More than 2 million Californians were recently left without power after the state's largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric — which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year — preemptively shut down transmission lines in fear that they might spark fires during periods of high autumn winds.
Some co-workers haven't had power since last Saturday ( I fortunately have reliable power). What that will eventually do to property values can't be good, if this foolishness goes on much longer.
Consumers blame the state for not cleaning up dead trees and brush, along with the utility companies for not updating their ossified equipment. The power companies in turn fault the state for so over-regulating utilities that they had no resources to modernize their grids.
Californians know that having tens of thousands of homeless in their major cities is untenable. In some places, municipal sidewalks have become open sewers of garbage, used needles, rodents and infectious diseases. Yet no one dares question progressive orthodoxy by enforcing drug and vagrancy laws, moving the homeless out of cities to suburban or rural facilities, or increasing the number of mental hospitals.
Taxpayers in California, whose basket of sales, gasoline and income taxes is the highest in the nation, quietly seethe while immobile on antiquated freeways that are crowded, dangerous and under nonstop makeshift repair.
Gas prices of $4 to $5 a gallon — the result of high taxes, hyper-regulation and green mandates — add insult to the injury of stalled commuters. Gas tax increases ostensibly intended to fund freeway expansion and repair continue to be diverted to the state's failing high-speed rail project.
Residents shrug that the state's public schools are among weakest in the nation, often ranking in the bottom quadrant in standardized test scores. Elites publicly oppose charter schools but often put their own kids in private academies.
Yep, spent a fortune putting my three kids through Catholic school. Had to.
The real problem is the electorate that continues to send the incompetent political class to Sacramento, in spite of years of failure. Free stuff/Gimme dat! Unless that attitude changes, the descent of the Golden State into dross and slag will just accelerate.
Free advice, CW. Git while the gittins good! When, not if, it collapses, it’ll be quick. And anything that had value will be worthless. Services wont be there ( even moreso than now) and your ability to leave will be limited to the gas in your car, further reduced by the number of other folks trying to leave.
ReplyDeleteThanks, but I think I'll see how serious we can get the State of Jefferson movement. California is really two states - the insane, hyper liberal coast, and the rest, which is generally red. We're trying to see if we can join up with southern Oregon and create a new, conservative state between Sacramento and Portland. I'd like to fight a bit for my state before throwing in the towel.
DeleteI'm afraid it's pass the point of 'voting' your way out of this.
ReplyDeleteBest to leave. Good Luck.
I agree with the previous commenters, CW. Pull up stakes soon and do a "reverse 1930's Grapes of Wrath" move. The only outcome for the current Liberalization for California in sight is total anarchy.
ReplyDeleteI fled for Arizona, live high in the mountains, and have not regretted the move. The kids are coming up here for Thanksgiving. I'm going to CA for Christmas. But I'm not staying.
ReplyDeleteIn SoCA I lived in a 4,000 sq ft home, 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 car garage with a pool on a quarter acre in an affluent neighborhood. Then they built a mosque down the street and the neighborhood began to slip. Everyone who bought homes in the area was a Mohammedan. And then there was the rest of the California BS and I could read the handwriting on the wall. So I left. And it's better here.
"The power companies in turn fault the state for so over-regulating utilities that they had no resources to modernize their grids."
ReplyDeletePG&E has been caught several times requesting a rate increase for replacing equipment that had been granted twice before. The states PUC is serving only the industry it's charged to regulate and not the consumer.
I left two years ago, and while I miss the beauty of the state esp the Sierra's I saw how 1 party rule was ruining the state for citizens.
I left a year ago, and don't regret it. Though I don't consider myself a quitter I simply couldn't afford to stay. What was once a beautiful place to work & live has become a 3rd world country.
ReplyDeleteIt has to.
ReplyDeleteCommunism has to ruin all before the statues of Lenin come down.
Wait until the state is absolutely bankrupt, and the pensions fail.
The Other 49 nor the Feds will not bail us out (they'd better not!).
And then the engine of socialism run rampant explodes and collapses, like Sauron's All-Seeing Eye, and we get our state back.
After that, cleanup will be with shotguns, if anyone wants to return to sanity.
I'm Australian but when I was a kid I dreamed of living in CA. Not now. In fact I can't think of anywhere over there I want to live anymore. It's getting bad enough here in the big cities. Lucky it is still OK up here in Cairns.
ReplyDeleteI have worked in various parts of CA and had a few vacations there. The last time I was working in San Jose and the "preferred" company hotel was the Union Square Hilton in downtown SF. It was a commuters hell and it was the closest approved hotel. This was 5 years ago. I saw the rot up close if I ventured out around the hotel. For the job I was doing they paid 10 times more bringing me in with the $$ for the hotel, food, transportation, and OT because of the commute.
ReplyDeleteCW, we'll let you come into Texas.....but please, please urge everyone else to stop once they get to Arizona!!!
ReplyDeleteSteve
Thanks Steve. I've been to Texas lots and my Mom went to school in Waxahatchie. If the Jefferson thing doesn't work out then I might have to eject.
DeleteA big concern is getting your value out of your home. You want to leave before values start to plummet. At some point they will drop from their lofty heights and people will be stuck. For decades, California real estate lived by the "greater fool theory". If you bought real estate, there was always a greater fool who would pay even more. But that could radically change if essential services crash.
ReplyDeleteLaLaLand actually deserves all they get. And I don't want them coming here or anywhere else to spread their insanities. I used to say, "Once again, California beat the rest of the world to tomorrow." And it was rarely, if ever, for the betterment of itself or us US, at least in my lifetime. Born 1948.
ReplyDelete