The great debate Oregon vs califonia

[izzo]

Been in oregon my whole life too. I did live in vancouver once, kelso a quick term, and puyallup for 3 years. I keep coming back.  Im used to the taxes here, the laws, the area.  I won't be moving out of state again.

[SupDoc]

Is Daly City your only option?  Then I'd say no go.  Conditions get better soon as you enter the outskirts of the bay area.  Even as you cross the Golden Gate and head north, the towns are pretty cool, like Petaluma and Santa Rosa.  I live about 45 minutes from SF in the Sacramento delta area and it has a very rural feeling.

[Draker]

California's population increased by 256,000.

 

Mexico's population has decreased by 256,000.

[yellowdatsun]

Having lived in neither Oregon or California, but traveled very extensively in both, I can have a very objective point of view........

 

Oregon is BY FAR a better place to be. There's a million reasons why. One of the biggest is the people. People in Oregon are FAR nicer than anyone in the southwest. Including Arizona where I'm from. Actually, some of the nicest people in the entire country as far as that goes. California has all kinds of problems. Including when it comes to the car hobby. Just trying to drive through Cali's big cities sucks. The roads suck, the traffic sucks, and the distance between anything sucks. I could never live there. My boss even asked me to move to Cali for work, and I said no. I would however move to Oregon no problem if the chance arose.

[baldredhead]

if you do move, make sure you haven't modified your car making it impossible to SMOG, or bring one that's 1975 or older and thus exempt from the CARB rules. well, exempt from inspection but that's some hair not worth splitting.

 

i've lived ~40 miles south of daly city for most of my life. if i could, i'd leave and oregon is one of the places i'd strongly consider going.  there are a lot of incredible things about CA, but i find that i'm generally over most of them.

[Jesse C.]

Only you can make the decision and do what is best for you. And why do people always move to California from other places  and bitch all day about it but yet do not go back?

[RedBanner]

How many i.o.u.'s do you think the state will send out THIS april?

[ArchetypeDatsun]

I was born and raised in Oregon and lived here all my life as much as work has slowed down here for me I don't find my self leaving Oregon, I've been to Cali a lot as much fun as it is to visit I would probably never live there.  I used to have gf that lived in Vallejo, and family that lived in Sacramento,Napa, San Bruno I liked visiting but the traffic drives me nuts lol, it can be fun but then frustrating most of the time.  I would check it out and see if it is for you, make sure like stated above that you haven't done mods to your car that will get you screwed with the smog laws there at the end it will be your choice.

[Figbuck]

For me the question was, should I move to Oregon after living in the Bay Area for 50 years. I was born and raised in San Francisco. I never knew anything different. It is a world class city, totally cosmopolitan. Things have been happening there for 167 years that change the face of the world every single day.

 

California is a huge place. If you look at a map of the geography, it is evident that huge geo-physical forces are at work to dramatically transform the land. It is a place of energy. People are drawn to this energy from all over the world. All kinds of people. Lots and lots of 'em too!

 

In a nut shell, the question is, can I hang? Can you hang in the middle of all that energy? I can hang. I grew up on the streets. I didn't know any different. Do you want to put yourself into culture shock? For sure it will be.

 

I live five minutes from downtown Portland. I can go to theaters, clubs, restaurants, museums, festivals, parks, the Zoo. I want to live in an urban environment and culture. Or I would already be living out in Eastern Oregon in a town of 200. If you are going to work all day living in a city and watching cable TV in a $1200 a month one bedroom at night... what is the point? 

 

If you chose to immerse yourself into some facet of the culture, then there is a reason to be there, live there. To go there just for a paycheck seems irrelevant to the subject of moving. There are some nice neighborhoods in Daily City. Good luck on that. Swallow hard, write a big check, but find a place close to work. And a place that has parking! Parking!!! Hahahahahahaha... you don't even know do you?

 

Any kind of perceived savings of rent or house payments, but moving farther from work or taking more time from your day on public transport is a dream. If you could walk to work and park your Datsun in covered parking during the week... that's the style. It could be cool to live in Daly City, because it is easy to take BART downtown or the East Bay to party. Close to the airport too. Interstate 280 runs through it so it is easy to get in and out of town. There is so much stuff to do just in the City, you could stay out all night every night and not see it all. And then there is the whole rest of the Bay Area, 200 miles of burbs from Santa Cruz to Sonoma. Living in Daly City would be like living in Beaverton or Troutdale next to Portland. Unless you know, it all looks the same... just a lot more of it.

 

Oh, and the fog. I don't care how resilient to Pacific Northwest rain and weather you think you are... fog all summer sucks. Unless you like to go surfing in Pacifica. You need a wet suit all year any way so what's the difference?

 

The cultures are different locally too and are changing all the time. I heard it called the "politics of economics". I have been watching it change completely every ten years. Poorest people get squeezed out, money moves in. What ever it is like now... in ten years it will have deteriorated and morphed into the next hot-set-up thang.

 

Shit, I could go on and on here. The City is the coolest city in the coolest region of the coolest state in the best country in the world. You ain't the first or last to get the memo. If I had the Mojo or good Juju to create some resources... I would be living there.

 

You can't be broke or poor and live there like you can in Oregon and Portland. Don't even think it. Unless you have straight up goood connections, friends or family who have some leverage for you... there are a crap load more people camped out down there struggling to make it happen already... no?

 

Do you have what it takes to jump into the middle of all these people and energy? Here is the test amigo. Go stick your finger into the nearest 110v outlet.

[EricJB]

I dont know shit about either. I have family that lives in both states, and when I go to visit, I cant wait to get home to my dark, wet little piece of dirt. If I had to choose, I would say Oregon.

 

A few times in life I have been forced to realize that what looks good on a calculater is often a bad idea.

 

I have several friends that are transplants from Cali. They go on and on about how much better Cali is, but they live here.

 

 

[EricJB]

Oops hit the button twice.

[jbirds510]

The entire east bay is a cesspool and I doubt you could afford a decent place to live in daly city that's worth calling home..I'd move to Oregon in a heart beat.we are stuck here or I'd be headed your way.

[spitznoz]

Most of the people i know here in California including me wants to move to Oregon  i dont know if people in oregon wants to move in California  I wish you guys had more jobs there that would make it easier, I'm going to move to northern California on January i would like to visit Oregon and maybe datsunville the holy land.

[Radim]

I've lived in SoCal all of my life, and It's VERY hard to think about moving anywhere else.

However, I have gone to Oregon before for friends, and will be going up there Dec. 28th-Jan 4th. and the time that I have been there makes me think how great of a place it is to live in.

Slow paced, No sales tax, people are a lot nicer than people down here in Orange County.....  but I love it here, I love my sun, I love my microclimates, I love it here in general. It's true it does take a certain person to live here though.

[Burabuda]

Mexico's population has decreased by 256,000.

wrongo, california always belonged to mexico

they just lent it to the gringos who fixed it up nice for them

[Tristin]

california always belonged to mexico

they just lent it to the gringos who fixed it up nice for them

 

That cant be true... us gringos always hire Mexicans to fix things up. Thats the only reason I shop at Home Depot. 

[thisismatt]

I would say check the cost of housing in the areas you're considering, and check google street view of any potential locations.  Find out what you can about the neighborhoods before concluding that you'd be happy living there.  The worst part about the nice areas of CA is the high housing cost, either renting or owning.  The equivalent of over half my paycheck goes to rent, and that's not even counting utilities and all the other normal living expenses.  Thankfully my wife is also working so we're not doing too bad, but we also live very frugally compared to a lot of other people (we have a pretty strict budget and are not wasteful).  Sure, we could downgrade to a different, less expensive rental, but that would suck.  I think Oregon is beautiful as well, and I haven't really dealt with its people so I can't comment there, but I think the weather would drive me insane.  On the other hand, if I was wealthy enough to not have to work, but not wealthy enough to live just anywhere, I could probably live in any state and be perfectly content, but with my current job (construction - finish carpentry), I feel my current location offers one of the best opportunities to do fun & diverse things.  I don't want to move away to a less expensive area and go from doing custom one-off work to hum drum track houses day in and day out.  If you can work the numbers to where you're coming out ahead after expenses and without adding undue stress to your life, then why not?  If you end up nearly breaking even and with added stress, then it's not worth it.

[jesusno2]

^^^^^^^^ that is the point, that i'm having a hard time with the stress etc of that area. I know for sure i would have to commute i was looking in the areas in livermore/dublin tracy area. I'm starting to think the pay may be a wash I dunno. I make 14.00 an hour with no benefits my wife is a sous chef so she can get a job anywhere, the welding job down their is paying 34.50 with union benifits. rent for a 4 bedroom house in livermore/dublin tracy area is around 2g a month maybe find a roommate then i would be paying about the same i am for my mortgage now. I dunno what other expenses to factor in cause i dont know what utilitys are down their etc.  

[thisismatt]

Oh yeah, make sure you have plenty of space to park your vehicle(s).  I just got a good reminder of that issue.  Someone today munched my driver side fender & eyebrow trim on my 521 because people are effing idiots, and of course the person didn't fess up to it.  This kind of stuff just makes me depressed.  My 521 isn't in pristine condition, but it's like someone taking a crap on a painter's canvas.  #%R)@#$ &@$

[Figbuck]

Man you are a glutton for punishment #2. 

 

I was a California contractor and ran a construction business in San Francisco and San Mateo counties for 21 years. I have made every horrible commute there is or was, like in '89 when the Bay Bridge went down in the earthquake. And that was when gas was $1.48 too.

 

If there is any part of commuting in the Bay Area sucks you don't understand... go down there and make the drive for one week... I'm sure, it will only take ten minutes though, or two minutes.

 

Why would you waste hours of your week commuting? Why would you even consider equating time spent just to make money for somebody else. Time from your life you ain't never gonna get back... unless you figure your wages to include the time you leave your door until you get home.

 

Here is the test. Go down there and ride Bart from Daily City to the East Bay for a week. See how fun that is.

 

At least when you get home in Livermore there are great back roads to burn gas, rubber and shred asphalt on. Can probably park a car in front of your place too.

 

But then why don't you get a job in Livermore?

 

How come you can't find Prevailing Wage work in Multnomah or Washington counties? What about that place in Tigard that is suppling all the structural steel components for the Milwaukie-Portland Light Rail project. There is some serious public works money being spent here locally as well a big commercial stuff.

 

It seems like if you have a resume, can take a piss test there is Prevailing Wage work within an hours drive of the place you are living right now.  Am I full of shit here? How hard have you looked? Why do you want to move again? 

 

My ex-partner is running 50 million dollars worth of commercial renovation work employing 35 guys In Marin, Contra Costa and SF Counties. He tells me that he can't make any money at anything less that 40 million because there is no profit in it. At 50 there are enough crumbs left over to keep him going. It's like that for every business down there. Dog eat dog. There is a bigger economy down there. Same in Seattle. Our economy here in PDX was destroyed. It was never big enough to begin with, and is just not strong enough to ever make a recovery. As the economy here evolves... it ain't coming back like it was... the politics of economics will take hold. Poor people will get pushed out and money will transform the place.

 

I have been seeing tons of California license plates this month. Usually they disappear after summer. In fact, I have been seeing tons of out of state plates. Portland has this cool factor now, the place where twenty somethings come to retire and play extras on episodes of Grimm. There sure aren't enough family wage jobs, because the housing market keeps bouncing off the bottom month after month. How are these noobs finding work? Are they working for peanuts to trip the life fantastic in groovy Portland? I think so. I talked to two thirty something guys this week who were just laid off for the first time in the three and four years respectively, they have lived here. Not enough work finally.  

 

I guess the bottom line is something like; Life is like a shit sandwich... the more bread you got, the less shit you have to eat.

 

If you got money, you can pretty much ignore people. Move where you want, do what you want, when you want, and leave if you don't like it.

[amwalker]

I grew up in Socal, from birth to 18 and then joined the Air Force.  My first base was in South Georgia, just a little bit of change.  Everything moved a little slower and there was a ton of open space compared to what I was used to.  From there my wife and I moved to the island of Terceira, Azores, Portugal for two years and returned to Socal in late 2009.  If I wasn't in the military and working in a comparable job in the public sector I probably wouldn't be living the same way.  The general populous/politics has convinced me that California is not for me, Socal at least. They are so dependent on hand-outs/eco-weenie/damn near socialism that I just don't have enough confidence that it'll be a stable place to live.  I don't think I rely on the outside world for stimulation or motivation, so the lifestyle isn't a factor.  I'd like to try and live somewhere in Norcal but I think we'll end up somewhere in rural WA.