Reflections of a first-time visitor to California

[Thomas Dai]

Nice read. Lovely turn of phrase. Thanks for sharing.
Atb

[Jeff Schley]

One area that is missing is the Palm Springs area, which has numerous very solid options both public and private.
PublicPGA west courses (I like the stadium myself)Desert WillowEscenaSilverrockIndian Wells Golf ResortMission Hills
PrivateQuarry at LaQuintaStone EagleThe Vintage ClubMadison ClubBighorn
Great place to be in the winter months for sure and has it's own unique vibe and culture out in the desert.

[jeffwarne]

  A great place to visit, but if you don't already have roots there, it is very difficult to set them.  An interesting social laboratory to be sure.

Having just returned from a coastal California trip, I'm always amazed by how pleasant the people are and how spectacular the land and scenery are.
Curious what the above statement means.
In addition to visiting the Getty Center (I share Michael's opinion) I also visited Hearst Castle for the night tour-very interesting and worthwhile


As far as traffic that I always hear about, in 14 days(2 trips this winter) in Southern Cal,after driving easily over 1500 miles, I encountered one traffic jam-ironically on the way to the airport-that delayed me 7 minutes.
I experience 10x that every time I leave Eastern Long Island to go anywhere on Long island or in the tri-state area.


The ONLY thing I found to be more expensive was gas, everything else was less expensive than Long island.


I love it out there, but as Lou points out I'm a visitor picking and choosing my spots.
The golf I played there this winter was two munis and one high end private-I really like the terrain and the grasses out there, and the vibe of the people I met on the munis was fantastic.

[Greg Chambers]

Jeff,


When you commute around SoCal, you understand the traffic.  My 42 mile drive from the West Side to Huntington Beach last Friday took 3.5 hours, without any accidents.  Visitors don’t often get to experience such luxury.

[Jeff Schley]

Jeff,


When you commute around SoCal, you understand the traffic.  My 42 mile drive from the West Side to Huntington Beach last Friday took 3.5 hours, without any accidents.  Visitors don’t often get to experience such luxury.

Traffic has been bad and IMO has gotten worse in the last 20 years, despite 405 expansion, 210 expansion and even the controversial 105 built in the early 90's hasn't kept up with the huge amount of commuters. So Cal doesn't embrace public transportation and they don't have a subway system nor a robust above ground train that connects where people want to go.
I was on a Southwest flight from LAX to Sacramento back around 2000 and it had the first rows facing each other and got to talking to the guy across from me.  He LIVED in Sacramento and commuted to LAX for his job in El Segundo every day. I was very surprised, but he had all the numbers and advantages ready for I'm sure people asked him this all the time.  The first was cost of housing and how much it would cost for him to commute to work from where he could afford. He didn't want to rent and was able to buy a nice house for his family in Sacramento.

He worked 8-4 down in El Segundo with his office apparently 8 minutes from LAX. He lived 7 minutes from Sac. airport and could ride up 15 minutes before flight time which IIRC was 6:20 and take the 4:10 home and be home by 5:45. Of course he had the flight costs with roughly every 8th round trip free due to the FF program at the time. He didn't need to buy gas to commute or wear and tear on his car, but principally sit in traffic going both ways as El Segundo is NOT an easy place to commute to. He could sleep on the plane both ways. He was actually making me think wow maybe this is the way to go.

Although a fascinating story to me at the time, it shows how far people are willing to go to avoid the commute. It is long and nasty unless you can afford to live close to where you work.

[jeffwarne]

Jeff,


When you commute around SoCal, you understand the traffic.  My 42 mile drive from the West Side to Huntington Beach last Friday took 3.5 hours, without any accidents.  Visitors don’t often get to experience such luxury.

My parents left LA in 1967(I was 4) citing the traffic-etc. My father commuted from LaHabra-Long Beach[size=78%]-[/size]


If I'm playing in an event in Westchester, it's understood that I have to be off Long island by 6:30 am(4:30 am departure)-even if my tee time is 10:30
I guess the difference for commuters is mass transportation, and that few would attempt to live in Nassau County and commute to Jersey City via car(yet it seems like everyone in LA is doing that).