California Megathread: Best State

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Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Well, I just got an email saying that thanks to a 5% increase in the UC system's budget for 2013-2014, I probably won't see a tuition hike. Thanks, Governor! :tipshat:

e: man, I can still kick myself for not going to the Bren when Bill Clinton swung by UCI last October.

Jerry Manderbilt fucked around with this message at 05:35 on Jun 28, 2013

# ¿ Jun 28, 2013 05:28

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 08:50

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Hawkgirl posted:

We aren't all bad, in fact, we had a lovely little rally at the courthouse yesterday in celebration. http://lagunabeach.patch.com/groups/editors-picks/p/hundreds-celebrate-samesex-marriage-in-0c

How many of those were UCI kids? It's like a blue bubble in what would otherwise be a red-leaning city.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2013 06:12

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

cbservo posted:

Sadly, we do have some amazing fuckwit representatives here, even though our state is, at the moment, a shining beacon. Orange County can be a hellhole, and I live in the southwest corner- my representative is Darrell 'I'm a car thief!' Issa.

Well, at least the fact that he's one of the leading faces of the California GOP shows how far they've fallen :v:

# ¿ Jun 28, 2013 06:16

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

On another note, the BART union might strike and my dad was bitching about the BART union earlier tonight, saying "they make so much money, more than entry-level wages for college graduates, why should you pay for their insurance when you're already paying their salary through BART fees?"

# ¿ Jun 28, 2013 06:45

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Revener posted:

Woah which UCI did you go to? Maybe it's changed over the years but right now it's pretty much a 50/50 red/blue if not dipping into the red (although a lot of it is "my dad told me..."). Irvine and Newport are little islands of super assholes in the rolling sea of assholes that is Orange County.

Irvine is weird. We regularly run homeless people out of town for daring to sully our pristine sidewalks but then we also have the most rigorous and caring animal program I've ever seen or heard of anywhere. (The answer is of course that animals are cute and homeless people are not.)

And if we're on the subject of Cali food then I think snow deserves a special mention. Imagine if shaved ice and ice cream had a child, and then sent that child to get the finest education possible. Then one night it shows up back home and tears out both of their hearts to gain their deliciousness and add it to it's own.

UCI probably was the reason Irvine stayed in the Big O's column in 2012, and from my experiences the university seems more Democratic-leaning.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2013 15:15

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Sword of Chomsky posted:

I was born is southern California, but I eventually migrated north and have been much better off since. California really should be split into two states. Anything south of San Jose can fall into the ocean for all I care. Southern California is a giant poo poo hole, and the valley is only good because it is where a ludicrous amount of food is grown. I'll stay up here in my semi-liberal haven of Sonoma county.

I guess it'd be more safe to do that now, since the ten counties from SLO, Kern and San Bernardino voted like 58% for Obama in 2012 (compared to 51% for Kerry in 2004) :v:

# ¿ Jun 28, 2013 23:39

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Man, in more news from "My dad is a moron and always tries too hard with the "truth is in the middle" bullshit, whenever I talk about how repealing Prop 13 would solve a lot of our issues he always just brings up an anecdote from New Jersey where a woman fell through the floor of her home because she didn't have enough money to maintain it after property taxes.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2013 23:43

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Man, didn't a few hundred Southern Californians cross the New Mexico desert to enlist in the Confederate Army, and aren't we the state with the dubious distinction of being the first to have an ex-Confederate congressman?

# ¿ Jun 29, 2013 07:54

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Miss-Bomarc posted:

And yet there is still a huge proportion of the California population that thinks there are too *few* people in prison.

I remember going to a Sunnyvale city council meeting a few years back. Among the items for discussion was a medical-marijuana dispensary. There were about three dozen people--older people, mostly Asian--who stood up to tell us how they were Very Very Scared that this would immediately turn Sunnyvale into Detroit. For all the talk about California being fruits-nuts-and-flakes, it's shockingly conservative in places that *aren't* Berkeley.

Yeah, we're weird down in the Silicon Valley. Cupertino voted like 70% for Obama in 2012, but then you remember that it's really, really rich.

A lot of the elderly Asians I've met seem to be really racist as well; my great-uncle is a birther, for one, and I get the hell out of the house whenever he comes because I don't feel like hearing him rant about how Obama isn't actually American and is a Muslim and horrible poo poo like that :negative:

'

Anyway, it's going to be above 90 degrees here and holy hell I feel like going to Pride to escape the heat, but I don't think my dad would have it

# ¿ Jun 29, 2013 17:41

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

double negative posted:

I'm not a Californian, but as someone with considerable interest in American public higher education, the situation of the UCs and the other public systems in your state bums me out because for so long you guys have been so loving dope.

It's certainly not a situation where I can hold up another state that's doing better, but I'm curious how locals perceive/discuss this issue and where it might lead y'all in the future.

As a student, a lot of my peers are basically like "Let's get the hell out of here ASAP before our tuition skyrockets even higher."

# ¿ Jun 30, 2013 14:53

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

etalian posted:

Looks like people who depend on BART will be in for a miserable commute over the next few days:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57591713/san-fran-bay-area-transit-workers-go-on-strike/

Welp, looks like I'll have to have my parents drive me up to Berkeley and back for work :shepicide:

# ¿ Jul 1, 2013 14:52

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

UberJew posted:

As a public employee in California who took pay cuts for three years because of the budget crises and has never actually seen a raise I suggest you stop basing your opinions on absolutely nothing/poo poo pulled out of your rear end.

e: "These evil unions are destroying our city" is the news response to literally every transit strike ever so why does anybody wonder why city governments keep refusing to negotiate in good faith when they know a strike will improve their bargaining position?

The solution back in the day was no-fare strikes where the union would keep everything running and just not charge, but that poo poo was made illegal because it meant the PR was on the union's side and we can't allow that.

Man, two days ago my Dad was telling me all about how they make as much money as an entry-level college grad and how they don't pay for their own healthcare and how we already pay for it with the BART fare, and when they went on strike he told me to "do research and see just how disliked the BART union is".

# ¿ Jul 2, 2013 02:48

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

VideoTapir posted:

"do research" = read the same right wing blog I do.

He also regularly blasts the teachers union for protecting older tenured members and pink-slipping newer ones (I saw this happen after ny sophomore year in high school).

Man though if the median wage is really only $71000 then it definitely doesn't sound like BART operators are living high on the hog like mg Dad describes.

e: "i don't get a pension and have to have a 401 k!"

# ¿ Jul 2, 2013 03:11

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Quantum Mechanic posted:

It's a good thing you're an experienced transit engineer, then, otherwise holding an opinion on something you know nothing about would be really stupid

"What do they even do, anyway? They just stop and start and tell you what stop they're arriving at!"

# ¿ Jul 2, 2013 04:04

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

"But but you don't understand, those BART workers are so rude and if they were working for any private company (like my engineering firm) they'd be fired for how rude they are and how little skills they have :qq:

# ¿ Jul 3, 2013 16:58

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Shear Modulus posted:

I live in Berkeley and basically everyone I know is blaming everything on those greedy union thugs. The only person I've talked to who considered that the workers might have grievances is this old hippy dude who struck up a conversation with me on the bus. Bastion of leftism this ain't.

Man, yesterday I was on a bus to Albany late at night, and there was a lady saying "I'm pro-union, and gently caress the management for taking really long multimillion dollar tours to other parts of the world."

That...was pretty much the only one I heard that wasn't anti-union.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2013 18:34

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

GD_American posted:

NSFW has a grand piece by Yasha Levine in this month's print issue (I'll unlock it for the thread when they put it online) that's basically a tour guide for outsiders to the oligarchs of the San Joaquin Valley. I moved away from Cal in the early 90s, so while I knew about Cowschwitz and Tejon, I never knew about the massive poo poo plant or the Fiji water assholes' massive mansion there.

e- here's the first part/teaser:

https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/oligarch-valley/29f2d59a4ed8ba67cbefb9eb8c2513be10d3567b/

Man, I always assumed that most of the San Joaquin Valley farmers were white families who actually lived there and set up those "STOP THE OBAMA CREATED DUST BOWL" signs all over the place. The more you know!

Jerry Manderbilt fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Jul 4, 2013

# ¿ Jul 4, 2013 21:27

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

I can't wait to see all the "STOP THE OBAMA-CREATED DUST BOWL" signs that'll go up along the sides of the high-speed train down in Fresno/Bakersfield once it's done! :shepface:

# ¿ Jul 10, 2013 21:40

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Apparently, Napolitano might leave Obama's cabinet to become the new UC President.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2013 17:38

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

gently caress the San Fran Chronicle for endorsing Fiorina in 2010 :fuckoff:

# ¿ Jul 16, 2013 00:35

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Rah! posted:

In regards to Stockton, the US census actually added it (and San Joaquin county) to the San-Francisco-San Jose-Oakland Combined Statistical Area earlier this year due to the percentage of commuters coming to the Bay Area (a number which has been rising for a long time, but which just recently passed the threshold to be combined with the SJ-SF-Oakland CSA).

Wow, it has? I guess you get towns like Mountain House and Tracy, but then the whole region got hosed by the huge increase in gas prices since the turn of the millennium...

# ¿ Jul 16, 2013 05:14

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Trabisnikof posted:

To say that either Cali-mex is Tex-mex or that Cali-mex is authentic Mexican is silly. Is there authentic Mexican in California? Totally, but that's not Cali-mex either. Hint: if it comes with an entire avocado, its probably Cali-mex.

Totally unrelated, but California rolls were what got me into sushi :colbert:

...and from there, we have probably a billion variations on the CA roll (e.g. Rainbow, Catepillar, Dragon, etc etc etc)

# ¿ Jul 16, 2013 05:17

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Pomp posted:

I just recently moved in with a friend who lives in Folsom. I didn't think it was possible for a town to be whiter than my previous home of suburban Texas, but jesus christ Folsom is the whitest god drat thing I've ever seen.

Let me show you Danville/Alamo (excluding the Dougherty Valley area)...

Danville at least voted for Obama twice, but then I remember when I drove north on 680 during spring 2012, I saw billboards in Alamo saying "Obama, here's your pink slip! Hands off my healthcare!" by the East Bay Tea Party :suicide:

# ¿ Jul 16, 2013 19:34

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

rope kid posted:

CONGRESS-CREATED
DUST BOWL

ANYONE
BUT
CARDOZA ~~even though he retired last year~~
I swear to god, between 2010 (when I first saw them) and June 2013 (my most recent trip through the I-5) an OBAMA-CREATED DUST BOWL sign popped up along the freeway.

Jerry Manderbilt fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Jul 16, 2013

# ¿ Jul 16, 2013 20:28

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Senor Science posted:

I grew up and was raised in Lamorinda, and leaving that place for college and living overseas was one of the best things I've ever done. It's disgusting how both Lamorinda and Danville/Alamo are so insular and cut off even from the rest of the Bay Area.

I grew up in the Mission San Jose district of Fremont (and the high school I went to is really infamous for having absolutely cutthroat academic pressure, and a girl committed suicide this past school year because of it), and yeah, I agree that getting out of the upper-class MSJ bubble is one of the best things to happen to me (then again, going to UC Irvine is a dubious improvement).

I'm pretty sure Lamorinda falls in the "only overwhelming Democratic because most of them were moderate Republicans" category. It's really something seeing the demographic changes (as in, an explosion of the Asian population) from Pleasanton to Dublin to San Ramon, though, last time I've been in the area.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2013 17:40

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Dusseldorf posted:

Don't say Cali.

Yeah, that's kinda how we know you're not from around here :v:

# ¿ Jul 19, 2013 20:17

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

What does Bakersfield and Fresno's air look like?

# ¿ Jul 20, 2013 22:35

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

I'm not surprised about Fremont, given that there are new $700k+ townhomes going up in Irvington (which has been gentrified pretty heavily now that IHS is one of the best in the state) and even more multimillion dollar homes going up in the MSJ district (even though our high school probably has like 2400 students now).

# ¿ Jul 21, 2013 19:31

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

EBT posted:

Now finding a decent schwarma in the east bay is a drat nightmare.

Oasis in Berkeley?

# ¿ Aug 6, 2013 05:41

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

ntan1 posted:

It also has to do with demographics of the type of Asian people who live in SF versus the South Bay. You'll find good places in SF, but the South Bay has better selection.

Are Chinese people in SF more downscale compared to the population here in the Silicon Valley?

# ¿ Aug 6, 2013 20:48

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Man, almost all of the sushi bars and Japanese restaurants I've eaten at in the East Bay and around UCI have been Chinese or Korean-owned.

I could spend all day eating in Little Tokyo, though.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2013 23:28

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Grand Prize Winner posted:

Here's a little something I was wondering: how well-represented are the non-latino immigrant communities in California?

For that matter, who are they? Japanese? Chinese? I noticed a ton of Armenians where I used to live but I think they're pretty thin on the ground once you get away from the westerly parts of LA county.

Well, there's this article from a few months back about how Asians are now the largest immigrant group in SoCal. Many cities in the San Gabriel Valley (Arcadia, Diamond Bar, Temple City, San Marino, Rowland Heights, Alhambra, Monterey Park, etc.) are all majority Asian now, if I recall correctly, and that's not getting into Little Saigon in Orange County.

California also (unsurprisingly) has the lower 48's most heavily-Asian district, which includes Fremont, Newark, Milpitas (part of the Bay's Little Saigon), Cupertino, Santa Clara, and parts of San Jose, represented by Mike Honda. It's almost majority-Asian, in fact. When I'm in the Tri-Valley (especially Pleasanton, Dublin and San Ramon), I see a lot more Asian faces and supermarkets around now than I did when I first visited the area in 1999.

...on another note, I was running some stats about California's cities in presidential elections; Garden Grove voted for Bush by 23.4 points in 2004, but then went much more narrowly for McCain in 2008 and then flipped to Obama by 9.5 points in 2012.

Jerry Manderbilt fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Aug 7, 2013

# ¿ Aug 7, 2013 03:36

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

FMguru posted:

Fremont has a big Afghan community.

Yeah, a part of Centerville is nicknamed "Little Kabul" and our Central Park appears in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2013 04:56

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Man, the thing I like about that is that we're still a donor state and help foot the bill for a lot of red states (e.g. Kentucky, West Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi) :dance:

# ¿ Aug 7, 2013 15:17

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Eegah posted:

I don't think there's a supermajority. Proposition 25 which was passed in 2010 changed the budget procedure so that it only requires a simple majority to pass the Legislature instead of the 2/3 majority it previously did, and that's what's really unfucked things -- the relative power it gave Orange County Republicans was absolutely insane.

Man, I remember an OC Register article :qq:

-ing about how Orange County's mostly-Republican state legislators were now completely hamstrung by the new supermajority.

More GOP tears in the aftermath of the 2012 election: still fun to read, even months after the schadenfreude thread was closed.

quote:

DYSTOPIA AHEAD?

Baugh has long been concerned that the U.S. is becoming like socialist countries in Europe due to the growth in entitlement programs, including Obama's Affordable Care Act. He's now worried that the trend will continue with Obama's re-election.

"It very well could be that this country is getting too comfortable with too much socialism � and there's a point where there's no return," he said in a conversation on a patio outside. "Entitlement reform is a challenge we have to face. That's why I'm sad tonight � I don't see the path to that."

Ronnie Guyer, an aide to termed-out Assemblyman Jim Silva, R-Huntington Beach, saw Obama's next term bringing something direr.

"In the next four years, we are headed toward the dark ages," said Guyer. "These next four years are going to be about Obama's revenge. We're going to see the elimination of our freedom. It's going to be like communist Vietnam."

Guyer, who said it is "probable" that Obama is not U.S. born, doubts Obama will allow free presidential elections in 2016.

"He'll declare martial law or something," said Guyer, citing the "Obama 2016" movie by Dinesh D'Souza. "We won't have representative government. That's been his plan all along. The mass media hasn't adequately informed the public."
[...]
PARTISANSHIP

Rancho Santa Margarita's Steve Baric is vice chairman of the state GOP and a likely candidate to take the helm next year. He doesn't predict the dystopia envisioned by Guyer, but was hardly upbeat.

"By any measure, this president has been a failure," said Baric, standing on the steps outside the Westin as people headed toward the parking structure.

Romney, in his concession speech, called for moving beyond "partisan bickering." But while congressional Republicans have been criticized as being obstructionists, Baric lays the blame of partisanship at the feet of Obama.

"This president has shown he has no interest in working across the aisle," Baric said. "I think Republicans have made efforts. (House Speaker John) Boehner took a debt reduction plan to Obama and Obama had no interest. "

It was also drat satisfying to see my former peer advisor, from Cypress, post on his Facebook that he was going to a Romney victory party, saying "I'll be there, how about you guys?" and then cry about how Obama lost the majority of counties but still got reelected :unsmigghh:

# ¿ Aug 8, 2013 18:38

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

etalian posted:

Find your county:

(Republicans hate the ocean)

And then, Fresno and Riverside counties flipped blue once more votes got in :dance:

(I'm from deep blue Alameda County, and Fremont voted like 73% for Obama. Irvine voted for Obama by about 10 points, which...is a lot worse than his 17-point victory in 2008)

# ¿ Aug 8, 2013 19:41

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Keyser S0ze posted:

Zoom that fucker in and I bet you see a deep waspy red in Carmel and various SF neighborhoods/Marin county along with all of OC coastal and Rancho Palos Verdes/LA County.

I am in Placer county now, teabagger pickup truck dipshit central aka "Inland Orange County - Norcal Edition" It's cheap and a lot of good golf though, so I'll stay another year ^{(I work in the East Bay but only have to go in to the office 2x per week).}

Well, Obama got over 60% of the vote in Carmel-by-the-Sea (dunno about Carmel and Carmel Valley, though).

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/sov/2012-general/

Romney won super-rich and super-white Hillsborough and Atherton, but...that's pretty much it among all the incorporated cities in the Bay Area.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2013 22:07

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Oh, no, the Republicans picked up a seat in the CA State Senate! :derp:

(not like it's actually going to seriously endanger the supermajority or anything)

# ¿ Aug 13, 2013 04:30

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

I'll leave OC discussion to the people who live there (since I'm only there for school anyway). I just...refrain from talking about politics with anyone at school who actually came from Orange County.

And it's finally started to heat up here in the Silicon Valley too, after about two weeks of pretty mild weather (around the 70s).

Jerry Manderbilt fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Aug 16, 2013

# ¿ Aug 16, 2013 23:40

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 08:50

Jerry Manderbilt: May 31, 2012; No matter how much paperwork I process, it never goes away. It only increases.

Sudo Echo posted:

Hope none of you guys are near this, but Mt. Diablo is currently living up to the name

Man, how hot is it in the Bay Area right now? I always remembered that the Tri-Valley area was hot as hell compared to Fremont and the Silicon Valley.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2013 12:41

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