neill

Each to their own.

johnwoo

Exactly. Sounds like Alabama is the right place for you. For me it's California or anywhere on the West Coast.

steph0scope

In this case, the OP has a better chance than most who post here wanting to move here. There is at least a partner on the scene and the possibility of a PhD. That puts them in a better place than the average hairdresser/builder who posts after a Florida holiday, wanting to move here because they think we spend 52 weeks a year doing what they spent 2 weeks doing.

scrubbedexpat099

Certainly opportunities here, maybe not the chosen one.

Steerpike

Since you've never lived there, why make such a prejudiced comment? I've lived in CA for almost 40 years now, and still love it. I thought I was going to leave a few years ago for somewhere with less tax, less crowds, less cost, but I'm back here and I couldn't be happier. The climate is better than anywhere else in the US, by most measures - low humidity and lots of sunshine, little rain. The terrain is beautiful, with a gorgeous coastline, lots of foothills, and the tallest mountains in the contiguous US. Plenty of lovely National Parks (eg, Yosemite). The current fire situation is very concerning, living costs are very high, and the homeless situation in the major cities sucks, so you can weigh those as the negatives. But - if you can figure out a way to afford it, I'd still say it's the best place to be in the US.

civilservant

Unless of course your political leaning is anywhere to the right of Karl Marx. I think it's a little liberal for 'most' people myself, but since I've never lived there, that's nothing but a stereotype on my part!

durham_lad

Our daughter (40 next year - SHOCK!) has lived and worked in Louisiana, Texas, Washington State and California. She has been in California for 7 years now and absolutely loves it.

scrubbedexpat099

I spent time in CA and assume that yes there are weird ares now, much worse than when I was there, but a bit like Colorado, all the crap going down in Denver is a world away from where most of us live and experience.

Pulaski

I don't need to live in Tokyo to know it wouldn't work for me. Same for LA and SF - the factors (i) - (iv) listed below are, IME broadly recognized even by people who live in California, but please correct me if I am wrong, and they are already the reasons that we left London, and New York - I kinda "grew into" London as I went to uni there, but eventually it grew to annoy me. I hoped New York would be different. It wasn't, it was a huge mistake, life there was utterly miserable - for reasons (i) - (iv) below. So why would I want to make the same mistake again? :confused.

Reasons, that I don't think are "prejudiced" in the perjorative sense, to not want to move to California are:

(i) crowding/ population density

(ii) cost of housing

(iii) cost and time of commuting (that would be required to mitigate (ii) - that is whty we left London, only to repeat the mistake in New York.

(iv) cost of living - direct costs of products and services, and related taxes - property, sales, and income.

(v) weather? I don't see that as an issue where I am, thank you - negliglble winters, minimal threats from wind or rain, and no threats from earthquakes, wild fires, floods, or mudslides.

(v) politics - city and state governments that seem to be more interested in making political gestures than running efficent city services. Of course if I wanted to experience such nonsense first hand I could move to Charlotte more easily than anywhere in CA. Perhaps you haven't noticed as you live there, but the recurring shenanigins in SF makes that city pretty much the laughing stock of the western world. I suspect that even if you don't agree with it, you might be able to ignore it, but it would drive me nuts!

I sincely doubt that my current quality of life could be replicated in CA no matter how much money I had to spend - a four bedroom house on several acres, mostly wooded, with a wide variety of animals that I can see from my window - everything from cardinals, woodpeckers, and hummingbirds to squirrels, raccons and deer, not to mention skinks, spring peepers (tree frogs), box turtles, and several species of harmless snakes, and many other feathered, furred, or scaly critters. So when I said "you couldn't pay me enough to move to California", you took it as a slight on California, which is, at most, only half the story - the other half is that I really wouldn't want to leave where I currently live, and that is no slight on anywhere else on the planet.

scrubbedexpat099

(vi) NC has a Denver.

Pulaski

Ooops, I added another (v) ahead of politics, so Denver awould be (vii), but yes, we have one of those. Also a Dallas, a Washington, a Columbia, and a Salem; and then there's a Sheffield, a Manchester, a Macclesfield, a New London, and a Surry [sic], among many other familiar names, as well as two Clevelands and two Rockinghams!

neill

Bingo, correct on all 6 statements. My "woke" statement which seemed to trigger referred to this.

BTW, I love Coastal CA - 4-5 days at a time. Live there? nope.

tom169

One of my reports works from home on the coast of Los Angeles. He works eastern time on the west coast. Gets out of bed at the crack of dawn, does his fantastic work, then hits the ocean at 1pm local time. He loves his lifestyle, and I can definitely see why, but it's not one for me.

Giantaxe

Amusing that the negativity about California on this thread is coming from those that have never lived there and never intend to, whereas those that actually do live there are rather more positive about it. I mean, having never lived there, I wouldn't spend my time writing a long screed about what's wrong with North Carolina on a thread discussing someone's wish to move to that state. Of course, that was written by the poster who used to "shill" on here for the now-discredited Wells Fargo so I guess we should be thankful for small mercies or something.

Anyway, here's a view of (northern) California that I hope is a little more nuanced.

The two big downsides are cost and traffic. Everything costs more here and the traffic is awful (pre covid!). So if you cannot find employment with a salary commensurate to those costs, you're going to struggle, have a long commute, and likely be miserable here. Otoh, there are a bunch of positives. It's afforded me a range of work opportunities that I doubt I would have got elsewhere. It has a truly magnificent coastline. It gives me more hiking opportunities than any place I've ever lived. And the Sierra Nevada (think skiing, snowshoeing and hiking) is incomparable within the US (sorry, Rockies!). And, in SF, the range of art, music and culture on offer is neverending. For what I'm _personally_ interested in, this area provides more opportunities and interest than any other place I've lived in in either the UK or US. As for politics, I'm still not sure what "woke" means. But if, for example, it means actually doing something about climate change even in the face of the appalling denial and negative actions at the federal level, I'm all for California being "woke".

johnwoo

I love the quote "S.F. is the laughing Stock of the world" The diversity of the people living and working here, and the large numbers of people that come from somewhere else would suggest otherwise.
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