from felonies to misdemeanor status and released thousands of inmates from prison early. This August Governor Moonbeam (Jerry Brown) signed bail reform into law outlawing money bail. Combined, these new laws have added to both the crime problem and the homelessness problem.
Speaking of homelessness, since the government began focusing on solving the problem, the state’s homeless population has doubled; it is like a homeless manufacturing and marketing plan. Five years ago, L.A.’s homeless population was 32,000; last year’s count was 57,000.
The average price of a home in California is 2.5 times higher than the price of homes in other states (Average price of a home in San Francisco and many surrounding suburbs is more than $1million). This means owning a house is difficult, at best and the median homeowner property tax bill is 93% higher than the average for the other 49 states.
In the last election, 70 California cities raised their sales tax rates (primarily to pay for escalating pension costs for our failing pension systems). In addition, repealing last years new gas and vehicle registration taxes in Proposition 6, will likely be defeated next week.
Reform Network ranks California as the second worst “Judicial Hellhole” in the Country. CEO magazine has ranked California the worst state in the Country to do business in for the 14 th straight year.
California’s public schools are among the worst in the country. National tests place California students 44th (reading) and 46 th (math) in the nation.
While private sector workers in the State (and Country) who retire this year with at least 30 years of full-time work will receive, on average, a Social Security pension of $15,800 ($38,000 maximum), State and most city workers in the CalPERS pension system will receive a pension of $70,000 (police and fire more than $100,000 at age 50).
Teachers in the State make, on average, $81,000 per year and retire at 60 with an average pension of $55,000 per year. Yet both pension systems (CalPERS and CalSTRS) are only 2/3 funded with unfunded liabilities of close to $1 trillion. Employer contributions (read taxpayer contributions) that are already unsustainably high are doubling over the next five years to try to keep the systems from bankruptcy.
TRIP, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit, reported this month that California is home to six of the 20 U.S. cities of 200,000 or more people with the highest percentage of their streets and roads whose pavement condition is rated in poor condition: No. 1 San Francisco; No. 2 San Jose; No. 3 Los Angeles; No. 12 Sacramento; No. 13 Riverside; No. 16 Fresno.
According to the Federal government, California’s Cost of living is 41% higher than the national average.
Kiplinger has ranked California the 3 rd worst state, behind New York and New Jersey, to retire in. They clearly missed something because from where I live, we’re number one and as a result we are all moving.
Not to be all negative, the State and many cities in California have one BIG accomplishment for 2018: they have banned plastic straws. Yes, plastic straws. I guess they wanted to make sure there is enough plastic for the free hypodermic syringes they are giving out. And, oh, another big accomplishment, by golly, was banning all drinks for children meals in restaurants except water and milk. This may sound stupid, but we have all seen progressive parenting.
Maybe “Progressive” works when the progressive population is small and can be mostly ignored and/or tolerated by the population that pays the tab for it. But when its population becomes something closer in size to the mainstream population it is painful to live with and financially unsustainable.
My advice to Arizonians: get ready for the onslaught. Accept those coming to Arizona to flee the devastation of California and join your culture, your values. Be wary, however, of those coming to bring their devastation to Arizona. My request, as we plan our move to Arizona, is please don’t duplicate California’s failures; don’t “Californicate” Arizona.
...Hal Bray, Special to the California Political N... (show quote)


I can’t figure out for the life of me WHY all these COWARDS are still here?!
Why can’t they all ACCELRATE the run to the exits!!!! COWARDS JUST TALK THE TALK but are in reality cripples and can’t walk the walk and actually LEAVE!!!
SS

Reply
Dec 6, 2018 14:45:34   #
thom w Loc: San Jose, CA
 
SharpShooter wrote:
I can’t figure out for the life of me WHY all these COWARDS are still here?!
Why can’t they all ACCELRATE the run to the exits!!!! COWARDS JUST TALK THE TALK but are in reality cripples and can’t walk the walk and actually LEAVE!!!
SS


If they did, it would help the traffic situation and the housing situation. There used to be a lot of California that was like the rest of the country. Land wasn't priced out of site, the population were a bit backward. Some even wore sheets, etc, etc. etc.. But it may have just all burned down. I haven't been to Humboldt in a while, but with the pot industry, it wouldn't surprise me if it is as bad as silicon valley.

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