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Goodbye, New York, California and Illinois – Hello where?

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Re: Goodbye, New York, California and Illinois – Hello where?

#111

Post by harimau777 »

jedberg wrote: post #73
harimau777 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the laws have protections for the current home owners? It seems perfectly reasonable to me that people would want to protect themselves if they don't have any assurances that developers won't just build ugly tower blocks. On the other hand, if people are opposing development that involves real architects developing aesthetically pleasing designs that respect the existing community, then it seems reasonable to me…

> It seems perfectly reasonable to me that people would want to protect themselves if they don't have any assurances that developers won't just build ugly tower blocks. If developers want to build ugly tower blocks, and people would actually buy those blocks, why stop them? Just because I bought my house ten years ago doesn't give me the right to stop someone from building something "ugly". At least, it shouldn't. It…

What gets built next to someone's home can affect their quality of life (e.g. due to noise, pollution, increased traffic, blocking sunlight, blocking views, etc.). So I don't see why they shouldn't have a say. It's no different than any other negative externality.

Re: Goodbye, New York, California and Illinois – Hello where?

#112

Post by jefftk »

m_ke wrote: post #81
jedberg wrote: post #55

Every person I know who's left California did it because of housing costs (except for one, who did it to get away from "the damn liberal government that wants to take my guns"). We have a major housing cost crisis in this state, as well as a big NIMBY problem. There have been good solutions run up through the state house, that either fail to pass or get so watered down they are no longer effective, in large part beca…

All of the people I know who left NYC also left because of housing costs, even though New York has been putting up new housing at an insane rate. https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/mortgages/migration-study/

I don't see anything in your link about NYC putting up housing at an insane rate, and my understanding had been that NYC housing growth was at historically low levels?

Re: Goodbye, New York, California and Illinois – Hello where?

#113

Post by wwweston »

vondur wrote: post #84
sharkmerry wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crime has ticked up slightly compared to the lows, but it has comparable rates to the 60s right now. Before the explosion of crime in the 70s and 80s

Many people aren’t bothering to report crimes now. The police won’t do anything about it. You can pretty much get away will minor property crimes/theft now without any repercussions.

If we're making assertions contrary to data and treading on unfalsifiable positions, then I suppose the source is anecdotes, and I suppose mine are as good as any:

I lived in Los Angeles in the early 90s for two years, and visited frequently through the rest of the decade. Experienced petty crime on at least 3 occasions, had a few close calls with violent crime, saw the Rodney King riots unfold, and heard some pretty crazy stories.

I've spent the last 8 years in LA... I've experienced zero instances of petty crime. I know it's not gone from some conversations I've had and everyone here has their take on LA's various problems, but across demographics nearly everyone I know agrees that this city is definitely a safer, more chill, higher quality of life place than it was 20-30 years ago. Except in one regard: housing is less affordable -- how much less depends on which boom/bust cycle you're looking at and who you're looking at, but definitely less affordable. So, not coincidentally, homelessness has become a much more serious issue.

The weirdest thing is that this is apparently happening with a net outflow from the state. Rents up over 60% with a stable/decreasing demand pool for housing is an odd dynamic and likely means this is no ordinary supply problem.

I can't speak to the Bay Area or the rest of California, but that's what things look like in LA.

Re: Goodbye, New York, California and Illinois – Hello where?

#115

Post by davidw »

enad wrote: post #106
jedberg wrote: post #83

[flagged]

Re: "The conservatives" If by conservative you mean something akin to capitalistic, and unabashedly out to make money, from the housewife to the CEO, then yes. If you mean something else, then it really isn't that cut and dry. Everyone (a very large majority) is from somewhere else, and most came to Houston not because it was some kind of Shangri-La, but because of the opportunities. Plus, for what it's worth, Housto…

I think your comment is a good one.

> Houston is one of, if not the, most ethnically diverse city in the US.

It's worth pointing out that this is in no small part because Houston is affordable.

I don't care for that kind of sprawl and would prefer other ways of building 'enough' to be affordable ( https://www.sightline.org/2017/09/21/yes-you-can-build-your-... ) but still, it is affordable, and there are a lot of opportunities.

They had a mayor who was one of the first openly gay mayors of a major US city: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annise_Parker

It's not the kind of place I want to live (I prefer an order of magnitude of around 100K), but when I actually learned something about Houston, I realized that I had some stereotypes that were not accurate.

Re: Goodbye, New York, California and Illinois – Hello where?

#116

Post by harimau777 »

snickerbockers wrote: post #75
harimau777 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the laws have protections for the current home owners? It seems perfectly reasonable to me that people would want to protect themselves if they don't have any assurances that developers won't just build ugly tower blocks. On the other hand, if people are opposing development that involves real architects developing aesthetically pleasing designs that respect the existing community, then it seems reasonable to me…

No, it's reasonable to criticize them no matter what because they're preventing other people from having the same opportunities that they were afforded.

I'm not advocating that more housing shouldn't be built. What I am saying is that there is a middle ground between allowing existing homeowners to veto any proposals and not giving them any say or protection.

Re: Goodbye, New York, California and Illinois – Hello where?

#117

Post by henryfjordan »

vondur wrote: post #84
sharkmerry wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crime has ticked up slightly compared to the lows, but it has comparable rates to the 60s right now. Before the explosion of crime in the 70s and 80s

Many people aren’t bothering to report crimes now. The police won’t do anything about it. You can pretty much get away will minor property crimes/theft now without any repercussions.

Or the police will over-react. I wouldn't call LAPD on someone in anything but a life-or-death situation because they are so likely to escalate the situation rather than resolve it.

Re: Goodbye, New York, California and Illinois – Hello where?

#118

Post by sudosteph »

OrangeMango wrote: post #35
blululu wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may be slightly skewed by the effect of retirees (people earn the most before they retire). Illinois has high taxes and terrible weather. A lot of affluent people leave the state and retire to Florida. I'm not sure if the article's analysis is really concerned with these nuances.

> Illinois has high taxes and terrible weather Illinois has a flat income tax; at $135k income you would only be beat by the states that have no income tax (like Florida). Most of the states on that list also have weather that is either terrible in the summer or terrible in the winter, so I doubt that weather is really a factor in people moving.

I had a talk recently with someone who moved from Chicago to Atlanta. He said it's the property taxes that really kill you there. Allegedly, by moving to GA he decreased his property taxes enough to put an extra 100k towards the mortgage for the same monthly payment. I don't know the hard numbers on that myself, but it was enough to convince me that buying property in Chicago was probably a bad idea.

Re: Goodbye, New York, California and Illinois – Hello where?

#119

Post by aazaa »

enad wrote: post #79

I grew up in Central California and then lived in the Bay Area from 2001 until 2010. Had kids, and a online job, so we next moved to the Sierra Nevada foothills, where we lived for a decade. We moved to a suburb of Houston, Texas about a year ago. Best decision ever. In a nutshell: Overall, quality of life has gone way up. Taxes have gone down. Wages have gone up. Everything is cheaper, which means we all get to do m…

> Taxes have gone down.

Are the kids school age? If so, what do you think of the public schools?

Re: Goodbye, New York, California and Illinois – Hello where?

#120

Post by highdesertmuse »

enad wrote: post #79

I grew up in Central California and then lived in the Bay Area from 2001 until 2010. Had kids, and a online job, so we next moved to the Sierra Nevada foothills, where we lived for a decade. We moved to a suburb of Houston, Texas about a year ago. Best decision ever. In a nutshell: Overall, quality of life has gone way up. Taxes have gone down. Wages have gone up. Everything is cheaper, which means we all get to do m…

Serious question:do you still vote Democrat?
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