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For maybe 99% of Californians the decision to move or stay is tied to two factors: increasing cost of living and decreasing quality of life. I lived in the Bay Area from 2010 to 2020 and both factors worsened considerably in that time.

While Musk’s move may be an indicator of a kind it reflects on largely different factors than those weighed by most people. Most people don’t strain against state bureaucracies to develop innovative products and services.

Regulatory burden does reach Main Street, though. Ask anyone who’s ever run a restaurant in San Francisco or needed to get a state-issued license for, e.g., working in a nail salon if they think the government made it easier or harder for them to do business. Does this make the regulations wrong? No. Could they be easier to follow? Definitely.

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This is SF small business regulation in a nutshell: a business person who wanted to start an ice cream shop in the Mission neighborhood has spent $100k+ and 16 months dealing with regulatory headaches.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heatherknight/article/Bi...

Analogous examples can be found for remodeling/construction, etc.

Where did you move, and how are you finding it in comparison?

We moved to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Quality of life is high and cost of living is low. We had a huge variety of housing choices at many price points. Groceries, gas, and utilities are much cheaper. People are friendly.

The culture is different. More people here are religious [0]. Alcohol is strictly controlled [1] and the driving BAC limit is .05, lower than the typical .08. Cannabis is not legal. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aka the Mormon Church, and its adherents are a big part of the culture here, especially their orientation towards family and service.

We’ve liked it.

[0] https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/state/uta...

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_laws_of_Utah

I lived in SLC for a few months and really loved it. The area is quite nice. The winter inversions, once upon a time, made the air quality a real concern, but the bay area has now topped that with the very frequent smoke days.

But .. are you mormon? Otherwise, how are you finding the social isolation? SLC itself is now 50% mormon, but the surrounding areas are still mormon-dominated. I like mormons, but they are definitely tribal.

My partner and I are Jewish and gay. Salt Lake has a small, tight-knit community of the former and a large, diffuse community of the latter; though we haven't been socializing because of the pandemic. The Latter-day Saints we've met have been unfailingly kind and welcoming to us, which is surprising given how they were characterized to us before we moved. Do I expect the more observant of them to welcome us in? Not really. But they've been the best neighbors. A group of them recently volunteered time and money to help landscape Salt Lake's synagogue [0].

[0] https://www.deseret.com/faith/2020/8/12/21353766/latter-day-...

That's great. I'm happy for you.

Housing there is surprisingly expensive if you want to own, another concern for me. I really like SLC though.

Thanks. Yes, housing is getting a little more expensive now that so many people are moving to the Wasatch Front. It’s not as bad as Boise or Denver, though, at least not yet.

We’re unsure if we’ll stay long term and buy or not. We want kids and a religious community for them to grow up in. That would’ve been kind of tough even in the Bay Area, though.

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