4 ms·

I’m over in the rust belt and all I hear about California these days is it’s full of homeless people and crime that goes unchecked. It’s not looking as appealin

I’m over in the rust belt and all I hear about California these days is it’s full of homeless people and crime that goes unchecked. It’s not looking as appealing as a vacation destination as it did 20 years ago. Maybe this perception doesn’t match the reality you see living there, but when it comes to attracting tourists, perception is everything.

justonceokay 1y ago
Unlike Florida, a state known for its orderly and mannered citizens. I think CA will be fine
platevoltage 1y ago
I'll take "lawless" California over seeing the same Rankin cop watching a stop sign at the entrance to Braddock in order to write "rolling stop" tickets every 15 minutes. I also like that I don't have to worry about a police chief holding me at gunpoint because the fire alarm happened to go off while I was alone in a warehouse space that I was renting. I'm going to guess that the people who think the entire state looks like LA in 1992 probably weren't going to vacation here in the first place.
mertd 1y ago
It's really hard to reply without making a statement on politics but you really should diversify your news consumption.
- ruszki 1y ago
  Unfortunately, if you live in a different country, it’s quite difficult. The only news coming from the USA are the shocking ones. All news organisations are like this. I didn’t hear anything else about for example California in the past decades in European news, just these: - Schwarzenegger - Homelessness - Fires Of course, since I’ve been in America several times, I know that reality is completely different than what average for example Hungarian knows about America. And even as I read a lot of American news, my first longer talk with a religiously Trump supporter was eye opening. So people in other countries need to tackle several layers of distortions to know what’s really happening there. But of course that’s true for every single country.
- al_borland 1y ago
  I can only assume you think I’m watching Fox News all day. Here is an article from CNN[0] which talks about the significant number of stores closing in a popular tourist area, and while they try to explain all the reasons for it, homeless people (sorry, “unhoused populations”) and crime are still mentioned. It also mentions California has 30% of the counties unhoused, which is way higher than I thought it would be and paints an even worse picture than the one I had. This article is a couple years old, so maybe things have started to turn around from the investments that were made, but reputations take time to change, as good news doesn’t get reported on nearly as often as bad news. [0] https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/30/business/san-francisco-union-square-retail-closures https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/30/business/san-francisco-union-...

justonceokay 1y ago

Unlike Florida, a state known for its orderly and mannered citizens. I think CA will be fine

platevoltage 1y ago

I'll take "lawless" California over seeing the same Rankin cop watching a stop sign at the entrance to Braddock in order to write "rolling stop" tickets every 15 minutes. I also like that I don't have to worry about a police chief holding me at gunpoint because the fire alarm happened to go off while I was alone in a warehouse space that I was renting. I'm going to guess that the people who think the entire state looks like LA in 1992 probably weren't going to vacation here in the first place.

mertd 1y ago

It's really hard to reply without making a statement on politics but you really should diversify your news consumption.

ruszki 1y ago
Unfortunately, if you live in a different country, it’s quite difficult. The only news coming from the USA are the shocking ones. All news organisations are like this. I didn’t hear anything else about for example California in the past decades in European news, just these: - Schwarzenegger - Homelessness - Fires Of course, since I’ve been in America several times, I know that reality is completely different than what average for example Hungarian knows about America. And even as I read a lot of American news, my first longer talk with a religiously Trump supporter was eye opening. So people in other countries need to tackle several layers of distortions to know what’s really happening there. But of course that’s true for every single country.
al_borland 1y ago
I can only assume you think I’m watching Fox News all day. Here is an article from CNN[0] which talks about the significant number of stores closing in a popular tourist area, and while they try to explain all the reasons for it, homeless people (sorry, “unhoused populations”) and crime are still mentioned. It also mentions California has 30% of the counties unhoused, which is way higher than I thought it would be and paints an even worse picture than the one I had. This article is a couple years old, so maybe things have started to turn around from the investments that were made, but reputations take time to change, as good news doesn’t get reported on nearly as often as bad news. [0] https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/30/business/san-francisco-union-square-retail-closures https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/30/business/san-francisco-union-...