Living in Southern California is getting worse and worse!

[AliceInWonderland]

OMG I'm so moving; i can't afford to live here no more and driving is taking so much time away from my life's happenings.

Traffic Negatively Affects Life In SoCal... Duh

(CBS) LOS ANGELES Traffic congestion, poor air quality and a housing shortage continue to negatively impact residents' quality of life in Southern California, according to a report released Thursday.

The annual "State of the Region" report by the Southern California Association of Governments rates the region in mobility, employment, income, housing, air quality, safety and education.

SCAG is the planning council for Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura and Imperial counties.

For the second year in a row, SCAG gave the region an "F" in mobility.

The average Southern Californian spends 90 hours a year sitting in traffic, according to the report. Three-quarters of commuters drive alone, and in 2005, there were more than 1,800 highway fatalities.

SCAG also gave the region "D" grades in housing and education.

Southern California's 56 percent homeownership rate is below the national average of 67 percent. Record-high housing prices and rent increases contribute to the low homeownership rate, according to the report.

Families in Southern California spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

Meanwhile, children in the region are not getting the education they need to succeed in college, according to the report. Students in Los Angeles, Riverside, Imperial and San Bernardino counties continued to perform below the national average in reading and math test scores.

"The challenges raised by the State of the Region are interrelated," SCAG President and Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke said.

"Lower-income residents tend to have fewer educational opportunities to obtain better-paying jobs. Without higher wages, they cannot afford a home and have to move farther away from their job. They must spend more time on the
roads and add to our congestion and air quality problems."

SCAG Executive Director Mark Pisano called the report "grim."

"While the findings of this year's 'State of the Region' report are, for the most part, fairly grim, it is clear that our region has the leadership and the public's support to take us through these challenges and get Southern California on the road to success and sustainability now and in the future," Pisano said.

The region scored the best in employment and safety.

In 2005, 120,000 jobs were created in the region. Southern California's 5 percent unemployment rate is lower than the national average for the first time since 1988, according to the report.

Violent crime rates decreased by 11 percent in 2005.

"Southern California continues to grow as a world-class region, but has become increasingly stifled by inadequate infrastructure and non-sustainable energy consumption habits," said Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge.

"This report serves as an important benchmark for policymakers to gauge what areas need improvement to achieve a higher quality of life for our region."


(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
source: http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_348172552.html

[LynnieD]

And I complain about the traffic here. I should be slapped silly. And the housing is far more affordable.

If you can live w/some snow, almost constant rain and no sun Alice, then come on East!

[AliceInWonderland]

^ i know; i seriously need to get the fuck out. Even if its just to San Diego or Pheonix...

It even feels like everyone's leavin' L.A. - like this summer at the beach, it wasnt ever really that crazy.

[LynnieD]

Isn't San Diego very expensive also (housing)???

Heard great things about Phoenix.....I think that's one of the fastest growing areas in the country. That, and Vegas.

[AliceInWonderland]

yes and so cheap to live in.... *thinking*

[celeb_2006]

The gangs of L.A. will never die, they just multiply

[AliceInWonderland]

^ i like that rhyme

[Lobelia]

Alice, come here & live. It's much cheaper, and beautiful. Bring a van full of those trannies with you and we can start a tranny bingo hall.

[AliceInWonderland]

sounds like a plan my man!

[Palermo]

Originally Posted by Lobelia

Alice, come here & live. It's much cheaper, and beautiful. Bring a van full of those trannies with you and we can start a tranny bingo hall.

[AliceInWonderland]

um for the record they were Drag Queens - and they spank hard!

*Hey only in L.A.!*

[Lobelia]

Hey, the outraged letters to the editor of the local paper would be extremely entertaining. Bring on the tranny bingo, I say!

[Daphne]

I love to visit LA, and I do it frequently, but I can't imagine living there. The traffic terrifies me, and housing is out of control. I was watching a real estate show on Bravo a few months ago where a house bought for $70,000 in 1983 was now worth $975,000. It was insane.

[pacific breeze]

^^It would probably be worth even more in Vancouver, depending on where it was.

[AliceInWonderland]

Here's the article describing how ppl are leaving California

Interesting little read:

Agency says more residents left California than arrived in 2005
-
Monday, December 11, 2006


(12-11) 06:34 PST San Francisco (AP) --
For the first time in a decade, the number of residents who left California for another state in 2005 exceeded newcomers who moved here, according to the newest figures from the state Department of Finance.

California recorded a domestic net loss of about 29,000 people last year — the first negative flow of residents since the mid-1990s. The biggest recent loss was in 1994, when the sputtering state economy helped California lose about 350,000 residents to the other 49 states.

The most common destinations for the newest crop of departing Californians were Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Washington and Oregon.

Anecdotal evidence suggests the high cost of housing was the primary reason people fled the nation's most populous state, which has more than 37 million residents.

The number of Californians who could comfortably pay the mortgage on an entry-level home fell to 24 percent in the third quarter — down from 44 percent in 2003, according to the California Association of Realtors. The statewide median home price in the third quarter was $563,190.

Stephen Gallant moved to Michigan this summer after nearly three years in the posh Silicon Valley suburb of Los Gatos, trading a $2 million house for one in a Detroit suburb that was about half the cost and double the size.

"It was all about lifestyle," said Gallant, former chief financial officer for Global Motorsport Group Inc.

"If I'm going to spend $1 million on a house as opposed to $2 million, that opens up a lot of purchasing power, the ability to go out and do other things," he said.

In previous decades, waves of departing Californians were primarily white. But the newest exodus includes unprecedented numbers of Hispanics, primarily Mexican-Americans.

The analysis by Hans Johnson, a demographer with the Public Policy Institute of California, found that about 320,000 more Hispanics left California than arrived from other states between 2000 and 2005.

Asians were the only ethnic group to have more people move into California than leave, according to Johnson.

The state gained nearly 33,000 Asians from elsewhere in the United States from 2000 to 2005 while losing 441,000 whites and 67,000 African-Americans.

In the past five years, the overall state population grew by 2.9 million people, including 1.2 million foreign immigrants, according to the California Department of Finance.


URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...n063427S98.DTL