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Move to California, they eagerly await you!
The weather is the best, the economy strong, people are friendly, great schools great opportunities and more multi-cultural than you can shake a stick at.
Get on 80-West and don't stop until you see San Francisco. When you get there, stay there.
Enjoy!
Did this 7 years ago. Best decision I ever made!
Moved back here 2 years ago, and I am counting the minutes until I can return to California (Just under 500,000 now).
It really makes me laugh when I hear Hoosiers point to California to make themselves feel better about their own state. Sure, California's got problems and it's been bankrupt 99 out of the past 100 years, but it's a great place to live. With the exception of housing prices (and you can get around this by renting or living away from the beach), you can easily live a cheaper and healthier lifestyle in Southern California than you can in Indiana.
Moved back here 2 years ago, and I am counting the minutes until I can return to California (Just under 500,000 now).
It really makes me laugh when I hear Hoosiers point to California to make themselves feel better about their own state. Sure, California's got problems and it's been bankrupt 99 out of the past 100 years, but it's a great place to live. With the exception of housing prices (and you can get around this by renting or living away from the beach), you can easily live a cheaper and healthier lifestyle in Southern California than you can in Indiana.
Enjoy those California taxes! Tell me realistically how it's cheaper to live in California than in Indiana.
I think that you have to look at the US as a whole. I do love living in Indiana. Mostly because I left when I was younger, got out, traveled, and experienced the country. Indiana has it's downsides. Weather, lack of different culture, lack of activities. However, I think the fact that Indiana doesn't have as many of the problems from other states makes it a good place to live.
You want to move to Texas? It's very hot at times, no water, no trees, etc. Sounds good until you live there and have to worry about things in your car exploding. Also, are you ready for the culture?
One thing I missed most on the east coast was the typical culture of Hoosiers. I was used to people being nice to others, making conversation. I was used to men holding doors open behind them. Not on the east coast. They'd rather slam them in your face and laugh. Seriously. Women were horribly rude too. All of them. If thats the culture you enjoy, then it's a place for you. Not for me.
In addition, I felt like NY only offered more opportunity for recreation. I ended up not going to any plays or broadway shows. I didnt really take advantage of the museums. I loved how close I was to JFK airport so I could fly elsewhere!
After a few years on the east coast, I thought of the pros and cons of where I lived. All the supposed pros were not things I took advantage of enough to outweigh the cons. Dirty streets/subways, homeless people everywhere, weather was similar to Indiana, traffic congestion, 9/11, etc. What was keeping me there? The fact that I could eat international food and go to shows, if I wanted.
You may think the Texas weather is awesome. I just wonder how much you will actually be able to enjoy it when you're there...
My suggestion is try another place to live. You might like it. But, the grass is never greener on the other side. It just appears that way.
I've lived in CA for over 40 years. Back in 1960 California was heaven, coastal California was perhaps the most beautiful place on earth.
Now, the states a dump. Buried in totally insane politics and the wretched results of decades of decent into backwards mentalities fostered by the mutants from all over the world that have so completely infected California.
No one knows better than I just how bad California has become and what we've lost.
It is truly tragic, and just as tragic is the fact that the damage is irreversible.
When a person is faced with the fact that life in a given place has become completely untenable that person has to come to the mature realization that it's time to move on.
This is why I left California. The costs in all their multitude of variation from messed up schools to high taxes to soft on crime soft on illegal immigration to the homosexuals sodomizing each other in public to the endless bizarre demonstrations to the gangs, the tagging, the abjectly mind-numbing traffic, the insanely high cost of living, the crowded hospitals and e-rooms the violent smelly insane homeless wandering around in droves the never ending war on Christians and on America and American Values and the victory of the utterly base and frothing mid-set that is so quintessentially modern-Californian.....all of it added up to leaving.
So, again to those that find all the aforementioned to be positive attributes to a place, by all means go to California, move there, take your like-minded friends and stay there.
Sadly when CA goes totally bust with the tens of millions of unfunded mandatory entitlements the whole country may be forced to bail CA out, because though they are in point of fact the total failures that time has shown them to be, the state of California may as yet be "too big to fail"...
Again, CA gives it to us in the shorts, just like they love to do.....
Enjoy those California taxes! Tell me realistically how it's cheaper to live in California than in Indiana.
Sure thing.
RE: CA Taxes;
Well, my CA income tax rate was 9% while my Indiana tax rate was only 1%, true. However, CA industry pays about 30% better wages than similar Indiana employment, if you can even find a job here, that is.
RE: Cheaper;
Food:
Stores stock local produce. It was fresher, cheaper, riper, and without the chemical preservatives/ripening agents that you must deal with here.
Transportation:
Public transportation, good walking/cycling weather made driving a car unnecessary.
Housing:
My apartment, which was a 5-minute walk from the beach and 10 minutes from the town center, was rented out at the same rate as a similar-sized place in the town where I now reside, which is close to nothing.
Entertainment/Activities:
Plenty of parks, the beach, the ocean, many community events, and good weather year-round meant plenty of free entertainment and activities. While there's fun to be had outdoors in Indiana (and I do enjoy the different seasons) it seems like there are far fewer opportunities for free or inexpensive entertainment and activity.
i havent read any posts in thread yet and wish not to. I only wish to add my 2 cents without it being governed or influenced.
Moving back to Indiana has been the death of me. I am originally from Fort Wayne, left when i was 8 , and moved back Oct 2009 to Marion, IN.
You would think that a Native Hoosier like myself, whom is also a disabled Veteran would have no problems living here but unfortunately that has been proven false. People here still think its 1940 and they are racially better than another, abuse their appointed positions to constrict others of their rights and it is obvious in public shopping /restaurants too.
I bought a home in Marion oct 2009 i have yet to be able to live in, its now Jan 2011. Code officers and Health Department seem to pick and choose whom has to follow the rules , who dont and who to make an example/political patsy out of. I didn't mention yet i am also half hispanic half white, ohh am i the flavor of the month to these cowards!!!
Do i enjoy the natural beauty of Indiana , my God yes. its simpleness? yes but it would be nice to have more to do. being treated like a third rate citizen in the state i was born in, in the country i served 8 yrs for and gave up my health for? NO. I am 100% disabled Vet, but cannot get a permit for $80 worth of plumbing so i can use a toilet in my home!!!!!!!! i say Indiana is best served being paved over to make a gigantic parking lot for Ohio and Illinios. its a shame too there is much wonderful history , natural beauty and peace to be found here, but i cannot enjoy any of it due to narrow minded bigots , rednecks, and sunday christians.
I am originally from Indiana. I never post in this forum because it really isn't that busy and I just don't pay attention to what is happening back home.
I left two and a half years ago with my wife. I recieved a job with Progressive Insurance based here in the Cleveland area. Indiana has a lot of great qualities, great livable areas, and some of the best people you will meet. Indiana just wasn't for me I guess. You have some of the best colleges in the Midwest there, and in my opinion good topography. It wasn't until I moved to Ohio and realized how "flat" Indiana was. And everyone's opinion here in Cleveland is that Indiana is nothing but farms.
Cleveland is a great urban experience for me and my wife. I love having everything in big city ammenities that I didn't find in Anderson (my hometown), and even in Indy. I love being able to get on the rail and ride wherever I need to around the city. Having awesome entertainment districts and neighborhoods that are well established. Billions of dollars in new investments and projects. Cultural institutions that rival that if Philadelphia and Boston. The Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Museum of Art are top-notch institutions. Cleveland's metro park system is one of the best in the country. I can drive 30 minutes south from my home here in Rocky River and be at a national park... in a metro area of 3 million. Great hospitals that are being built left and right in large part because of Cleveland being home to University Hospitals and The Cleveland Clinic. Having Playhouse Square which is the second largest performing arts district in the country after New York is nice too because of everything you can see. So far, in the last couple of years, I love it. It has everything we were looking for.
Indiana will always be home. I will stick up for it when need be. But I moved on. But overall, I liked living in Indiana, and wouldn't have wanted to grow up anywhere else.
Well, my CA income tax rate was 9% while my Indiana tax rate was only 1%, true. However, CA industry pays about 30% better wages than similar Indiana employment, if you can even find a job here, that is.
RE: Cheaper;
Food:
Stores stock local produce. It was fresher, cheaper, riper, and without the chemical preservatives/ripening agents that you must deal with here.
Transportation:
Public transportation, good walking/cycling weather made driving a car unnecessary.
Housing:
My apartment, which was a 5-minute walk from the beach and 10 minutes from the town center, was rented out at the same rate as a similar-sized place in the town where I now reside, which is close to nothing.
Entertainment/Activities:
Plenty of parks, the beach, the ocean, many community events, and good weather year-round meant plenty of free entertainment and activities. While there's fun to be had outdoors in Indiana (and I do enjoy the different seasons) it seems like there are far fewer opportunities for free or inexpensive entertainment and activity.
That's all pretty right on from what I have seen and experienced in my time in CA.
I love going out there in Jan or Feb and walking around in shorts and picking up fresh produce while my friends back in Indiana are stuck inside waiting for May. Soon it will be home.
i havent read any posts in thread yet and wish not to. I only wish to add my 2 cents without it being governed or influenced.
Moving back to Indiana has been the death of me. I am originally from Fort Wayne, left when i was 8 , and moved back Oct 2009 to Marion, IN.
You would think that a Native Hoosier like myself, whom is also a disabled Veteran would have no problems living here but unfortunately that has been proven false. People here still think its 1940 and they are racially better than another, abuse their appointed positions to constrict others of their rights and it is obvious in public shopping /restaurants too.
I bought a home in Marion oct 2009 i have yet to be able to live in, its now Jan 2011. Code officers and Health Department seem to pick and choose whom has to follow the rules , who dont and who to make an example/political patsy out of. I didn't mention yet i am also half hispanic half white, ohh am i the flavor of the month to these cowards!!!
Do i enjoy the natural beauty of Indiana , my God yes. its simpleness? yes but it would be nice to have more to do. being treated like a third rate citizen in the state i was born in, in the country i served 8 yrs for and gave up my health for? NO. I am 100% disabled Vet, but cannot get a permit for $80 worth of plumbing so i can use a toilet in my home!!!!!!!! i say Indiana is best served being paved over to make a gigantic parking lot for Ohio and Illinios. its a shame too there is much wonderful history , natural beauty and peace to be found here, but i cannot enjoy any of it due to narrow minded bigots , rednecks, and sunday christians.
While I'm sorry for your troubles, I must emphasize that code enforcement is a local issue, so I don't think it's fair to dog the entire state because the local Marion officials are slow/incompetent/corrupt.
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Tell me realistically how it's cheaper to live in California than in Indiana.
Soon it will be home.
