From: helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman)
Subject: Re: Jumping the Good Ship California
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
Distribution: ca
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 20:46:48 GMT

In article <1992Aug24.161009.26427@cs.ucla.edu> bjperry@base.cs.ucla.edu (Brad Perry) writes:
>In article <wallich.714172671@lupine> wallich@NCD.COM (Kenneth Wallich) writes:
>>casey@well.sf.ca.us (Kathleen Creighton) writes:
>>
>>
>>>I know several people who have left California recently, and I'm hearing
>>>more talk about it.  Do you have a general sense of incoming/outgoing?
>>>Have you thought about leaving yourself?
>>
>>I think about it every day I drive into the smog from the Santa Cruz
>>mountains.  I've been working on it for about 2 years now (building up
>>enough capital, and looking to expand my skill base beyond high-tech).
>
>It seems two very different threads are being glued together here --
>Kathleen asks about those leaving CA while Kenneth is talking of
>his disgust of big cities.  CA does not equal one big city --
>SD + SF + LA represents only a fraction of california as a whole.
>
>If your only complaint about CA is the congestion of its
>cities, then your case is quite hopeless unless you want to
>get out of cities altogether.....
>
>about 1 month ago I sat in the worst Sat. afternoon freeway traffic
>  I've ever been in -- I was in Seattle.
>a couple of years ago I spent 3 hours to go 10 miles in New York City.
>a friend of mine used to have an 1 and 1/2 hour one-way commute
>  to go 30 miles into downtown Denver.
>when leaving a conference last December I was advised by the hotel
>  info desk to leave by 4:00 or after 6:30 if I wanted to get to
>  the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport.
>

The problem with most people who complain about traffic is that they
have this perverse desire/need/compulsion to live somewhere far from
work. All you techies could live relatively near to your work if you
wanted to. I work in El Segundo and live in the Baldwin Hills area
of L.A., essentially at the exact center of the AAA 'Central and
Western' L.A. map. I drive 8.5 miles, 1 1/2 miles of it on the 405,
the rest on La Cienega and Stocker. It normally takes 15 minutes to
work, 20 in the worst-case traffic, which is, by normal L.A. or
Silicon Valley standards, no traffic at all. There are numerous alternate
street routes through neighborhoods of Inglewood, 
none of which take any longer. In fact, on the second night of the
riots/insurrection/rebellion/unpleasantness (choose your terms),
it still only took me 25 minutes once I was out of the company parking lot and
past El segundo Blvd (which was in terminal gridlock since every
firm let everyone out at once).

The difference, dear yuppies, was that  I don't mind the complexion of my
neighbors. These idiots who commute to El Segundo from Orange County,
Thousand Oaks, and Moreno Valley are doing so largely because they
are terrified to have neighbors who don't look just like they do.
They equate color with crime and violence. They don't realize that
it's all about economic class. If your neighbor is black and his
income is the same as yours, his expectations for the neighborhood
tend to be very similar to yours. That money you spend commuting would be
better spent on a mortgage closer in, where you might get home
early enough that your kids might see you on weekdays.

I moved from Redondo Beach to my neighborhood 9 years ago and haven't
regretted it for a minute. I drive almost three times as far (8.5 vs.
3 miles) and do it in half the time. And I have neighbors who care
about me and the neighborhood. They didn't have block parties where
I lived in Redondo Beach; they didn't even have them when I lived in
Riverside (when I worked there). But they have them where I live now.
(And the food's incredible!)