The “Texas Miracle” loses some of its magic as Oracle announces it’s moving its new HQ out of Austin and Tesla lays off nearly 2,700 workers.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      ?? Socal is pretty ugly. It has gross rolling hills that remind me of S. Idaho, suburban sprawl, and the beaches are all crowded. San Diego is nice, but pretty much anything between San Diego and SF Bay area is pretty ugly imo, and that’s where most of the population lives.

      Northern California is pretty though, as are the national parks. But imo, pretty much everything California has, somewhere else does it better:

      • forests - PNW; Olympic rainforest, and anywhere on the west side of the cascades beats anything Cali has
      • mountains - cascades and the Rockies are much prettier imo
      • beaches - surfing is good in Cali, but for pretty much everything else, I prefer the gulf for warmer, calmer water

      I really don’t like visiting Cali. My in-laws live in LA and my cousin’s live in SF, and both are unpleasant to visit imo. If I had to live anywhere, I’d probably pick San Diego or northern Cali (well north of SF.

      I currently live in Utah, which I much prefer. It has:

      • pretty mountains
      • gorgeous state and national parks
      • fishing
      • mountain bike and hiking trails near my house
      • enough population to have everything I need

      If I moved, I’d probably go east (N. Caroline seems nice) or back to the Northwest (grew up near Seattle, so I’d probably go east of the mountains for more sun). Never to California.

      • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I’m very much not a desert person, but the scale of the inland valley, the quiet beauty of Joshua tree, etc… Moved from socal, but there was a lot of beauty that doesn’t call you to it loudly, you just suddenly notice and enjoy it.

        Joshua tree looks like a bunch of rocky hills… Till you notice they’re all rounded and stacked perfectly. You notice how arid it is, and then notice green leaves in spite of that.

        If you’re observant, there’s beauty everywhere natural.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          Sure, but try comparing that to southern Utah, western/central Colorado, northern Arizona/New Mexico, or western Wyoming/Montana.

          There’s cool stuff in Cali, it’s just largely locked away in national and state parks. In all of the areas I mentioned, you can live in that beauty all the time, or go visit national and state parks for even more of it.

          In my area, I can be away from people and among natural beauty with a 15 min drive up the canyon, or ride my bike about 30 min to hit some trails. I look out my windows and see towing mountains, and on my commute I can take the long way (about 15 min extra) and drive through the mountains instead of the highway.

          Cali is fine if you’re into urban stuff and want beauty on the weekends and are fine sitting in traffic to get there. I prefer beauty all the time.

          • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Not knocking your choices, just to be clear. I do in fact like keeping up with entertainment and arts, can’t really get concerts, symphonies and plays out in the hills. For me and many others, cities are great. There are places that are still nestled in the hills with small town vibes in soCal, check out Silverado canyon as an example.

            I camp when I want to reconnect to nature, and ride my bicycle all over the place. Cities can be very beautiful in their own right, though I admittedly have an engineer’s bias when viewing.