Posted on 08/03/2005 12:24:40 PM PDT by DesignerChick
Move to San Diego! IMO, it's got it all: great weather, beautiful women (probably not your thing ;) ), beaches, mountains, nightlife, pro teams, and on and on. The weather is fantastic.
If your job pays enough to buy a decent home, it's a no-brainer.
there are places in San Diego that could pass for Banana Republics...Stay away from them..Use google and dogpile for search engines and get every piece of info you can on safe places to stay and find directions for how to get to work....
If you don't handle it yourself, California will smoke you, all right.
I abandoned it 10 years ago, so I speak from some experience.
If I were you I pick San Diego, If it LA try Orange County to live. SD and OC are great places to live. LA is not.
Traffic is bad and housing is expensive.
Sure. I guess I meant the city and the surrounding area. Obvously, it isn't the "big city", but my point was that I could find a "pocket" of CA that I liked.
Fly right over Calif. and land on Maui.
California is a great big New Jersey, politically.
Be sure to wave to all the people you pass who are on their way out, escaping the place.
Oh, and you might want to learn Spanish.
I vacationed in CA more than twice & totally agree with you. I enjoyed the vacations, but live there, never!
Check out the district that Chris Cox represented. I am sure there are others as well.
Good luck, you won't be sorry to leave NJ
The first thing that will strike you is the lack of dense forests in the lowlands. And even up in the mountains, it's more of either an open oak savannah or what you in Jersey would term pine barrens. The weather is probably the most confounding thing. It can be relatively cool along the coast (70s in SD, high 60s in LA, low 60s in SF) meanwhile it's over 100 degrees inland. Most of the rain is in the winter - but down south where you'll be there is the occasional small burst of tropical moisture up from Mexico - this can be a problem and even once in a while causes huge traffic problems on the freeway because no one expected it plus all the oil coming up from the road. Almost as slick as ice.
Be prepared for real estate sticker shock unless you now live in one of the more expensive parts of NJ. Also fuel sticker shock. We have these horrible enviro regs and tons of gas taxes.
Be sure to plan ahead for paying 9% State Income tax and if you own, hefty property taxes as well.
Most sales taxes are 8 plus percent.
Make sure your car can pass smog - or else, sell it now and get a low mileage used one here - but not too old, because in a couple years the smog regs will get even tighter unless we overturn them.
People are terrible in terms of freeway driving skills (well, at least many are) - people hesistate merging and do real bone headed things that even 17 year kids ought not do. There is zero concept of "autobahn etiquette" with lots of lane hogging and passing on the right. Many people here who first learned to drive over age 30 (= overseas immigrants).
Chose your neighborhood wisely - there are some really bad ones - TV shows and movies only show the really nice ones (except for crime shows and gang banga films).
If you buy, be darn sure to understand fire, flood, earthquake, liquifaction and landslide risks - sources of data are available from the USGS and local emergency management. Most sellers and buyers are very poorly skilled at considering the risks, and therefore, disclosures are not always complete. You'll see people lining up to buy houses in high risk zones and no one even brings it up - it's easy to get conned. On the flip side, there are areas that are very, very safe in all these regards - they'll be sitting pretty when the big one hits. In general, when buying, be as anal as you can be.
Well, that has its own set of issues, but I say: GO FOR IT!!
Check out post number 145.
In plainer English:
It's where I had to go to find something I "liked" about CA.
And, you can supply fellow Freepers with a nice pile of Cuban stogies ;) Take the Red Trolly.
Only if you're on fire... smoking is prohibited in all public buildings, all restaurants, all bars and many other places (including some beaches.)
Bring your house with you unless you have a vault full of money.
I had made it almost all day without seeing the name Hanoi john Kerry.
Why did you ruin my day?
In New Jersey you cannot pump your own. No such thing as self serve gas pumps.
Well, you don't mention where your offices are. It you move, try to get as close as possible on the water side of the communte. There is nothing like heading in the direction of the ocean on your way home to improve your disposition.
I've lived in all the major CA regions and I have to say San Diego had the best weather and environment of any of them. The south central coast near Santa Barbara come in a close second. If I were starting fresh I would head that way myself.
As you'll hear over and over house cost and breathtaking. But, renting is comparativly inexpensive, it's a buyers market at this time. That small apartment or condo on the water is within reach with reasonable means.
You'll see lots of Hondas and Toyotas on the roads, why? They are relable, and the one thing you need in CA is a dependable car.(The Bay Area has an OK public transportation infrrastructure, forget about it in SoCal)
Peronally I would recomend you ask for a visit to the offices and plan a stay over the weekend. It's the best way to find out if it's really for you.
i just moved FROM CA to PA.
Mrs. Liberty lives in San Diego.
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