Is California a Nightmare or Still a Sweet Dream?

Re “Catching a Wave Out of California,” June 27: I have lived in So Cal for 10 years; my fiance has been here for over 20. In the last three years, we have suffered through three bouts of involuntary unemployment. Each time, we had to take jobs paying less than we were earning before, which by L.A. standards wasn’t that much to begin with. We’ve had it with the unemployment and the underemployment, the horrendous overcrowding and the 24/7 gridlocked traffic and, most of all, the outrageous cost of living. We are trading our tiny condo in a run-down complex for a three-bedroom, two-bath, corner-lot pool home in Jacksonville, Fla. We couldn’t be happier.

Any educated, experienced professional with the means to do so is getting out of Dodge. As another letter writer commented, pretty soon California will be full of nothing but millionaires and the people who mow their lawns.

Teresa Caldwell

Woodland Hills

As someone who spent 17 years living in Austin, Texas, only to recently move back to Los Angeles, I have to say that your article is extremely misleading. Though it is true that housing prices are lower in Austin, that is hardly the only measure of cost of living. Your article fails to take into account that electricity will cost you three times as much as it does in California, as will waste disposal and water. Austin’s job market is critically depressed at the moment, with skilled individuals needing months to find gainful employment. Although it is true that you can buy a house in Austin for less than in California, rent prices in L.A. are actually lower than rents of comparable properties in Austin.

My fiancee and I were forced to leave Austin because of a massive round of layoffs by virtually every employer in the city, and we could no longer afford our $1,500-a-month rent and $300-a-month power bills. We moved back to Los Angeles, where we found employment in a week and are living in a nicer apartment in a better neighborhood for less rent, and with lower bills.

I could go on and on with anecdotes about friends, family and co-workers who have had to flee Austin because of lack of work and the high cost of living, but the simple truth is that it is in no way the utopia that articles like this paint it to be.

Lee M. Lloyd

Los Angeles

I am not perfectly sure what the complaint of “flush” California exiles like David Gallagher is. Gallagher concludes the article with his whining comment, “California seems to take a lot and give you little.” Is not the point of the entire article that California has given him -- and others -- a lot in terms of huge profits on his house sale in California in order to secure more luxury conditions elsewhere?

Ingratitude toward California is not a new theme, however, although it always surprises and pains me that millions come to this remarkable land, enjoy it, exploit it and leave it after squeezing it for all it is worth without a word of gratitude. Fortunately, there will be others arriving in this always golden land who will be less predisposed to bite the hand that has so opulently fed them.

Josef Chytry

Berkeley