Posted on 12/10/2006 10:28:48 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Wayne Brown gave up $40,000 in income to move from the Bay Area to Kansas. And he feels great.
It got to be too much last year for the college information-technology officer: the commute to downtown San Francisco that sometimes took two hours, the housing-price spiral and the high-wire borrowing that paid for it.
``I would find myself sitting in traffic,'' Brown recalled, ``screaming at people.''
When the Kansas job came up in early 2005, Brown and his wife, Teresa, sold two Bay Area homes and happily settled in a suburb of Kansas City. They have never looked back.
The Browns are an example of what demographers say appears to be an unprecedented phenomenon -- even in a good economy, more people are leaving California for other states than are arriving from the rest of the country.
Between 2004 and 2005, the migration flow into California from the other 49 states started flowing the other way. Data from the state Department of Finance shows that, for the first time this decade, more people left California in 2005 for another state than the number who moved in. Mary Heim, a finance department demographer, says this particular kind of outflow will continue for the foreseeable future.
Unlike the tens of thousands who left Silicon Valley following the tech bust earlier this decade, the new migration is about the quest for something besides a job: a better quality of life at a lower cost of living.
--snip--
... California's population of 37 million people is still growing, because of a surplus of births over deaths and because of foreign immigration.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
I've lived in AZ for nearly 20 years now and it still bugs me when people sit at a green light.
And I really do miss better public transportation and better highways.
And turn left only arrows.
Oh, we have left turn arrows, but the snowbirds get really confused by them... guess a lot of states don't have green turn arrows for some reason... biggest thing here, in the winter, is sit for a minute and make certain they are going to stop before you proceed through a green light.
IMHO, the article has been influenced by the myopic world of friends of the writing staff at the San Jose Mercury News which recently had a number of editorial staff layoffs.
"Oh, we have left turn arrows, but the snowbirds get really confused by them..."
Not like in CA where they have the right of way and everyone else has red lights.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
You can have Austin, and I will keep the desparate housewives here in north Texas.
Good luck with your move, Colorado is beautiful and needs more conservatives.
We have the kind you are talking about here in NW Arizona. We don't go down to Phoenix area, so I can't speak for that part of the state. The signals that confused us totally are in Santa Fe, NM.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
I think that West of the divide they are still mostly conservative, the most liberal is Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs area (from what I know of it)...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
The politics: AWFUL. Can't hold the simplest conversation without THEIR "views" coming out.
And the general ATTITUDE of people has gone down the TOILET.
That's why I talk to you and other FReepers mostly until I can say to L.A., Kiss my butt.
In Phx we don't have them and the city planners wonder why we're the number one red light running offenders. Go figure?
Former Californian. When you hear people around you talking about two things get ready to run, DIVERSITY and we need a college. Think of every major state that is predominately liberal and you can probably name the college there that crank out the little liberal do gooders that want to change your way of life. I can name four here in the Northwest that we would all be better without.
"You can have Austin, and I will keep the desparate housewives here in north Texas."
..you know, I visited DFW before making the decision for Austin, and was very surprised at the very strong southern accents, and very redneck atmosphere. I guess there is more inbreeding, and Oklahoma influence up north, so I settled for Austin where at least I can understand what people are saying.
Funny you would say that -- they are trying to get a four-year campus here in town -- the powers that be want to use a spot with a prime view of the lake.
Well, I still reside in California, and we all aren't the left-wingers you make us out to be. Right now there aren't Republicans in statewide offices, but on the other hand, the majority of initiatives last month were voted on the conservative way by the majority of voters. Propisition 87, for example, was heavily touted by Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and the liberal establishment, but lost by a wide margin. You can try to sweep that under the rug, but it did happen.
So are you saying you didn't really want "Conservative" Texas but felt more comfortable with the liberal Texas version of what you were escaping? This is what scares me about the people fleeing California, New York, New Jersey, Mass.. they don't seek us for what we offer but for how they can change us to be more like them and what they left... makes no sense to me.
See I told you. Look out, run for cover. What about the other part of the equation DIVERSITY? Are you gifted there too?
I shocked they don't have them in Phoenix.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.