Comment by briandear | Hacker News Reader

Comment by briandear | Hacker News Reader

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Covid extremism was certainly a cause. I left California for Texas because of the almost hysterical reaction. (Arresting a surfer on an empty beach. Filling skateparks with sand. Keeping schools closed long after much of the red states had opened.)

Prop 47 was another issue. Crime, especially in the Bay Area because much more significant.

Then housing — not much needs to be said there.

And taxes. And gas prices. For those attempting to start a business such as a restaurant, the permitting process is insane. Can take a year. In my suburban Texas county permits take about two weeks.

And car registration. My 2017 Audi cost over $750 for the 2020 registration. In Texas? $74.50.

I didn’t live in San Francisco (was in Mountain View,) but the school board there lost their ever-loving minds. Renaming George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Muir, Robert Louis Stevenson, and others because of “wokeness.” Not to mention the anti-Asian initiatives to degrade admission standards to the selective schools.

Then there’s the anti-lead propaganda being used to close Reid-Hillview airport so Santa Clara County can get ultra rich selling the land to developers while simultaneously protecting Coyote Valley as open space, despite it being literally nothing but farmland — instead of using that land for housing. Supervisor Cindy Chavez is one of the most corrupt politicians in the area with multiple conflicts of interests with area non-profits.

I am sure California is better off without my tax dollars and my politics. I am certain not a single person was sad to see me leave.

Fun fact, my household move to Texas from California cost about $18k for the moving company. If I were doing the same trip I’m reverse, it would have cost $5000. The exodus was real.

Things I miss: Palo Alto Airport, the weather, flying my airplane to Half Moon Bay. Heading over to Mariposa-Yosemite. Hoping down to LA to eat at Carney’s. And despite Silicon Valley being a relatively unfriendly place, there are some really nice people mixed in with the Tesla bros and startup douches.

Edit: grammar

I'm leaving this year. Lived here for over 30 years. The only thing I can say for California is the unbeatable weather. I'll miss that. But in every other possible way there are so many better places to go. Plus I'm based and redpilled so I won't be destroying my destination with the voting patterns that brought California to this point.

I love how Prop 47 has become the rallying cry of the alt right. Prop 47 raised the threshold for certain felony crimes to, what? $950? That's smack in the middle compared to other states. For the record, Texas set their threshold at $2,500[1] back in 2015 – note that the previous threshold was already nearly four times what California had theirs set to prior to Prop 47 ($400).

Meanwhile SFPD busted a few of its cops for tossing drug evidence[2] instead of arresting the suspect, but somehow Prop 47 is the problem.

> Then there’s the anti-lead propaganda

I, for one, am kind of enjoying this "exodus".

1: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-bri...

2: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SFPD-cops-allegedly-d...

Prop 47 was a huge problem because it was combined with the fact that non-felony arrests are basically catch-and-release. Comparing it by dollar value to other states is pointless, because other states will charge people for misdemeanors.

Catch and release? Misdemeanors in California (and most? other states) are crimes that can be punished by up to a year in jail. SFPD doesn't even bother making misdemeanor arrests anymore. Prop 47 isn't a problem and it's not even a symptom.

We've tried the alt right approach and passed the most draconian three strikes law in the country. The result was a prison system that was so overcrowded we had to export prisoners to other states. That's not a tenable solution in the slightest. The (nonpartisan) state Legislative Analyst's Office published a comprehensive review of the consequences of Prop 36.

Lock up all the undesirables works great until you run out of room to keep them warehoused. We ran out of space.

I don't see how you can say "Prop 47 isn't a problem and it's not even a symptom." and "SFPD doesn't even bother making misdemeanor arrests anymore" in the same paragraph like it's a coherent thought. It makes more things misdemeanors instead of felonies. Misdemeanors are unpunished. But it isn't a problem?

I'm not saying it's the dominant factor. I'm not saying it's a big problem for the whole state. It definitely added to SF's long list of problems though.

The solution to more criminals than cells is to build more cells. Not to let the criminals out.

I'm sorry, but am I misunderstanding something or do you think the alt-right had the power in California to pass draconian laws on their own. These draconian laws were passed by the same people that run the state now.

Still don't have a place for them, since they're all out on the streets

Is everyone who disagrees with you just "alt-right", is that how that works? Seems to be a pretty common thing.

> is that how that works?

No, spouting off unhinged alt right conspiracy theories gets you labeled alt right. That's how it works. Things like "anti-Asian initiatives", "covid extremism", "anti-lead propaganda" or whinging about how raising the felony threshold to keep pace with inflation is the cause of "all the crime".

The person you replied to did nothing of that sort though, you just knee jerk reacted with emotions and accused them of being "alt-right" because they didn't share your opinion.

The things I put in double quotes were in fact direct quotes from the comment I replied to. So…

> accused them of being "alt-right" because they didn't share your opinion

No, I didn't. Look. I couldn't possibly give two fucks about whether or not some random HN user agrees with me or not. Trafficking in alt right conspiracy theories and other alt right nonsense warrants the label alt right. Blaming Prop 47 for California's ills is an alt right talking point.

As someone who's also studied California politics in an academic setting, attempting to lay blame at its feet is objectively ignorant and completely lacking in nuance (at best). At worst it's disingenuous.

As a San Francisco native and lifelong Bay Area resident I've followed the airport thing a bit and aside from the sheer ridiculousness of calling something "anti-lead propaganda" it's a gross mischaracterization of what's actually going on. Ars had a decent writeup, but it's not clickbaity enough to end up at HN.

> anti-lead propaganda

The only part of your comment anyone needs to read.

In general you'll lose more brain cells by reading HN comments on political, economic, and health science related topics than you will to lead exposure.

I moved From Philadelphia during covid to Maui and then I purchased a home outside of LA 10 months later when I realized just how boring island life is.

My only real issue with Cali is the insane capital gains tax which is why I cashed out most of my gains before becoming a California resident. Now that I'm here my salary went up by 1.6x.

I work remote so the gas prices don't bother me. Car registration is a write off so it's really 66% of what it actually is.

I could have retired at 34 almost anywhere else in the country but decided I'd rather ride the tech salary bubble for another 5-10 years in a place where the jobs are super plentiful.

I don't really mind what this article is saying. Just means less traffic. When the bullet train from LA to SF is complete in 10 years I'll be able to get to SF in 3-4 hours.

The thing I learned about living on both coasts and Hawaii is that corruption exists everywhere. You'll never escape it. The people that go into politics are largely grifter psychopaths and you'll never escape that.

In many ways living in Cali lets me completely ignore politics because my vote on a national level is largely irrelevant.

If you care about taxes so much why did you pay 18k to move instead of just renting a UHaul for a fraction of the cost and driving yourself? I mean jeez my 300 cubic foot container from the east coast to Hawaii was only 4.5k.

For the record my withholding on a W-2 went from 29% to 33%. All in all with the salary bump I don't even care about the slightly higher taxes. My healthcare plan here is already better (lower deductible for same price) and from what I can tell unemployment in California is better so if I do lose my job or something happens I feel like I get a better safety net. I really don't know what you're talking about as far as infrastructure goes. The state is the only place in the country building new train lines right now as I type this.

You should see some of the bridges in Philly. They are falling apart.

Only the VLF portion is deductible, so it depends on the value of your car. If you have expensive new car, maybe you are charged a $300 VLF and can get a $100 benefit from the deduction. If you drive an old beater, you benefit might be more like $10.

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/wasapp/FeeCalculatorWeb/vlfForm.do

If you're a high-income taxpayer, you might also just hit the $10k SALT cap from other taxes alone, making the effective benefit 0.

Also, this is probably dwarfed by amount you actually paid for the car (amortized over its lifetime), plus the amount you pay for insurance.

Yea you're right. My PA state car registration was like $35. Insurance is a lot more too but more is covered by CA state law. Quality of the roads is better though and there are no tolls.

I also saved money buying my car in Hawaii and shipping it over. But that's only possible if you can live there for a year to avoid the California penalty. Hawaii car sales tax is only 4% and Cali is 10%. If you buy a car from out of state and try to register it in less than 1 year from purchase Cali will ding you on the difference.

But there are ton of other ways I'm saving money. Weed is so much less expensive that I've already saved hundreds on that alone. I used to travel to escape the cold in the winter and now I no longer do that. Heating and cooling a home on the east coast uses a lot more energy year round than what my bill has been here thus far here in Ventura county.

When I lived in Philadelphia no matter how hard I tried to avoid it every once in a while I'd still get dinged by a parking ticket or even once got towed just cause the sign that was up didn't make sense. Although I know that's an LA problem too. Being able to not live in a city anymore is also saving me some cash over all.

The wokeness is offending a lot of Asians including myself.

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