I moved from the Bay Area to Houston 6 months back for work. In virtually every environmental way, this is a downgrade. Worse weather (except for fire season), more pollution, less zoning, etc. However, housing is cheap because over here they just BUILD.
Elon Musk moves to Texas
811–820 of 1001 posts
Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas
#812Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a tax dodge.
You probably get far more for your money though. (Property/land-wise) I also remember reading stories years ago about CA/SV businesses that had offices up in Colorado as a back-up for when 'The Big One' hits.
The percentage of someone's income that they spend on property/land probably goes down as their income goes up. For someone like Elon Musk, the lower tax rate is probably more enticing than the lower property/land costs.
Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas
#813Earlier quoted context omitted.
Crime and gang activity is increasing, especially in prisons where every yard is now active. Local street gangs sets have multiplied with the influx of people (many homeless), drugs, welfare and larger organized crime operations. Also recent policies decriminalized many acts and have led to rampant street crime in areas like SF and LA. CA provides sanctuary status for illegal immigrants, along with driver licenses, f…
Crime has been coming down after prop 47 passed. This is such a common myth that I put the data into google sheets for these discussions. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QgrfJvfa8XaVm0MEfU4j...
...based on reporting of crime; reporting which is directly affected by the very proposition that completely reclassifies criminal acts, and in reality makes many of them go unpoliced and unreported.
Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas
#814Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many, many billionaires live, have lived, and thrive in CA - probably more than any place in the world. In fact, I'd guess that more billionaires have made their fortunes in CA than any other place. The grievance rhetoric has gone too far (and had awhile ago) when it's used by billionaires. There is also strong reactionary political rhetoric here, the premise that taxes on wealthy people are nearly criminal theft, an…
> Many, many billionaires live, have lived, and thrive in CA That's probably owing to the fact that California's economy is just that large. We're the 5th largest economy in the world.. there's bound to be a higher number of billionaires here. > The grievance rhetoric has gone too far I live here, and I disagree. The civil situation in California has done nothing but slowly get worse for the past 3 years, and it has…
Ultra-wealthy people are over-represented in California compared to the rest of the USA. 100 of the Forbes top 400 are in CA [1], but the state only has about ~12% of the US population [2], and accounts for ~15% of the US GDP.
[1]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelauyeung/2020/09/08/golden-...
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories...
[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories...
Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas
#815Earlier quoted context omitted.
It distorts many aspects of governance. People don't move because there's a tax hike proportionate to how long you've lived there, so there's less turnover in housing, meaning less supply, meaning higher prices. It puts a hard, long term, effectively permanent cap on tax growth, so cities must plan for everything to continually get leaner. Cities make land use and zoning decisions based on uses that are net contribut…
How do we get rid of Prop 13? Supporting repeal is a political death sentence for anyone in local or state office. Homeowners of course love it (even when it has negative effects on them), and renters tend to be less politically active. What kind of campaign would it take to do this?
In case you were unaware, there were two proposed constitutional amendments that would reduce Proposition 13 benefits this past November:
Proposition 15 (which would have eliminated commercial property tax breaks) failed 48%-52%. I think its biggest political flaw is probably the fact that it would apply July 1, 2022, with no phase-in for small businesses whose lease passes through the property tax. So hopefully in November 2022 another attempt can be made that addresses the political shortcomings.
Proposition 19 (which eliminated tax breaks for inherited investment property in exchange for increased tax portability for the elderly) only barely passed 51%-49%, and that was after it received overwhelming support from the legislature, and a $45 million advertising campaign from the California Association of Realtors that some people criticized for only highlighting the goodies for old people and not the costs for inheritors.
No one is attempting a full repeal of Proposition 13 including residential property.
It could also be attacked judicially; see this episode of the Henry George Program for a discussion of Nordlinger v Hahn and whether different legal arguments could be tried (e.g. does Proposition 13 impinge on the American freedom to migrate under the US Constitution?) http://seethecat.org/ep/2017-07-11.html
Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas
#816Earlier quoted context omitted.
The liberal inner cores of Texas cities primarily grew up in these burbs and small towns, and know that despite being a MAGA bro, their uncle isn't satan incarnate. Compare that to the dirty looks I got walking around SF in a Buck-ees hat that happened to be red. It bordered upon comedy.
I've never seen this behavior in SF, especially considering how many people wear red 49ers apparel...
Try wearing a Dodger hat then.
Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas
#817When I was in elementary school, CA had 20 million people. Now we've got 40 million people. I wouldn't mind it if 20 million people left.
Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas
#818Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Crime in almost every category has gone down over the last decade. This isn't true at all. Since prop 47, property crime has exploded across the state. Even violent crime rates are significantly higher in LA than they were in 2010.[2][3] In particular gang-on-gang violence may be moving the homicide rate lower, but predator-on-prey violence has shot up. Rapes have more than doubled in the past decade. > From Seattl…
Crime has been coming down after prop 47 passed. This is such a common myth that I put the data into google sheets for these discussions. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QgrfJvfa8XaVm0MEfU4j...
You're looking at arrest data, not incident data. Very likely arrests are down because police deprioritized non-felony crimes post prop 47.
Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas
#819Earlier quoted context omitted.
How long have you been out of Texas? I think we know people aren't coming to Texas to live in Tyler; They are moving to the cities, Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, which are all diverse, and have large gay communities. Even Tyler has changed. (old article, but still) https://www.advocate.com/society/activism/2009/09/29/gays-ta...
But that's rather my point: if you're living just in the larger metro areas, you're choosing to insulate yourself from the rampant discrimination and bigotry that, numerically, forms the bulk of the electorate and shape the cultural mindset. To be clear, that's not a bad thing that people make that choice; I would, were in that position. If Texas voters will finally vote in someone who is more like Ann Richards than…
>But that's rather my point: if you're living just in the larger metro areas, you're choosing to insulate yourself from the rampant discrimination and bigotry that, numerically, forms the bulk of the electorate and shape the cultural mindset.
Put on a "Make America Great Again" hat and walk through downtown Chicago, San Francisco, Ann Arbor, or Cambridge before or after election day 2016 (or 2020). Now, put on a "I'm With Her" or "Biden/Harris 2020" shirt and walk through Provo, Fort Worth, or Pensacola before or after election day. In which scenario are you more like to be yelled at and/or physically attacked?
Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas
#820Pretty interesting to see this move makes people so salty. There does seem to be a trend of people fleeing California, I dont know enough about the situation out there to comment on whether or not its valid. I suspect something must be going on for several high profile folks moving out. And before you bash Texas, its not perfect. But its pretty diverse, and it seems that folks with opposing viewpoints can still coexi…
The state has gone downhill on every metric possible. People can't name even 5 things that have improved over the past decade. Taxes, infrastructure, homeless, rent/housing, cost of living, gas, traffic, smog and pollution, crime, illegal immigration, gangs, fires, droughts, private property issues, local govt gridlock and deficiency, and now the weather isn't great either. Unfortunately many of those leaving don't r…
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