patrick.net

What a candy ass.

I read it, thank you for sharing.

Been to that part of Texas a few times for work. Made friends there. And no, ignore the stereotypes: they're not all straight whites. Also have cousins there.

If you read his whole story, what comes through is the smug Coastal California arrogance that we're the measure of all things. It is arrogant to parachute into a new region , set your expectations based on where you came from, throw money around to "buy" your expectation. That's arrogant. Then to bitch about it is obnoxious.

It says he's in SJ now. Yep. Bay Area attracts people with these sorts of values from everywhere.

Read it, it’s funny almost to read. He comes there and expects California, and other people are an inconvenience to him... what a typical leftist hoe.

Moron buys a house 2X the size of his old one, then complains about the utility bills.

Expected CA weather someplace else, then complains about it.

Guy doesn't know how to get contractors, then blames the location??? Should blame Yelp and his own incompetence.

Moves to a state capitol, and then wonders why it's expensive.

I'm sure that Austin is glad to get rid of him!

Booger says

Moron buys a house 2X the size of his old one, then complains about the utility bills.

Expected CA weather someplace else, them complains about it.

Guy doesn't know how to get contractors, then blames the location??? Should blame Yelp and his own incompetence.

Moves to a state capitol, and then wonders why it's expensive.

I'm sure that Austin is glad to get rid of him!

Best part he complains about the culture being different and someone not disclosing some shit about the house... yeah that never happens in CA.... what a tool.

Sponsored by California realtors no doubt.

I appreciated the article and the guy's honesty. My wife and I have the debate often about leaving San Diego; she wants to stay and I think about going primarily for financial reasons. But, I do need to be realistic about what we'd be getting by leaving San Diego to only trade one set of problems for another. We're very fortunate that I have a high-paying job as an IT executive, so supporting our family of 4 as the sole breadwinner is not a problem at all.

Having said that, the financial frugality in me makes CA drive me nuts...but would it really be "better" elsewhere? I do really enjoy the weather and landscape here, especially now with COVID. I go on walks every day and bike rides every few days. I can play golf year round. I enjoy looking at the beauty. Coming from being a Trump supporter and caring about our financial health, it definitely takes a mental toll living here. However, we rent a basic home in a great school district, have two 8-year-old cars that we paid for with cash, and I save a shit-ton of money in retirement and elsewhere, just waiting to pounce on buying a home if the market crashes. If that crash happens and I could swoop in, I'd definitely be more inclined to want to stay even given the shitty politics and taxes. I am sick of renting but it's SO much cheaper than owning.

Anyway, that's my rant and do often have internal struggles about living here, but there are definite advantages if you can make the financial aspects of it work for you.

Thanks for sharing! So much good info there! Will bookmark this link :)

The hype around "move away from CA" seems so trendy nowadays. I appreciate the insight and to a degree it matches what relatives told me (who moved from CA to TX).

I had no idea about some points. For instance:

"2. No public land
Think about public land much? Yeah, me neither. On the West Coast, we take public land for granted. Soaring Sierra Nevadas, sandy beaches, public space canyons, and even trails along creeks are standard fare in the West — not to mention Yosemite. Not so in Texas.
Because of Texas' history and lack of natural barriers (mountains, oceans) to settlement, most all of the land around is private and flat or rolling hills. Yes, there is a lot of land in Texas, but it all has barbed wire fences and no trespassing signs on it. Even creeks are parceled up as private property."

But what kills it right off the bat is "Austin, like California, is not affordable."
How many times do you hear....oh, you could afford sooo much more house in TX. Sure, but what about all the other added costs and drawbacks. And you dont get that much usage out of your backyard. You can have pool parties here almost all year long.

I love it here in SoCal.

porkchopexpress says

My wife and I have the debate often about leaving San Dieg

Sounds like you would not be the obnoxious Left-Coaster type who would be so arrogant to parachute into an unfamiliar place and "buy" your expectations without renting for a while to make connections, learn the community, etc.

What an obnoxious prick. Welcome to the SF Bay Area.

B.A.C.A.H. says

Sounds like you would not be the obnoxious Left-Coaster type who would be so arrogant to parachute into an unfamiliar place and "buy" your expectations without renting for a while to make connections, learn the community, etc.

Ha, thanks for the compliment. I try to look at things analytically vs with bias or with emotion. For example, a lot of other places are NOT that much cheaper if you want to live in sought-after locations. What's deceiving for many is the "median cost of a home" in a state or city, but watch the cost of living skyrocket if you want to live in an area with the best schools.

People say Austin stopped being a 'destination' many years ago for your typically LibbyFuck, self satisfied Californian escaping the expanding shithole-verse. Dump trucking a bunch of people in any urban/suburban area isn't going to be pretty anywhere because con artists/boosters etc.

Austin traffic is supposed to be as bad as Bay Area or close, demand has driven up prices for houses, they say downtown is homeless/liberal mess. Austin is more like a boom town with too rapid growth and all of the crooked stuff that goes with it. They say the infrastructure is only created for an area half to a third the present population.

That being said, this is a minority report because there are many other very favorable reports about moving to Austin still. If you move to the South, you are going to get extreme weather and crazy bugs. Welcome to the rest of the world. Also, other reports say there is outdoor recreation, parks etc. there and not everybody complains about their homes like this guy.

Sometimes I think it is a choice between what place will deteriorate more slowly. You could have a nice situation in California, with obvious pending deterioration as things get worse, the Commies get more aggressive, the tax monsters grow larger, the bizarre population types proliferate, the homeless expand endlessly, and the encroachments wash up to your previous enclave's doorstep. We have watched that happen in our gated neighborhood.

I think this article is an attempt to keep Californians down on the farm with their personal smugness because California is feeling the pain of the bail outs and needs retro-propaganda to keep them here. Generally, Austin is still not comparable to coastal California in costs, even with taxes, utilities and repairs etc., check it out, that part is just wrong.

Ceffer says

Sometimes I think it is a choice between what place will deteriorate more slowly. You could have a nice situation in California, with obvious pending deterioration as things get worse, the Commies get more aggressive, the tax monsters grow larger, and the encroachments wash up to your previous enclaves doorstep. We have watched that happen in our gated neighborhood.

I think this article is an attempt to keep Californians down on the farm with their personal smugness because California is feeling the pain of the bail outs and needs retro-propaganda to keep them here.

Great points. No doubt that CA is likely to continue getting worse unless something drastic changes, and I've also thought about CA evangelizing articles such as this to stop the outflow of productive taxpaying schmucks like us.

They moved to a Liberal controlled City and blame the whole state of Texas. What a bunch of Commie Assbags.
All of those expensive things is due to the Commie town's they live in, electing Despots that want to punish people under their dominion with oppressive taxes.
It's the Liberal playbook. Then they blame Republicans and Capitalism for high prices.

I spent some time in Austin back in 1996 when I was part of a software rollout. I stayed right near the state capitol. I loved Austin.

My first night after work I took a walk looking for food and hear some music coming from a house, good live music. I get closer and A friendly guy invites me in. Inside, a large living room is cleared out with a band on one end, a few people listening, and a guy selling bottles of beer on the other end. I then "discovered" 6th Avenue; what a great place for live music. The ladies were nice.

The Texas Capital building is massively Texan. It is the biggest capitol in the country. The federal capitol would fit inside it. It is made from pink granite. The capitol grounds are interesting. I saw many monuments honoring Texan confederate units that fought in the war. They were slaughtered in large numbers.

Roaches, I was in a nice hotel but I still saw roaches. You could see them wandering the streets at night.

I went back a couple times before the end of the century and always had a good time.

I wonder how much it has changed in the last 25 years?

This article is hilarious. Didn't Mr. Sales Rep ever visit Austin for a couple of weeks before moving?

He's one of those "I can't understand why people in the other 49 states won't live in a Tiny Home!" morons.


I haven't been to Austin but I was in San Antonio about an hour to the SW, same basic climate, for a few weeks on a job. Food was great, from Corned Beef at the Irish Pub to Vietnamese Food. It was hot and humid as hell interspersed with thunderstorms, no big surprise, but there was a Riverwalk which was cool and shaded by trees and buildings. The "As much rain as Portland" is misleading because Oregon (lived there several years) west of the desert has 6-8 months of drizzle and fog almost every day, whereas Texas and Florida get mostly thunderstorms that roll in and roll out for the most part, it's sunny in the morning and sunny afterwards, and any rainy days are interspersed with sunny days, unlike the Pac NW for 1/2-2/3 of the year.

But carwashes are the worst! Not like wonderful CA carwashes at all!

True about the PacNW. Lived there for 6 years and was clawing my way out because of the cold, drizzle, fog, dreary bullshit

NoCoupForYou says

It was hot and humid as hell interspersed with thunderstorms, no big surprise,

Thank you for sharing.

You reminded me of a work trip to San Antonio. It was during the week that Bush was reelected governor. I was flabbergasted, he got 80% of the San Antonio vote. That was amazing.

Early November, it was quite warm and freaking muggy. I don't think it was all that high of temperatures, maybe high 80's. But with the freaking high humidity, it felt hot. Walking from the hotel lobby to the rental car in the morning, already drenched with sweat at 7 AM. One of those mornings, we were busy on the job. I was inside the windowless building till after dark, like 8 or 9 PM.

Sweat-drenching walk in the hotel parking lot at 7 AM, another such walk from work site parking lot to the windowless building. Would you bring a jacket or winter coat? Ha ha ha! Left that building 12 hours later: ice storm! Holy cow!

G36 says

Thanks for sharing! So much good info there! Will bookmark this link :)

The hype around "move away from CA" seems so trendy nowadays. I appreciate the insight and to a degree it matches what relatives told me (who moved from CA to TX).

I had no idea about some points. For instance:

"2. No public land
Think about public land much? Yeah, me neither. On the West Coast, we take public land for granted. Soaring Sierra Nevadas, sandy beaches, public space canyons, and even trails along creeks are standard fare in the West — not to mention Yosemite. Not so in Texas.
Because of Texas' history and lack of natural barriers (mountains, oceans) to settlement, most all of the land around is private and flat or rolling hills. Yes, there is a lot of land in Texas, but it all has barbed wire fences and no trespassing signs on it. Even creeks are parceled up as private property."

But what kills it right off the bat is "Austin, like California, is not affordable."
H...

Curious. If you are not intent on leaving California, why do you care what other people are doing?

FuckTheMainstreamMedia says

Curious. If you are not intent on leaving California, why do you care what other people are doing?

Didn't you see the SNL skits, "The Californians"?

Because we're narcissists.

Good, these fucks need to stay out of TX. I sure as shit wouldn't rent any of my houses to them.

Onvacation says

I spent some time in Austin back in 1996 when I was part of a software rollout. I stayed right near the state capitol. I loved Austin.

It was still a cool 'town' back then. If it's fucked up now it sure as shit isn't due to the Texans.

clambo says

Ever been to the Texas Gulf Coast? Don't go.

South Padre is the bomb! North Padre is great 4 wheeling.

I never had any of those experiences growing up there. All we tossed were beer bottles/cans in case we got pulled over.

Huge state too. There are some badass places if you know where to go.

clambo says

I won't flame the guy who is making an honest attempt to describe Austin

Nor are you so arrogant as to parachute in to an unfamiliar place, outsource your parenting duties for selecting schools to local ®ealtors (in a community that's new to you), buy a home in a new, unfamiliar community without renting for at least a year or two (ahem, that also allows for experiencing all the seasons' weather and utility bills).

That would be arrogant.

Then bitching about it, blaming others, would be obnoxious.

Arrogant and obnoxious. And smug, because California is oh-so-much superior.

A typical Californian will not appreciate positive cultural differences in different parts of the country, either. Californians can be generally so self centered, shallow, and ungracious, they think niceness is a sign of being weak minded. There are exceptions, but it can make one kind of shell shocked after a while.

I think the truest statement I heard is that Californians manage to be chronically dissatisfied no matter what comparative material wealth they achieve. In transactional analysis terms, it is an 'i'm OK, you're not OK.' society (as opposed to 'I'm OK, you're OK, or I'm not 'OK, you're OK') aka hypercritical of everybody else around them, that the world is supposed to cater to them, without realizing they themselves are assholes. They also seem to militate against anybody who seems happy until they are at some dismal level of shared unhappiness. There seem to be rules against simply being happy, accepting and kind. Somebody will fuck up your shit in short order until you aren't happy, accepting and kind anymore just because being happy is offensive to them.

This article is that kind of 'I'm OK, you're not OK' type of exposition, and I doubt the author is happy in California, either, but is probably out protesting all manner of bullshit.

It's stunning to me how provincial and ignorant Coastie Californians are esp. in regards to weather. It's in their own state, too.

"Just open your window at night."
"Why can't everyone live in a tiny house and live outdoors most of the time."
"Why do wasteful Americans east of the Rockies spend so much on HVAC? Because they're wasteful barbarians."

The other great irony is that California's two main sources of wealth: Aerospace and it's offshoot, the IT Industry - are 100% the result of Military Spending in the 60s onward.

Seriously, it's worth making Cali leave the Union even if it's a half trillion severance package. It will save loads in the long run and the country will turn hard to the center right.

Enervating luxuries and climate - Tacitus was right.

NoCoupForYou says

Seriously, it's worth making Cali leave the Union even if it's a half trillion severance package. It will save loads in the long run and the country will turn hard to the center right.

LOL! Sayonara, CaliforniaFucks! Don't hit yourselves on the fault line on the way out. LOL!

Person quoted in OP is a fucking Clownifornia idiot and should be taken behind a barn and shot like a crazy dog.
1. Weather - partially true. It does suck May-October, but the rest of year is fine. I guess Mr Alder is just a California pussy who can't handle some heat. He is also an idiot as this information about weather is easily accessible to anyone with simple internet search skills.

2. No public land claim. Blatantly false. He picks Enchanted rock, but he can drive to Big bend ranch SP, Big bend, or any of 10 State parks around Austin (Bastrop, Pedernales Falls, Guaddalupe River, Inxs, South Llano river....all are nice and I have hiked in all of those). If he drives 90 min to Enchanted rock from Austin then elderly Asian ladies would comfortably pass him on road.

3. Nowhere to go. See above, false again.

4. Dishonesty. Not more I've seen in other states.

5. Yelp - I have no idea as I don't use it.

6. Rudeness. Austin is more rude than the rest of Texas, but the reason is transplants from liberal hellholes. It was the only city in TX with real BLM riots for example.

8. Monoculture. Lies, lies, and more lies. He should have driven to SE Austin which is Hispanic, or visited Vietnamese etc places. But white liberals are scared of the damned minorities so he just kept crying in his house.

9. There was a massive emphasis on conformity that was good for teachers, bad for kids. Sure bad in a sense that it does not breed antifa and kids learn something.

He says about taxes: We bought a home at 2.1% and, with the homestead exception, were paying at 1.79% (vs. 1.25% in California). And later he says: A 2,000-square-foot house with a yard in Austin is cheap compared to the same house in San Diego. So the taxes are 1/3 higher yet house is probably 3-4 times cheaper...these good CA schools have not taught the idiot any math.

Basically, the salty idiot is a lying piece of shit.

just_passing_through says

Good, these fucks need to stay out of TX. I sure as shit wouldn't rent any of my houses to them.

https://babylonbee.com/news/texas-governor-orders-new-arrivals-from-california-to-quarantine-for-30-years

Rb6d says

Person quoted in OP is a fucking Clownifornia idiot and should be taken behind a barn and shot like a crazy dog.

It says at the end of the article that the author's name is Bret Alder, and he's a semiconductor sales executive in San Jose. A google search of his name + "San Jose" yields linkedin listings of a person with that name in Hamamatsu. I did not click on any of the hits. Nonetheless, the summary on one of the hits even showed an email address of thatname@thatcompany.com

Hamamatsu does indeed have a sales office in San Jose. They market capital equipment to the semiconductor manufacturing industry.

It's been a while since I was involved in that stuff, but it wasn't so long ago that Samsung and Global Foundries (formerly, Motorola) had huge semiconductor manufacturing operations in Austin.

I dunno if it's the same person with that name. Suppose that it is. I used to work with "sales executives" in that industry as part of my job. A big part of their job, is to be a diplomat. You know, Dale Carnegie kind of person. How on earth would one win friends, influence people, and win accounts, by being so negative about the region and people of customers?

And not only that, the company, (if it's the same person / same company), is a Japanese company. Decorum is a big deal with those folks.

Jeez.

Yeah, Californians just bring the sunshine with them everywhere they go.

Move to a place full of expat Californians snobbing and swanning and wonder why people are rude, LOL!

Ceffer says

Yeah, Californians just bring the sunshine with them everywhere they go.

Even just the most cursory google search shows a person with that name in San Jose, is not really a Californian. Came to here from elsewhere.

Like I said, we attract those obnoxious types from everywhere. They quickly assume their Californicated Identities and then project that obnoxious persona to everywhere else. It seems like some kind of smugness to boast that now that (inside their minds) they're Californians, they're a superior type of person.

Honestly, "local" kids like me are put off by this sh*t. Besides being obnoxious to us, it makes the rest of the country hate us.

Autor, Brett Alder, Libro Fuck should be kick out of TX the shortest fly back to CA.

Onvacation says

The Texas Capitol building is massively Texan. It is the biggest capitol in the country

I've just been reading about its construction in the mid-1880's at the same time an axe wielding murderer was at first invading the servants quarters and brutally killing black women while leaving a couple of children alive. Then it became white women, scaring the bejeebers out of the populace in that gaslit era. The book is The Midnight Assassin. From the floor of Capitol, you can see way up in the dome a spiral staircase on about the third level that disappears into the region above the dome. Tours used to be allowed up the spiral staircase, but it was so high that once someone looked down, they would freeze and have to be taken back down by employees. It's no longer accessible to the public, but someone made this very brief still video up to the top. Once at the top, you have access to the exterior of the dome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esTyi28mFHY

Rb6d says

Pedernales

Shhh... Don't tell em about Pedernales.

NDrLoR says

The Texas Capitol building is massively Texan.

And had a bunch of black people in power in the 1800s. So much for TX being ray cyst. I've seen waaaay more racism in the bay area when I lived there amongst the various groups.

Republican 12th Texas Legislature (1870-71), with 14 elected African Americans

https://www.tsl.texas.gov/exhibits/forever/representation/page4.html

He should have re-title his article Why NOT to Buy a House Immediately Upon Relocating. I don't care how much cheaper owning is, there are so many things you'll know after a year that will make all the difference in the world when you do decide to buy.

Also, Yelp for food reviews is terrible everywhere. The only time I rely on yelp for a food review is when there are at least 300 5 star reviews, and even then, it's not a guaranteed winner.

I lived in Phoenix for a year with no car AC, and didn't turn on my house AC until almost June. This guy is a serious pussy when it comes to weather.

Also, Austin is now super crowded, he missed the boat by at least 5 years. Should have moved to San Antonio man..

B.A.C.A.H. says

Like I said, we attract those obnoxious types from everywhere. They quickly assume their Californicated Identities and then project that obnoxious persona to everywhere else. It seems like some kind of smugness to boast that now that (inside their minds) they're Californians, they're a superior type of person.

Honestly, "local" kids like me are put off by this sh*t. Besides being obnoxious to us, it makes the rest of the country hate us.

@B.A.C.A.H.
I would make a reasonable deduction that may be until early 90's CA was a nice place to live in? After that, the smug, woke, obnoxious crowd took over. We see that happening now in TX as well, because that crowd is migrating to our Great State after ruining CA, IL, etc, and we do have homegrown idiots appearing as well. We have so far been saved only by Mexican (e.i. Hispanic/Tejano) vote, who, contrary to expectations of so-called libruls are rapidly shifting to voting R.

I wonder if this destruction of States is due to individuals who have never really worked physical labor in their lives and never had any real difficulties. They don't use common sense approach.

I took one of my long walks in Santa Cruz. Beautiful, cold, windy. When I was approaching the parking lot in the cliffs above Capitola, a lady (middle class, not bad looking, yoga pants, jacket) had her car door open and she was kind of stomping around and started screaming at me. At first, I just thought another whacko, but I listened to what she was saying. "If I wear a mask, can I stop living in my car? If I wear a mask, will I get my job back? If I wear a mask, will I get my apartment back? If I wear a mask, will I get my life back?"

Literally, somebody whose life has been ruined by Covid fraud and was crazy ranting at the world. I wonder if she regrets all those LibbyFuck votes. Maybe she should move to Texas. The people we know whose relatives moved there for affordability and opportunity all seem happy, and they all got jobs almost as soon as they landed.

Hit piece California knows they are losing tax revenue. Funny the article doesn't mention no income tax???