I recently moved to California. Before i moved, people asked me “why are you moving there, its so bad?”. Now that I’m here, i understand it less. The state is beautiful. There is so much to do.
I know the cost of living is high, and people think the gun control laws are ridiculous (I actually think they are reasonable, for the most part). There is a guy I work with here that says “the policies are dumb” but can’t give me a solid answer on what is so bad about it.
So, what is it that California does (policy-wise) that people hate so much?
Never been to California, don’t hate it, but don’t exactly have a super high opinion of it as an outsider either. My personal reasons are
Much of the state has had a water crisis to one degree or another for most of the last century. That seems like a pretty clear sign that the environment can’t really sustain the amount of people and industry it has, and yet we keep at it.
A lot of the state is prone to earthquakes, wildfires, mudslides, and other crazy shit. Again, seems like a less than ideal place to live.
The climate really isn’t for me, I personally like cold winters with snow, that’s not really a thing in a lot of California.
I’m from the northeast, I happen to like the overall vibe of people from this part of the country, west coasters have a different vibe, not necessarily a bad one, but it’s not one I want to surround myself with full-time. Some (but not all) people get really snooty about the East vs West Coast thing, and while it definitely goes both ways, and I’m certainly biased because my experience is pretty much entirely from the east coast perspective. It seems to me like when that happens west coasters activity dislike the east, whereas the east is more indifferent towards the west.
Politically I overall tend to agree with the trends in CA in broad strokes, but it feels like they go weirdly overboard in some things (like the prop 65 warnings) and take weird half-measures in other. That’s not a unique California problem, but because they’re such a political and economic powerhouse their missteps have bigger ripple effects than most other states. I think overall most of the country could stand for our laws and policies to be more California-like, but we shouldn’t be holding California up as some sort of gold standard to copy exactly, and I think that’s a distinction that is lost on some people.
It’s also expensive.
California has more snow than any state but Alaska IIRC.
Yeah good fucking god it bothers me how people just think California is just Palm Springs and LA. It’s has the most micro-climates in America and the Sierras get shit tons of snow.
It only gets down to like 40-50⁰ where I live. I drove an hour north to my buddy’s house and took the fam to spend some time in the snow.
Or I could drive 2 hours to the ocean.
I mean you have to live on a mountain to have a cold winter. Thats not exactly realistic.
Basically all of California is on, around, or surrounded by mountains so discounting that is just being arbitrary about what counts. Is California like the plains states? No, but it has snow, it has ice, and it has a lot of it and in more places than you think. The deserts even get snow and can be colder than anywhere.
Cold winter isnt when it snows sometimes. Its a type of climate. Which doesnt exist in california except at the tops of moutains.
I was in the Mojave desert last winter and it was 15° F not including wind-chill. Cherry picking some irrelevant map doesn’t work. I know where I live, and certainly know it better than you and your terrible Google-Fu. I’m leaving this slap fight now. Enjoy your real winter ☃️ 💪
You did it; you confused weather for climate. Next, you can disprove global farming by watching it snow.