Replies

Today is better than yesterday and personally I have no desire to return to the good ole days.

People who live in southern California don't think today is better than yesterday. Yesterday it was possible to send one's children to the public schools and actually have them learn something. Yesterday, half the population wasn't receiving government checks, having babies on the taxpayer or collecting AFDF. Yesterday, you didn't have to pay $700,000 to buy a three bedroom tract house. Yesterday, it was actually possible to get around on city streets without having to wait two or three light changes to get through an intersection. Yesterday, when you dialed a government office, it was possible to understand the person who answered.

Ya, and the smog is way down, the city is more cosmopolitan, and it is easier to earn a very good living with the right skills, and the schools in the right zip codes are better than ever. But the place is worse for the lower middle class. Definitely. That is why they are decamping, and being replaced, by those willing to start at the bottom, and move on up. It is part of the cycle of large metro areas as they mature.