Letters to the Editor: $5,000 and free golf to move to Indiana? These ex-Hoosiers say no way

To the editor: I had to laugh after reading about workers leaving California for states that offer new residents cash payments and other perks.

Your article says that Mariah Zingarelli and her family sold their Fresno home and moved to Noblesville, Ind. — and for that they received $5,000 cash, membership at a local golf club and more. There, they purchased a $495,000 home.

Did I mention the family had never set foot in Indiana?

I left Indianapolis in 1963 and moved to the San Fernando Valley with a raise of $4,000 over what I had been making. The Zingarellis will need the $5,000 to “Indianaup” their living arrangements. They will likely have to put the money toward 24-hour air conditioning in the summer and a big heating bill over the long winter and part of spring. Throw in a snow blower, winter clothes, tire chains, salt damage to their car, endless gray skies for six months and expensive house maintenance because of extreme weather changes.

Finally, the family can look forward to sitting in their backyard at war with bug of all kinds. I give them a year.

David B. Williams, Arroyo Grande, Calif.

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To the editor: Wow, your photographer makes Noblesville look like Tuscany. There are vineyards now?

I graduated from Indiana University, less than an hour from Noblesville — Hicksville then, apparently low-cost paradise now.

But I’m not tempted by its move-in bonus and huge house for under half a million. The winters are lousy and long, and the neighbors probably voted for Donald Trump and Mike Pence. Whoever I voted for in Indiana did not win an election, and my brothers who live there have a hard time getting government benefits that are more easily available next door in Illinois.

When I went to Indiana University, the Grand Dragon of the KKK lived nearby. I noticed that the new Hoosiers in your article are white. Just wondering how many Black or Latino people were given this warm welcome.

Cheryl Clark, Long Beach

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To the editor: Your article detailed a number of advantages that people who moved to Indiana felt were important.

As a former resident of Indiana, I thought the article did not mention a significant drawback to moving there: Now you have to live in Indiana.

John Humble, Santa Monica