Examples of people who moved away, with good and bad results:
Raya and Michael DeMarquez both grew up in San Jose, got married here, raised their kids here, bought a house here more than 20 years ago and felt settled in the Bay Area life — for life.
Then they lost that house after the 2008 recession, lost their jobs. In the ensuing years, they worked hard to put things back together, rebuilding their careers, renting a house. Yet all the while, they sensed the encroaching costs of change: the tech boom, the swelling prices, the thickening traffic, the culture shift. They started to feel like outsiders in their own home town.
So in 2015 they did something they never would have considered a decade before. They moved. Away.
To Portland, Oregon, in fact, as many Californians have done, often to the chagrin of Oregonians. And while there have been some adjustments and trade-offs (think weather), they’re truly happy they did it.
“We’d never go back to San Jose,” says Raya DeMarquez. “We’ll see if (Portland) is where we’ll stay. We’re giving it through this winter to decide if we can handle the weather — it was rough last year.
“But we’d never move back,” she says. “Never.”
Read full article here:
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/09/16/leaving-the-bay-area-these-folks-did-it-with-mixed-results/
It is interesting. Of those from SoCal I’d say half who moved away regretted and half never looked back. This is all anecdote understand. On the flip side those of us who came from elsewhere also split. Half never looked back and are glad they stayed. The other half who moved away say they are glad but are lying. Worst example of rationalization I’ve ever seen.
If that couple has any issues with fierce, cold weather, they won’t be stayin’ in Oregon. Them winters ain’t like winters in Lake Arrowhead. Search parties find and scrape the frozen carcasses of casual hikers off the side of Mount Bachelor fairly regularly.
Every year, Oregon winters will try to kill you. Some don’t mind weather that can eagerly suck the last drop of your life force. Californians tend to mind. They don’t think it’s funny. They don’t think it’s cute.
As for me, a born and raised Californian who grew up a few blocks from a good and kindly beach, weather constantly trying to kill me makes me mad! No wild, mean-spirited weather!!
For weather drama, I accept fog, and fog horns, and that’s it!
I think many Californians feel the same!
How did the lose a house they bought 20 years ago? Had to be worth 2x by 2007?
“How did the lose a house they bought 20 years ago? Had to be worth 2x by 2007?”
People won’t agree to be interviewed if they’re the punchline, and as a journalist, if you’re taking the victim narrative angle, you can’t get too specific, or you’ll lose audience sympathy for the protagonist.
That’s why the reporter didn’t write, “they took a second mortgage out, allowing them to go to Hawaii, pay for their daughter’s wedding, and buy a Land Rover. Then they fell on hard times.”
You just aren’t feelin’ it for the protagonists after that, are you?
I’m in the group that will never move back. Born and raised in the Bay Area and boy has it changed over the years in negative ways. Won’t sit here and bash the Bay Area, but it’s no place for young men with a family (unless you’ve cashed out FANG stocks). Moved to Carlsbad a year ago with the help of Jim and wish I had moved years earlier!
Moved to Carlsbad a year ago with the help of Jim and wish I had moved years earlier!
I’m glad you’re here too – let’s get more of those folks to move here!
I remember what the bay area WAS like, and it’s a tragedy. People need space. Packing people too close together for long periods makes them introverted and weird.
Also, even with positive stories, you can’t adequately relate to kids what it was like to get a group of friends jumping in an old Ford van full of surfboards at 5:30 in the morning, an ice chest full of deli meats, a bottle of mayonnaise, a bag of wonder bread, and a couple of bottles of Strawberry Hill, traveling down PCH with a half-ass stereo blasting Led Zeppelin, heading for Huntington Beach. Maybe one of ’em brings their cute sister along, and you better not try anything, if you know what’s good for you. The intensity of relationships is missing now.
Can’t tell kids that. Not their fault. They have no reference. They just look at you and say, “Yeh. Hm. Sounds cool. Yeah.” If I make them look up from their iPhone, I feel like I achieved something. Severely introverted now.
Haven’t been to Carlsbad in decades, but when I was a kid, we took ski boats to a lake there. Don’t know where it was, I didn’t pay attention. People around me said we were going to Carlsbad. Dunno what it’s like now, but back then, nobody was there! We had the whole lake to ourselves. Nothing but a ski jump on the lake somebody put up, and we’d take turns going over the ski jump while trying not to sever our spines. One day, a crew from Kawasaki arrived with prototypes of a new thing called “jet ski’s.” They asked if we wanted to help test ’em out. Hell yes! They had a film crew there, and shot us for their demo vid of the product. Hell of a day, for just for showing up in our dumb van. I heard they sold pretty well.