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California’s quality of life is the worst in the country?

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Re: California’s quality of life is the worst in the country?

#91

Post by question_that »

sjg007 wrote: post #58
almostApatriot1 wrote: post #15

>The state performed well in terms of its economy, coming in at No. 4 This isn't surprising. The reality is California's good economy, relatively good school system, attractive West Coast appeal, and high influx of immigrants make California VERY competitive (i.e. overcrowded), which brings down the quality of life for all. This is an end result of sorts of our global society. A California will always exist.

What does this even mean? Your comment is vague and nonspecific. California chose its path at the polls.

Do you think those moving away from California have learned a lesson or will they vote for similar policies and politicians wherever they go?

Re: California’s quality of life is the worst in the country?

#92

Post by DoreenMichele »

kelp wrote: post #76
DoreenMichele wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. http://michelerebooted.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-lawful-awful...

There is also this theory that it's caused a Hepatis outbreak: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/hepatitis-crisis/sd... People who are homeless would often use plastic bags as a bathroom, and then throw it in the trash. No more plastic bags, so they can't do that... Not sure what real evidence there is for it, but I always love an unintended consequences story.

I'm a proponent of the idea that the bag ban is a contributing factor to the hepatitis epidemic. I don't think it is the only factor. The epidemic also started about the same time the multi year California drought broke. That was an especially wet winter, with deadly storms and flooding. I think the heavy rains likely also contributed to the epidemic.

There are probably other factors as well. I believe homelessness has been on the rise in Southern California. Concentration of poverty tends to go bad places healthwise.

Re: California’s quality of life is the worst in the country?

#93

Post by DoreenMichele »

newnewpdro wrote: post #89
DoreenMichele wrote: post #40

I left California last September. Moving someplace cheaper allowed me to get back into housing. That was all I expected to get out of it. Other than getting off the street, I didn't expect significant improvement in quality of life. I moved to a small town that did not have all the stuff I wanted. I expected to kind of put up with it in order to be able to afford housing. But after getting here, our mantra has become…

When the plastic bags reach the ocean, they resemble jelly fish, so they look like food. Whales have been found dead with dozens of plastic bags clogging their digestive system. [1] So coastal areas in particular are a priority to reduce the use of plastic bags. I'm disappointed California hasn't forced grocers to use biodegradable bags in the produce departments as well. [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway…

I never finished my degree, but I am an environmental studies major. I began decrying the horrifying stuff we are doing to our oceans many years before that was trendy, when it just made me an opinionated nutter.

But all my free grocery bags get reused as garbage bags. There is no ban on the sale of garbage bags. If I were not getting free grocery store bags, I would be buying small garbage bags and going through about the same number of plastic bags.

We have multiple islands of floating plastic in the ocean. IIRC, one is like the size of the state of Texas. The plastics problem for our oceans is quite serious. But it is hardly limited to plastic bags.

I don't know what the solution is, but I have lived without a car for at least a decade. I am walking the walk to the best of my ability in terms of living light on the land. I think the big picture choices I have made more than make up for whatever small conveniences I find are essential to keeping my quality of life high.

Re: California’s quality of life is the worst in the country?

#94

Post by purplezooey »

The older generations that have owned houses for 20+ years are the problem. Seen Lafayette or Orinda lately? They oppose all development, call affordable housing "the ghetto", and are of course protected themselves by prop 13. Heck they even elected a Republican assemblyperson.

Re: California’s quality of life is the worst in the country?

#95

Post by closeparen »

newnewpdro wrote: post #81
closeparen wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our most central and highly-trafficked sidewalks and public transit stations are de facto public restrooms and homeless shelters. The plaza around our government and cultural center is densely populated with open drug use and varying degrees of mental health crisis. Begging and tent encampments abound. The cyclist-advocacy and homeless-advocacy groups are at each other's throats over whether the takeover of bike lane…

Having seen how places like Chicago treat the homeless in the interests of keeping the things you're pointing out hidden from sight - I appreciate SF's more tolerant, somewhat live-and-let-live methods, in lieu of better, more compassionate solutions. Hopefully having all this on display in SF will eventually provide enough impetus for the better solutions to emerge. Until then, I hope they don't decide to start bein…

San Francisco had 3,146 sheltered and 4,353 unsheltered homelesss people in 2017 [0]. Chicago had 4,096 sheltered and 1,561 unsheltered. [1] Despite having 3x our population and a more centrist political climate, Chicago has fewer homeless people but provides shelter to both a greater proportion and a greater absolute number of them.

Your comment is illustrative of why accelerationism doesn't work here: San Franciscans are much more interested in the social climate and ideological purity than material conditions and effects. Worsening blight only makes us congratulate each other more vigorously for tolerating it. People then opt out quietly when they can (see: private transit) or more openly when they can frame it as selfless concern for their children (see: the near-universal social norm of leaving the city, if not the region, to start a family) or their neighborhood community (see: NIMBYs). Everyone agrees that something should be done, unless it involves any tradeoffs or taxpayer money.

Lack of federal funds is not an excuse. California cities would have some of the most enviable property tax revenues in the world (also less insane housing markets) if California voters would allow Prop 13 reform.

[0] http://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-SF-Poin...

[1] https://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/fss/sup...

Re: California’s quality of life is the worst in the country?

#96

Post by trowawee »

27182818284 wrote: post #22

If you are a tech person, I'd say you should seriously consider the Silicon Prairie. For example, it doesn't surprise me this article emphasizes Nebraska. Whereas this article mentions not owning a home in California, you can readily afford a home out in the Midwest. If you don't want that, grab a two-bedroom apartment that costs you less than a $9,00 per month. Insane commutes don't exist. Places like Kansas City ha…

My wife and I spent seven years going to school and working in Omaha. It's a nice little city, but if someone valued the benefits of urban life (restaurants, sports, social events, public transit, etc.), I think they would eventually be disappointed. We left Omaha feeling like we'd basically finished the city, like it was a level in a game - in the 3ish years after broke-college-student status, we had tried pretty much every interesting restaurant, checked out the social events that were available to people in the post-college, pre-kids bracket, and there just wasn't much novelty left. We moved to Chicago for work a few years back and we still haven't scraped the surface of life here. Are there problems with Chicago? Of course. But the quality of life is dramatically improved for this sample size of two.

Re: California’s quality of life is the worst in the country?

#97

Post by fern12 »

sehugg wrote: post #25

Here are the criteria: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/quality-of-... Among the measures used to evaluate states' natural environments are drinking water quality, air quality and total toxic chemical pollution per square. The ranking also considers how much each state puts its citizens at risk for long-term, chronic health effects from pollution. Social environment, on the other hand, investigates ho…

That's an interesting point about social environment and engagement. As a native Californian, I struggled socially when I was living in the DC metro area for 5 years. Simply put, it was the weather. If there was rain (which was nothing like the light sprinkle I was used to) or a slight dusting of snow, I did not want to go out. I slipped on icy sidewalks (breaking my tailbone); got regularly drenched while walking to the metro; and had my fair share of heart-stopping moments driving in inclement weather. As someone who's already introverted, it became very easy for me to just hole up in my apartment.

Re: California’s quality of life is the worst in the country?

#98

Post by jogjayr »

kelp wrote: post #76
DoreenMichele wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. http://michelerebooted.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-lawful-awful...

There is also this theory that it's caused a Hepatis outbreak: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/hepatitis-crisis/sd... People who are homeless would often use plastic bags as a bathroom, and then throw it in the trash. No more plastic bags, so they can't do that... Not sure what real evidence there is for it, but I always love an unintended consequences story.

I'm not so sure that's a cautionary tale about unintended consequences as much as an illustration of the lack of public toilets. Do we really want people doing their business in plastic bags?

Re: California’s quality of life is the worst in the country?

#99

Post by jogjayr »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #72
kumarm wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[There is no bag ban here] Seriously? Single-Use Carryout Bag Ban a concern for you?

Yup. http://michelerebooted.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-lawful-awful...

I have two objections to this post:

1. No numbers provided, in terms of actual impacts on poor people. Just a vague angry waving of fists and calling drafters of bag bans "assholes".

2. Carbon footprint isn't the only thing that's cut down with bag bans. Plastic waste itself is a massive problem - plastic is forever and it's getting everywhere, including our water. In my home city of Mumbai, India, plastic bags choke up drains and sewers, and contribute to monsoon flooding every year - and it's definitely not the rich that suffer most when the city floods. Reducing the amount of plastic that's produced might even be worth a slight increase in carbon emissions in the long run. That is if we can find emissions savings elsewhere, which luckily, we can by cutting out the McMansions and SUVs mentioned in the post.

In mostly poor communities, I'd support even free paper bags along with a plastic bag ban. In richer communities, yeah a plastic bag ban + non-free paper bags can be construed as "anti-poor" but virtually everything else in those communities already is anti-poor anyway (minimum plot size zoning, walkability, public transit availability etc).

It just makes my blood boil to see the way groceries are bagged in communities with no bag bans - it feels like they use a new bag per item.

Re: California’s quality of life is the worst in the country?

#100

Post by jogjayr »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #93
newnewpdro wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the plastic bags reach the ocean, they resemble jelly fish, so they look like food. Whales have been found dead with dozens of plastic bags clogging their digestive system. [1] So coastal areas in particular are a priority to reduce the use of plastic bags. I'm disappointed California hasn't forced grocers to use biodegradable bags in the produce departments as well. [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway…

I never finished my degree, but I am an environmental studies major. I began decrying the horrifying stuff we are doing to our oceans many years before that was trendy, when it just made me an opinionated nutter. But all my free grocery bags get reused as garbage bags. There is no ban on the sale of garbage bags. If I were not getting free grocery store bags, I would be buying small garbage bags and going through abo…

> But all my free grocery bags get reused as garbage bags. There is no ban on the sale of garbage bags. If I were not getting free grocery store bags, I would be buying small garbage bags and going through about the same number of plastic bags.

You don't even need grocery store bags to use as garbage bags. I've found that composting and recycling allow me to get away with using the produce plastic bags for my remaining trash. I don't even bag all of my produce, just stuff that could be damaged easily or hard to gather together, like green beans or small peppers.

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