You need to get the fuck out of the midwest and get your ass back to good ole LA. The reason places like Vegas, Fresno, and Seattle are so “affordable” is because there’s no competition for housing. Know why? Cause no one in their right mind wants to live there.
I’ll grant you that the DMV sucks, but you can do pretty much everything online now and only have to physically go there about once per decade, tops. On the other side of the scales are awesome weather, sunshine, mean people, grocery stores open 24/7 that sell liquor and sushi, earthquakes, the homeless, a volcano under the la brea tar pits, the list goes on and on. Besides no one gives a fuck what you wear, who you date, or how many body piercings you have. Seriously, there’s no place like home. Pack your bags.
It’s a sad sign when mean people is an incentive to move some place, but it seriously is to me. These Midwestern people are a strange lot. No one seems hurried or upset. Also, the part about no one giving a fuck about you or what you do is a huge plus for LA. People in Flyover Land are very concerned with tradition and doing things “right.” In LA, who gives a fuck? Paint your house pink and name your dog Jay Leno, and nobody gives three shits. Dye your hair orange and convert to whatever the newest religion is, and no one will even notice or care. Try that in the Midwest and people will peer at you over their glasses and remark, “Well that’s … different.”
Okay. I think maybe I’ll give it another year or so here, at most, but I’ve sort of made up my mind that home wants me back. Or maybe it doesn’t, but it’ll have me whether it likes it or not. You hear that, LA? You can’t get rid of me!
Mean people are honest people. Do you really think those midwestern jerks give a flying fuck how your holiday was or that they genuinely “hope you have a super day!”?? They’re bsing you and you know it. That’s why it’'s annoying.
I’ll take mean and honest over gushy and phony any day. Throw in the passively judgemental “Well that’s … different”…and it’s case closed. I’ll send the moving truck.
Fresno has changed ALOT in the last 5-10 years. Crime has dropped alot (thank you VCSU), new major event venue drawing serious concerts and events. Traffic is annoying at 830 and 5 but the rest of the time it is actually pleasant.
Housing is doing ok, brand new 3/2 houses in nice new developments in nice areas of town for $175K-$250K, crummy fixer uppers in spotty neighborhoods $70K.
Plenty of nice restaraunts, movie theatres, a kick ass dinner theatre, several fun areas with a bit of nightlife.
In addition, you are basically within 4 hours from damn near anything. LA, SF, Monterey, Pismo, Morrow bay, Sacramento, 6 hours driving or a hop skip and a “holy shit we are landing already” from las Vegas by plane.
I dunno about Seattle. I was there a couple years ago pricing out houses just for the hell of it, and it was more expensive than Chicago. According to this cost of living calculator, it agrees. Seattle’s a fantastic place–the only place outside of Chicago right now I’d consider living.
I love LA. It was my home for 28 years and sometimes I miss it. New Jersey, where I live, isn’t home and it probably never will be. But I love not living in California anymore, and while I miss some things about LA, I am so glad to be free of other things. I don’t miss it taking me 45 minutes for me to drive the 5 miles to my office in the mornings. I don’t miss heat waves reaching the high 90s in November. But more than anything I don’t miss the lack of seasons. I don’t know how I lived without seasonal change before, but I was missing out. Sure, summer in NJ sucks. And right now it’s 11 degrees outside with a windchill making it feel like it’s 2. But I wouldn’t trade those extremes for 300 days a year of 85-95 degree weather with the occasional day of rain. Seriously. Rain is awesome. Snow is awesome. Changing leaves in fall are awesome. That first burst of color when Spring comes is awesome. *Genuinely *awesome. Not the modern overused sense of the word, but take your breath away and leaving you in awe, awesome. And the bad stuff about seasons only lasts for a few weeks. At most you have, what, 6 bad weeks of summer? Compare that to the hell weather that is March through November in Los Angeles. So while it is nice to be able to go out in a T-Shirt in January in LA, it’s nice to not have to wear shorts and flip flops and crank the AC in order to stay cool in March.
Add in that clean air has made my allergies all but go away, and that lower cost of living (if only slightly) means that I don’t have to CONSTANTLY scrimp and save and you won’t be able to talk me into going back permanently. I love LA, I miss good cheap Mexican food (probably not a problem for you) and In N Out, and a handful of bars and easy access to the ocean, and the superior farmers markets (maybe better in Chicago?) but none of that is stuff I can’t visit. I don’t want to live there. Don’t move back.
Not bad, not bad. I will agree that foliage is beautiful and perhaps preferable to Southern California’s rotting palm trees, but saying snow and rain are awesome is an awful, filthy lie. Rain is actually worse than snow, and snow is pretty terrible. Looks great on post cards, but is a feisty bitch to live in. And the air quality in LA has improved drastically over the years, so I don’t view that as a valid complaint about LA anymore. Chicago is rumored to have good Mexican food, but North side Mexican food sucks. Get it together, everywhere north of Pilsen!
Still, there’s a shitload of good food here. I still need to eat my way through this town. Still, while homesickness is pretty much eating me alive, I’ll stick around for another year in order to give this place a fair shake. Los Angeles isn’t drifting off into the sea any time soon. I’ll be back. See you in 2013, home.
I grew up in SCal, and learned to drive here. Driving SCal freeways is almost an art. The drivers are members of OFFENSIVE driving, not defensive. But you have to have a certain amount of moxie to enter the freeways from the ramps, and you can’t be a wuss when changing lanes. There’s a knack to it. LA drivers are naturally rude and aggressive. Unfortunately, some are aggressive to the point of carrying weapons and using them in instances of road rage.
Drivers in Chicago are a different breed entirely. LA drivers may be rude, aggressive and vicious, but Chicago rush hour traffic drivers are PSYCHOTIC.
~VOW
LA drivers are definitely a special brand of aggressive sociopath, but that’s part of their charm!
Aww shucks, doll. I’m not going anywhere just yet. I’ll still be here for a while, so there will be much eating and drinking (especially drinking) in the cards.
I’m about to end this post with a cutesy signoff. You’ve been warned.