5 ms·
having recently moved from Texas to Silicon Valley, and originally being from Europe, I must say that California is a beautiful place to live. But if I had kids
by zinssmeister 15y ago
having recently moved from Texas to Silicon Valley, and originally being from Europe, I must say that California is a beautiful place to live.
But if I had kids I would strongly consider going back to Texas or some place else where I'd get proper housing for a fair price.
So I agree with at least part of this article. California is a suboptimal place for a young middle-class family.
- waterlesscloud 15y agoLeaving out all politics, over the 10 years I've lived here about half of my friends who have had kids left the state. Specifically because they could not afford owning a comfortable home here. It's a very real phenomenon.
- zinssmeister 15y agoyup. The quality, size and price of housing here is so far the biggest shock to me. Basically Texas would give you a free 2000sqf house if you are a dual income household (just by saving the income tax and rent difference)
- richcollins 15y agoI'd rather have my kids grow up in a place where they learn that anything is possible than a place where I can "get more house".
- zinssmeister 15y agowhat makes you think places outside of California are teaching kids the opposite?
- toyg 15y agoHis point was that in the Bible Belt there are probably other (religious) priorities when it comes to curriculum.
- mkr-hn 15y agoSome on HN have the idea that southern/semi-southern states are theocratic wastelands.
- richcollins 15y agoI know that they are first hand. I grew up there.
- mkr-hn 15y agoI could counter with my own anecdata, but it wouldn't be useful. It sounds like you had a bad experience in one state and extrapolated it to the entire region.
- richcollins 15y agoI spent 25 of my first 30 years in Tampa, Florida and 5 in Atlanta at Georgia Tech. There are things that I love about Tampa but I wouldn't in any way call it inspiring. I wouldn't call anyplace in the south inspiring compared to the SF Bay Area.
- mkr-hn 15y agoSo your perspective is one university in Georgia and one city in Florida. Come out to Athens if you ever end up in Georgia again and you'll see inspiration. You might have heard of a few bands that started there. Or check out a PINES library (http://www.georgialibraries.org/public/pines.php http://www.georgialibraries.org/public/pines.php), which is part of a very inspiring statewide project that spawned an open source library system (http://www.evergreen-ils.org/ http://www.evergreen-ils.org/) used all over the world.
- richcollins 15y agoI'm not saying that you can't find inspiration there. I'm saying it isn't pervasive. It isn't woven into the culture. You can't avoid it here, it's palpable. As soon as you get down it lifts you back up.
- richcollins 15y agoYou generally learn what is possible by what happens around you. When I lived in Florida what was around me was strip clubs, cash for gold and personal injury ads. Now I the things that I see around me change the entire world for the better. When I travel thousands of miles away I see people using things made by people that I personally know. This is powerful and I'm glad that my kids are growing up someplace where the expectation is to change the world, not become a stripper.
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- tzs 15y agoCalifornia is a big place. Go outside of the major metropolitan areas, and housing is affordable. I wonder why companies don't take advantage of this? For instance, put your startup in the San Joaquin valley. That doesn't have the cultural attractions of, say, the San Francisco area--but that's easy to deal with. During the week everyone should be busy with work. For the weekends, it's a couple hours drive to the Bay Area and you are saving so much in cost of living that you can easily afford hotel and restaurant costs for frequent weekends away.