[enad]

I grew up in Central California and then lived in the Bay Area from 2001 until 2010. Had kids, and a online job, so we next moved to the Sierra Nevada foothills, where we lived for a decade.

We moved to a suburb of Houston, Texas about a year ago. Best decision ever.

In a nutshell:

Overall, quality of life has gone way up.

Taxes have gone down. Wages have gone up. Everything is cheaper, which means we all get to do more fun stuff.

On the negative side of the equation: The avocados are smaller here.

[aazaa]

> Taxes have gone down.

Are the kids school age? If so, what do you think of the public schools?

[enad]

The schools are very good compared to what they had in California. We live in one the top 500 school districts in the country (there are about 10,000 of them).

[highdesertmuse]

Serious question:do you still vote Democrat?

[weiming]

Tongue-in-cheek comment that I've read somewhere is that folks flee Democrat-run cities due to high taxes and mismanagement and move elsewhere, but then continue voting Democrat to bring back the same policies they wanted to escape from.

[reaperducer]

folks flee Democrat-run cities due to high taxes and mismanagement and move elsewhere, but then continue voting Democrat

This does seem to be the case.

If you look at the voting statistics for cities where Californians are fleeing -- Boise, Las Vegas, Reno, Salt Lake City, etc -- those cities are rapidly turning blue.

But I don't know if they continue voting Democrat "to bring back" their old laws and lifestyle so much as they're just used to voting a particular way and continue to do so.

There don't seem to be a lot of people who put effort into making informed voting choices on a candidate-by-candidate basis and just go for whatever party they voted for last time.

[milkytron]

> But I don't know if they continue voting Democrat "to bring back" their old laws and lifestyle so much as they're just used to voting a particular way and continue to do so.

I think the way people vote tends to reflect their beliefs. And generally, beliefs don't change often or drastically.

[reaperducer]

I think the way people vote tends to reflect their beliefs. And generally, beliefs don't change often or drastically.

I see a lot of people who vote based on how they've always voted, rather than based on their actual beliefs. It's part of the tribalism of it all.

Three data points:

In West Virginia there is an expression called Yellow Dog Democrat, which means that the person would vote for a yellow dog before he voted for a Republican.

In Chicago, for the better part of the last century, the policies and positions a lot of the so-called Democratic Party politicians would be considered to be very Republican in other states.

One set of my in-laws lives what would be considered by many to be a redneck lifestyle, deep in the woods, surrounded by guns and beer and American flags, and cobbled-together vehicles, and talking smack about Bernie Sanders being a Communist and such. But guess what? When they go to vote, they vote Democrat simply because they always have.

It's the reason in some elections in some places you have the option (or sometimes the requirement) of pushing one button and voting for everyone on that party's ticket, rather than being forced to choose each candidate on their own merits.

[dodobirdlord]

There’s not really a such thing as a candidate-by-candidate basis, certainly not these days. Candidates are reliant on party infrastructure, endorsements, and fundraising. So when the time comes to line up votes the party speaker or governor or whoever is the acting voice of the party says “jump” and everyone jumps. Voting for a Republican or a Democrat means voting for one more vote for the party line on anything that counts, so you might as well pick which party line you like better and move on with life. It’s sad that this perversely incentivizes things to not change, since it makes party endorsements all the more important.

[dsfyu404ed]

I think a lot of the problem that "democrat" and "republican" are relative to everyone else in the area whereas the official party platform that candidates have to work toward to get $$$ is more or less nationally homogeneous.

Your neighbors in SF might think you're Newt Gingrich but relative to your new neighbors in Boise you may as well be Bernie Sanders.

[Proziam]

I live in Henderson, NV and can at least anecdotally confirm that what you're describing is true. People moving from California, many of whom cite 'safety' reasons, maintain pro-regulation and anti-gun stances, despite Henderson's murder rate being 1/5 that of Oakland, 1/2 of LA, and 1/2 of San Francisco.

[kaikai]

Are you proposing that Henderson is safer than these large cities because there's less gun control, rather than other factors?

[kube-system]

I think they're proposing that Henderson's lack of California-flavor gun-control hasn't caused it to be unsafe.

[Proziam]

This was what I was trying to communicate, albeit not as clearly as I should have!

[formerchamp]

100%. The safest cities in America have the least gun control. Maine passed constitutional carry 5 years ago with much resistance and last year was voted the safest place to live in America. Meanwhile cities like Chicago with the strictest laws are murder capitals. Liberals then say but the guns are coming from X, Y, Z! Well why aren't X, Y, Z murder capitals? Let's deal with the root of the problem and clearly it's not guns/the symptom.

[Proziam]

Just to get my personal bias out of the way: I'm pro-gun, and strongly pro-individual freedom across the board. That goes up to the extent that I don't even care what types of weapons someone owns, so long as they don't use them to harm others.

That said, the violence problems in Democrat-run cities is not because of the guns, nor is it due to gun regulation. There were a slew of poor governmental decisions that have led to massive inequality, poor social conditions, and fostered an us-vs-them culture through the militarizing of police and criminalizing of the poor.

It turns out that if people feel cornered with no way to improve their lives or escape their poor situation, they resort to organized crime or other desperate measures.

TLDR - Crime is primarily driven by social circumstances. Criminal culture is cultivated generationally by those circumstances.

[chasd00]

In the Northern suburbs of DFW there have been some news reports of this but more from a culture clash instead of policy point of view at the moment. Collin Country (North of Dallas) is growing tremendously with people moving in from all over the country.

It's all been positive with anecdotes like inviting "the new neighbors" to real TX bbq's and things like that but it's definitely real.

[redisman]

I don't think housing prices fit easily into generic-Democrats fault somehow. Which seems to be the main reason most people are moving out of the very expensive cities. Based on Bay Area vs Seattle vs Houston it seems to be mostly about do you build new buildings according to demand or not.

[humanrebar]

Houston's zoning laws and the prevailing attitudes about the role of government are not coincidental.

[jayd16]

Or, you know, they just want to move to a smaller city. Houston's still a third as dense as LA, NY or Chicago so its not like politics are the only differences.

[GhettoChild]

What is a large American city run by republicans?

[goles]

Obviously this depends upon your definition of large but Colorado Springs is the second largest city in Colorado at 713,856 in the county and 464,474 city. Has historically been republican and has recalled elected officials that voted for gun control. Colorado Springs is pretty frequently in the top running as one of the best places to live.

[kube-system]

Jacksonville, Fort Worth, etc...

[diafygi]

Tarrant County (Fort Worth), flipped blue last election.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/elect...

[kube-system]

Senators don't run city governments, though.

[kortilla]

Which is proof of the topic on hand. The influx of Californians brought their Democrat voting behavior with them.

[syshum]

>>Tongue-in-cheek

it is not Tongue-in-cheek , democrats fail to make the connection to the policies they support and the effects of those policies.

See the polices are suppose to "fix" those problems and when they inevitably fail because socialism is not workable, they do not blame socialism they blame the execution, it just was not done "correctly", so if the just vote in the correct democrat this time socialism will work

[qqqwerty]

Prop 13, one of the major factors in the CA housing crisis, was a Republican led initiative passed in 1978. This may come as a surprise to you, but CA was Republican leaning until fairly recently (remember Arnold Schwarzenegger?). A lot of the factors that are contributing to the current housing crisis were established long before CA turned solidly blue.

[syshum]

In what possible way does having a Cap on property taxes, and requiring 2/3 majority to increase taxes cause a Housing Crisis?

>>but CA was Republican leaning until fairly recently (remember Arnold Schwarzenegger?).

Arnold Schwarzenegger was a RINO, Around here we would call him a Democrat, California Democrats are the extreme of the extreme Left. So anyone Right of Stalin is a Republican in California.

Further since 1978 (as far back as I could find data) the CA legislature has been Democrat Controlled, so sure they may have had a couple of "republican" Governors, that does not make them a Republican state or mean any free market policies where passed, the Democrats have had a tight grip on the state for as long as most people have been alive

[qqqwerty]

It is a complicated issue and there were number of unintended consequences. But the main one is that long time property owners (NIMBYs) are insulated from (if not down right incentivized to support) anti-development measures. Because their property tax rates were frozen at time of purchase, they do not feel the impact of rising property prices. It also has a chilling effect on housing 'liquidity', because moving out of your existing home to upsize/downsize would mean you loose your preferential tax treatment.

I added a link below that goes into some of the other issues that it created [1]. And in case you think I am trying to blame Republicans for the housing crisis, I am not. Local politics rarely align cleanly with national partisan fault lines. In California, the NIMBYs tend to be more conservative and have aligned themselves with liberal anti-gentrification and anti-development environmentalists. And the liberal leaning millennials (who are heavily impacted by the housing crisis) are aligned with right leaning pro-development groups.

Regarding your RINO comment. I think this link is relevant [2]. The current Republican party would be considered extremely right wing in any other time or in any other first world country. Universal Healthcare receives bipartisan support in every advanced economy in the world other than the US. ObamaCare, the 'radical socialist left wing policy', was originally proposed by the Heritage Foundation[3]. And Universal Basic Income was originally proposed by none other than Milton Friedman, the champion of free market economics[4]. So these 'socialists' that you deride aren't socialist at all, but rather centrist democrats pushing center-right policies.

[1] https://www.kqed.org/news/11700683/too-few-homes-is-proposit... [2] https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-republican-party-ha... [3] https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/apr... [4] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-02-19/univer...

[reaperducer]

Serious question:do you still vote Democrat?

He said "Houston," so chances are the answer is yes.

People outside of Texas like to pretend that it's a solid red state. They conveniently don't bother to look at electoral maps and pretend that Austin doesn't exist so long as they can make jokes about where someone else lives.

[junar]

They also said "suburb", though.

While many congressional districts in the city proper are dominated by Democrats, the suburbs usually go to the Republicans.

[diafygi]

That's becoming less true, especially around Houston, where there were several district flips to blue in the last midterms, even with the heavy Republican gerrymandering.

https://www.kut.org/post/texas-suburbs-are-slipping-away-gop...

[205guy]

Texas Republicans have gerrymandered the heck out of Austin to make sure the blue stays contained.

[kortilla]

If you think Texans pretend Austin doesn’t exist, I doubt you’ve ever been to Texas. It’s very frequently lovingly referred to as a liberal armpit, shithole, etc.

Austins problems (super high housing costs, homelessness) are often trotted out as an example of Democratic policies being the source of California’s problems.

[reaperducer]

If you think Texans pretend Austin doesn’t exist, I doubt you’ve ever been to Texas.

I said no such thing. I said people who like to stereotype Texas as Republican like to pretend Austin doesn't exist.

As for visiting Texas, I lived there for many years.

[kortilla]

And California has some Republican districts. That doesn’t mean the people stereotyping California for being liberal are pretending they don’t exist.

Stereotypes are broad generalizations that are lucky if they are even accurate about the majority, let alone all of something.

[formerchamp]

Hello Californians, welcome to Texas! Please don't vote for the same policies that caused you to flee your state.

[sjg007]

Texas funds most everything through property tax so there is an incentive to build.

[enumjorge]

As far as taxes go, yes voting left tends to result in that, but in my experience high housing costs is not a left vs right issue. Where I live most left-leaning voters would choose legislation that would bring down housing costs.

[GhettoChild]

Every large city in this country is run by democrats. Texas is no different.

[chrisco255]

No, it's not. Ft. Worth is run by Republicans. San Diego, Jacksonville, El Paso, Oklahoma City, Fresno, Mesa, Omaha, Colorado Springs, Miami, Virginia Beach, Tulsa, Arlington...all have Republican mayors.

[GhettoChild]

A mayor does not make a city. If that was the case California would be a republican state since they have had republican governors in the recent past.

[chrisco255]

Well in that case, the issue gets even more complex as you factor in whether or not a city with 4 Democrats and 3 Republicans on the council and 1 Republican mayor is a "Republican" city or a "Democrat" city.

[GhettoChild]

My only gripe with the area is all of the flooding that happens regularly in the area and you never know when the next hurricane that is gonna extensively damage the area is going to happen.