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It's unfortunate, California is such a beautiful place. But it's turning into somewhere to visit, and not live. See you soon Sierra's!

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I move around and travel a lot for work - I've lived in 4 states in the last 2 years (CO, WA, CA, TX) - and one of the universal things across all the midwest and west coast that I've found is that while most people like the weather/scenery in California EVERYONE hates people from California, except for the people in California.

I've heard the saying "California would be great if it wasn't for the people" in literally every state I've spent significant time in when they find out that I lived in the Bay.

Is there anyone FROM California anymore? I'm guessing that sentiment comes from the type that are attracted to the entertainment industry.

Born in Concord, California, but got out by the time I was 8.

Yes, many people are 'from' California; including myself. California is a pretty big state so keep that in mind. It's not just LA and SF.

Yes. Millions and millions.

Just curious: if you work in the tech industry, is your impression that the tech industry in CA is populated mostly by people who came from outside the state?

From and outsider, yes, that is the impression a lot of us get.

Born there, spent many years there too. Moved out a few years ago.

Agreed. There's a very special mix of stupidity and arrogance you see in the kids that grew up here. "Swag/YOLO" culture is to blame IMO.

Just like half the statements here, this could be changed to "People from the bay area", "People from LA", etc. California has a lot of great people and beauty but when you equate the whole state with the two big cities, of course it paints a negative picture. The entire central coast I met more awesome people than I have living in Chicago for 20 years.

Echoing what you said, I've never met nicer people or made friends more easily than when I lived in Sacramento.

Sacramento and its surrounding region is filled with a lot of latent demand for people who care about things (let alone think about things) and want to do things, which there aren't a lot of --- probably because it's a government-oriented region, which might lead to a tendency to be reactive instead of proactive.

Curious about this, what do they hate about Californians? I mean California is very diverse. The main cites (Bay and LA) are very liberal but the restof CA is pretty right leaning. So I imagine you get pretty much every kind of person from California and it would be hard to hate all of them.

When I moved from San Francisco to the Denver area about 10 years ago, the attitude I picked up on wasn't so much personal hatred as it was, "Oh great, another Californian moving here to make our freeways more crowded and drive up the cost of everything".

Sure, there are significant cultural and political deltas, but I think a lot of the disgust for Californians moving to other states is just the simple fact that people generally don't like change in the form of "outsiders" flooding "their" state and threatening the status quo.

Good old NIMBYism

I moved out of California to Texas a few years ago, and part of the reason (besides housing prices) was that I too was sick of Californians. The idea used to be "California leads, the nation follows" but politically, that's changed, and I frequently hear about how sick of Californians everyone else is. Tired of people from CA moving to their areas and trying to change it politically. I can see their point.

"California leads, the nation follows" and "tired of people from CA moving to their areas and trying to change it politically" don't exactly contradict each other.

Of course, they say this about America too....

Totally. Speaking as someone who lived in the bay area for 4 years and happily left after college, why live in CA when you can work remotely from anywhere else, live well, own a sizable property, and make decent bank? The bay area is great to visit, I was literally just there a couple months ago. But to live I would need to make 4x what I do now.

Well, the weather is nice in many places, and it has some beautiful scenery. Probably why so many people live there in the first place.

Texas on the other hand is hot and flat. Really boring here. Oh and it's too crowded. Yep, if you're from California Texas is worse. Don't want to move here. Please stop moving here, please, oh god please.

Replace "hot and flat" with "gray and rainy" and that's the western third of Oregon, too.

I know what you're trying to do, but its not going to work ;). Texas is about as interesting as you can get, especially if you live in Austin. The housing costs are not ridiculous (yet), you can live in decent house near downtown, COL is low, no state taxes etc. Quite a wonderful state, especially if you're young and in tech.

BTW, there is also a vibrant live music scene. And also a lot of theater and art. Did I mention the food?

The only thing I would say Texas lacks are good beaches. We do have a lot of rivers/lakes though. But for someone who grew up near the ocean...it does suck.

It's oppressively hot though. I've been there many times for work(Dallas,Houston,Austin), and there is nothing enjoyable about being in Texas anywhere near the spring/summer months. Flooding, tornadoes, and other severe storms sucks too. Food is good though for sure.

Just pray you don't end up on the wrong side of the law (to be fair, the same could be said of CA).

How do you mean?

The death penalty, and heavy incarceration with atrocious conditions.

Most Texans, let alone Californians fleeing high prices, don't have to worry about such things. Besides, the death penalty isn't exactly a negative if the alternative is life in (a Texas) prison.

Perhaps I'm alone in deriving small comfort in the knowledge that even if I were framed or otherwise unjustly convicted for the most atrocious of crimes, this would not be my fate (though the federal government showed in MA, for instance, with the Boston Marathon bomber, that they will override humane state law; you're never truly safe in the US). The knowledge that a gross miscarriage of justice could land me in "hell on earth" was troubling in CA (death row in TX and CA are quite different beasts on the other hand).

While our death row is an issue, you are something like ten to twenty thousand times more likely to die at the hands of our idiot drivers here in Texas. So keeping a sense of perspective is important.

> the same could be said of CA

I don't think anyone would want to spend time in a typical CA prison or jail. Overcrowding, violence, gangs, insufficient medical care, etc.

LA County has had some well publicized problems with sheriff's department guards severely beating handcuffed inmates. It's probably not a place you want to visit.

Definitely. CA prisons are some of the worst in the nation, which is why the state was ordered to release prisoners to reduce crowding. But Texas has a death penalty with teeth, hard labor, corporal punishment, and equally poor prison conditions (less crowded and less of a gang problem, but way worse weather which you're mostly not sheltered from). The south in general is a terrible place to fall afoul of the law, and probably either Texas or Louisiana claims the trophy.

Recently moved from the bay area to Austin. I hate the weather and the bugs. I plan to move back eventually.

Access to the local economy.

Of course, hobbies and preferences are inherently subjective, but CA has a lot to offer.

Parts of the state have (what I consider) perfect weather year round; access to the beach and mountains to ski/snowboard, tons of other outdoor activities, etc. You can find most of these in other places, of course, but CA is pretty unique in that it's all in the same state, and easily accessible.

No one is denying the beauty, and adventures that await in California, that's why people live there. The issue here is what the original article is all about. When it becomes a grind just to live there, you can't even enjoy what makes it so awesome to be there.

This. I've lived in Los Angeles almost my whole life. I visited the beach maybe once in the last 5 years. Why? Because to do so, you have to be willing to sit in at least 1-1.5 hours of traffic. When you get there, at least 30 min to find parking. There are simply too many people in CA at this point to enjoy anything it offers. Leaving the house for me means waiting (in traffic, lines, for parking, etc).

I know, I was just in Santa Monica visiting a friend for a week, before I headed off to the mountains. I feel sorry for what she has to put up with daily.

>There are simply too many people in CA at this point to enjoy anything it offers.

The problem you describe does not get enough attention. The state and local governments have seriously mismanaged growth over the last half a century or so. The individual person's quality of life has truly been diminished in the way you describe.

Something that a lot of commenters (and the article) missed is that there is a _lot_ of CA that's not: LA, SF, SD, etc.

I grew up (and my parents live) near San Luis Obispo, CA. The central coast has: pockets of perfect weather, proximity to wonderful beaches, proximity to winte rsports, etc. Yet, there's under a quarter of a million people in their gigantic county, and a small apartment or house can be found for a (fairly) reasonable price in parts of the area. SLO even has a fantastic university and a bit of tech has sprung up around it (Amazon has SWE offices, etc).

Much like people who don't live on the coast harp on, there's much more to CA than the popular few cities.

So, you're making 'decent bank' now yet you need to make 4x that to live in SF?

You can make a ton of money elsewhere, relative to cost of living. If you were to move to SF, to have the SAME living standards, you'd need to making multiples more than that.

I mean, if you're talking about keeping the SAME living standards moving from somewhere cheaper to SF then that would apply to any major city really. Just depends on your priorities I guess and what you like.

Well, we're discussing standard of living, so that's the priority right now.

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