socal vs. norcal

have you tried to park a car in San Francisco?

you know what also sucks about california? prop 13. (unless you're a homeowner who bought a long time ago in a down market and are still paying taxes proportional to that original assessed value; then prop 13 fucking rules.)

good source of funding for public projects? out the window. thus, sales tax is a really big deal here.

there's this thing called road rage, blam!

Hey did someone say road rage:

A 23-year-old man was in custody today following a bizarre road rage incident in Toluca Lake. Sarkis Ambartsumyan was driving on the 101 Freeway at about 3:45 p.m. Tuesday when he got into an argument with another driver, police said.

Ambartsumyan pulled out a handgun and fired several rounds at the other man as they neared the Cahuenga Boulevard exit, police said. The victim, who was struck in the hand, followed Ambartsumyan and tried to get his license plate number as the suspect drove wildly, said Sgt. Ben Alonso of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Ambartsumyan got into a brief collision near Cahuenga Boulevard and Bloomfield Street and "then drove westbound and pulled into an auto body shop," Alonso said.

The victim continued to follow Ambartsumyan and flagged down a Los Angeles Fire Department captain, who saw Ambartsumyan flee the auto body shop. The fire captain notified police, who set up a perimeter and eventually took Ambartsumyan into custody, Alonso said.

Police said a 9-millimeter handgun was recovered, and the victim was taken to a hospital in stable condition. Bail for Ambartsumyan was set at $500,000.

Of course, this could all be explained by it being Toluca Lake.

In the 2003 California recall election in which Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor, his advisor Warren Buffett suggested that Proposition 13 be repealed or changed as a method of balancing the state's budget. Schwarzenegger, believing that taking such a step would be to touch a political third rail that could end his gubernatorial career, said, "I told Warren that if he mentions Proposition 13 again he has to do 500 sit-ups."[citation needed] A 2004 Los Angeles Times Magazine cover story that detailed the proposition's damaging effects and advocated its repeal drew heavy criticism from its supporters.

< /policy wonk>

prop 13 does suck. it really screwed schools over until they passed some other proposition, and those two combined are partly what led to all those budget deficits.

Hooray oh wait.

The dysfunction of California's public funding would be hilarious if the consequences weren't so grim in many areas. Black humor is the only correct response to keep from exploding in frustration, and even that only goes so far.

we had to vote in a 1.5% sales tax to fund public hospitals in the county. We have the highest sales tax in the state, though so does El Cajon.

we had to vote in a 1.5% sales tax to fund public hospitals in the county. We have the highest sales tax in the state, though so does El Cajon.

LA has a very long history of killing (and eating LOL) their public transit systems.

the whole state of california needs to get over itself; our governor is the co-star of twins

― NYSE:JAH (get bent), Wednesday, March 18, 2009 4:25 PM (2 hours ago)

this was rather pointlessly driven by socal politicians invoking recall and Arnold's narrow victory was propped up by the counties of Orange and LA almost exclusively.

Wow, El Cajon has the highest sales tax of any city in California now? Wow, things have changed since I moved outta that box.

ComicCon vs. WonderCon

gray davis, the last american hero

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38678000/jpg/_38678831_gray1-ap-300.jpg

see what i mean

My perspective as someone who was born/raised in San Diego and went to college in Berkeley is that San Fransisco is a really well executed (maybe the best executed, but NYC is probably better) American city, while LA (and SoCal in general) is in it's own category, like it really doesn't belong in the category 'American City'. Furthermore, all the things that I think of as quintessentially Californian (with a couple of exceptions: hippies, for one) all have their genesis in SoCal culture.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

haters

score one for wheelchair access!

Not actually wanting to revive this particular conversation but seeing as both myself and mrs adamrl have the errr, blessing of very flexible schedules, we are thinking of maybe doing a weeklong road trip of some places in (mostly Northern) CA we still haven't seen. Potential itinerary is LA--->Sequoias-->Yosemite--->Tahoe--->Shasta---Humboldt/Mendocino--->SF---->LA. Obviously, we know SF and Yosemite pretty well, but she wants to do Tahoe and I want to see mystical canyons of redwoods floating with mist. We also feel like we've pretty much covered the Central Coast so will fast track it south from SF. Anyone ITT know where is best to stay for exploring the Redwoods? Eureka and Arcata look pretty grim but I guess that's to be expected, and I don't mind a little of that. We've also never been to Muir Woods, despite living in the Bay for 4 years, and I have a soft spot for the Sonoma Coast so wouldn't mind revisiting Point Reyes. Anywhere else we should consider?

Thanks!

Furthermore, all the things that I think of as quintessentially Californian (with a couple of exceptions: hippies, for one) all have their genesis in SoCal culture.

Sky Saxon of the Seeds coined the term "flower children" and the Sunset Strip scene was happening before anything was going on in SF. The scene up there only took off once they started shutting down clubs on the Strip and people started moving up north. So LA should get credit/blame for hippies too.

if you do Tahoe, have breakfast at the Squeeze Inn in Truckee. a) Truckee's pretty freaking delightful and b) excellent omlettes etc - though don't go on the weekend or you'll have to wait forever to get in.

and the Donner Party memorial at Donner State Park (just outside Truckee) is a good photo op

eureka and arcata are great!

I mean they're like alright places or w/e but they're great jumping off points for seeing redwoods idk

but then again I dont know about the lolweather right now

I'm not too picky about weather

we used to camp up somewhere near the Redwood State Forest, goddamn it's beautiful up there

but that was, like, 8 years ago so I'm really no help at all :/

Have any of you ever heard Northern California referred to as "No Cal"? I just got a memo from a colleague in our Irvine office referring to some Bay Area projects that way.

prop 13 is bad but if it were repealed for standard homeowners the vast majority of them in california would go bankrupt, most likely, such is the rate of real estate inflation in parts of this state. I believe they are now working on looking to repeal it for certain business transactions.

bump?

the only good city in california is san diego

eh

what are you basing that on, sleepingbag?

# of people who can be trolled in california w/ one line

iatee otm.

Have any of you ever heard Northern California referred to as "No Cal"?

I may have heard it years ago on *gulp* sports talk radio.

I divide california up into left and right cal. it's such a so cal thing to do.

prop 13 is bad but if it were repealed for standard homeowners the vast majority of them in california would go bankrupt

I highly doubt that