Live data from Hacker News

California’s population shrinks for third straight year

sacbee.com

141–150 of 413 posts

Re: California’s population shrinks for third straight year

#141
post #43

Moved from the bay to Texas because of everything i heard. It was such a horrible experience. The heat, the bugs, the lack of density. So few days of good weather. Maybe worth it to some, but a bigger house was not worth it to me at all. We moved back in 6 months. So many people want to live in California which causes more issues

Boot up google maps, go to east Texas, turn on satellite view, and zoom out a bit: https://www.google.com/maps/@32.162224,-97.8577697,1179315m/... That easternmost part of the state is the "piney woods" and it's lovely compared to the concrete island that is Dallas. The forests have a mitigating effect on heat.

"Lovely" as in was settled only after AC and refrigerators were available widely.

Re: California’s population shrinks for third straight year

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to factor in local taxes as well. California cities top the charts for sales tax. A lot of these overall tax burden rankings miss that!

> You need to factor in local taxes as well. Sure, tax burden rankings usually aggregate state and local taxes. > California cities top the charts for sales tax. The maximum combined local sales tax rate in California is 3% (There's a 7.25% state rate, on which local district rates can be added to a maximum of 10.25%). No California cities are in the top 50 for sales tax in the US. [0] > A lot of these overall tax bu…

The maximum state+local sales tax rate in California is 10.75% not 10.25%. Wikipedia lists 68 jurisdictions in California with effective sales tax rates greater than or equal to 10%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_California#Local_j...

Nationwide (as of 2021), three out of five of the cities with the highest effective sales taxes are in California. Californian cities are very much over-represented on this list.

https://taxfoundation.org/sales-tax-rates-by-city-2021/#High...

Re: California’s population shrinks for third straight year

#143
post #140
post #43

Moved from the bay to Texas because of everything i heard. It was such a horrible experience. The heat, the bugs, the lack of density. So few days of good weather. Maybe worth it to some, but a bigger house was not worth it to me at all. We moved back in 6 months. So many people want to live in California which causes more issues

Haha, did someone actually tell you the weather is fine? I was born in Texas and I've lived in Austin for 13 years and I've always thought the summers are unbearable. Although my perspective is tempered with what I experienced around the gulf, in Mississippi and Florida. The humidity there is so bad I literally don't think it's fit for human settlement.

San Francisco is one of the most humid cities in the US (so much that mold can be a problem in some cases). Relative humidity is on average higher than Wash DC --but lower than Port Arthur, TX.

Re: California’s population shrinks for third straight year

#144
post #143
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, did someone actually tell you the weather is fine? I was born in Texas and I've lived in Austin for 13 years and I've always thought the summers are unbearable. Although my perspective is tempered with what I experienced around the gulf, in Mississippi and Florida. The humidity there is so bad I literally don't think it's fit for human settlement.

San Francisco is one of the most humid cities in the US (so much that mold can be a problem in some cases). Relative humidity is on average higher than Wash DC --but lower than Port Arthur, TX.

But SF is also very chilly for California so it really helps with the perception of humidity.

Re: California’s population shrinks for third straight year

#145
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boot up google maps, go to east Texas, turn on satellite view, and zoom out a bit: https://www.google.com/maps/@32.162224,-97.8577697,1179315m/... That easternmost part of the state is the "piney woods" and it's lovely compared to the concrete island that is Dallas. The forests have a mitigating effect on heat.

"Lovely" as in was settled only after AC and refrigerators were available widely.

Your Texas history could use some buffing.

Or appliance history at least (though we had iceboxes for quite some time!)

Maybe that's why we fought so hard for The Alamo; to clone it's futuristic A/C for later settlements...

Re: California’s population shrinks for third straight year

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where does one build 3.5 million houses? The housing needs to be where jobs / etc, are. It should also be where resources are. A good deal of the state has water issues regularly; additional part of the state can't keep the power on due to - heat waves, fires, over use, winds, cats farting. The rural county I live in has open jobs, but a sizeable chunk of the work force is either seasonal (logging, etc) then coast on…

> Where does one build 3.5 million houses? One doesn't. One builds 3.5 million homes , mostly apartments.

Exactly. Soviet style apartment cities are on the menu. Highly efficient and affordable.

Re: California’s population shrinks for third straight year

#147
post #43

Moved from the bay to Texas because of everything i heard. It was such a horrible experience. The heat, the bugs, the lack of density. So few days of good weather. Maybe worth it to some, but a bigger house was not worth it to me at all. We moved back in 6 months. So many people want to live in California which causes more issues

> So few days of good weather [in Texas]. That's why I tell disbelieving Californians that we have better weather in Texas than they do: When we have nice days, we appreciate it, whereas when they do, they don't even notice .... :-) (Source: Spent several years in California long ago.)

This is true of the Midwest, too. After the months of winter 40° days are barbecue outdoors and go for hikes weather.

Re: California’s population shrinks for third straight year

#148
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where does one build 3.5 million houses? One doesn't. One builds 3.5 million homes , mostly apartments.

Exactly. Soviet style apartment cities are on the menu. Highly efficient and affordable.

Doesn’t answer the question about infrastructure which California is well known to be lacking.

Re: California’s population shrinks for third straight year

#149
I moved to Texas during the pandemic, primarily because I didn't want to live in a city with heavy lockdowns or with most people risk averse. I think it's great that different cities had different responses, but my preference was to live somewhere that chose normal life over preventing the spread.

I moved back at the beginning of 2022 though, primarily because SF had reopened enough. I suspect that there are many people like me, although I also suspect that this change is not going to reverse any time soon.

Re: California’s population shrinks for third straight year

#150
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't mean someone should put a fence to stop people from leaving obviously.

"Relax," said the night man "We are programmed to receive, you can check out any time you like but you can never leave"

We had this same thing before and Seattle residents used to call the people moving in from down south Californicators.
Post reply on HN