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Letters to the Editor: Idaho doesn’t want more deep-pocketed Californians? Too bad

The sun sets on Boise, Idaho.
Downtown Boise, Idaho
(Otto Kitsinger / For The Times)
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To the editor: Did you hear that? It was the world’s smallest violin playing for the poor people of Boise, Idaho.

Concerned about the influx of Californians to your state? Join the club. As a 54-year-old native Californian (we are rare, like a unicorn), I’ve lived my whole life watching people move here from other states. I can’t help but wonder if this is why we now have a homelessness problem and a high cost of living.

Just imagine how nice this place would have been if the influx hadn’t happened here. Maybe it was like Boise of old.

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David Connors, Costa Mesa

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To the editor: The article’s sentiment rings true here in northern Nevada.

Many Californians are coming here with deep pockets in search of a rural setting, lower taxes, a slower pace of life and clean air. That is fine as long as they become Nevadan and contribute to and enjoy what we have to offer. It is not fine when they want services and taxes we do not have or want to change things to like they are in California and then purport to run for office in the name of “good governance.”

No, I am not a Nevada native (although I wish I were), having moved here six years ago from Southern California. But having been here for this time, I can certainly see and feel the grief brought to us by newbies who are not willing to adapt, learn our history and culture and become positive, contributing members of the Nevada culture.

Cora Johnson, Minden, Nev.

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To the editor: I left Southern California last year not seeking cheaper housing or politically “redder” pastures, but to care for a sick relative. My landing place was Austin, Texas.

When I arrived I found the funky city I had visited since 1981 had become a little Silicon Valley, crushed with traffic, rife with homelessness and plagued by unaffordable housing. All of these problems are laid at the feet of the perceived “Californiafication” of the area. I have been flipped off and told to go home several times.

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When changing over my cable service, the Austin-based customer service representative half jokingly told me, “We are full.” When I told him I was raised in Texas, he responded, “You can come if you can get three Californians to leave.”

So in order to do my part to relieve the angst of my fellow Texans, this product of the Loan Star State is heading back to San Diego to the beauty of the ocean, the mountains and the desert, and away from the Hades-hot Texas summer. Y’all are welcome.

A.W. DuBois, Austin, Texas

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