Walking through my empty house checking to make sure we got everything, I could not help but feel a pang of nostalgia. My sons bedroom where every night we would read to him when he was little, my home office where I worked, the kitchen where we had so many family dinners. Perhaps no place held more memories than our back yard, where we entertained family and friends with outdoor bbq’s, had scout meetings and camp outs, the hillside where my son at the age of 14 fought a wildfire and saved our house while I was away with the Guard, and of course the basketball court where we held my sons wedding and reception.
Yorba Linda had been our home for 22 years, but this wasn’t our house any more. Escrow had closed the day before. Nearly everything had been sold or donated, with what little remained packed into a moving pod and our two cars with our dog and our cat. We rolled up the blow up mattress that my wife and I had slept on that last night and packed it in the back of my truck. I locked the door behind us, put the keys in the lock box, and sent a text to the agent to let him know we were out. We said our last goodbyes to the neighbors, got in our cars and drove down our street for the last time.
We’d spent the better part of 5 decades in Orange County, California. We’d never considered any place else to be home. Circumstances had changed and it was now time for us to leave California. There has of course been a lot of coverage in the media of late regarding people leaving this state or that, and where they are headed and why. We loved California, it has so much to offer. Yet there was a reason for our departure. California isn’t perfect, it has its issues. So what was the reason we left?
Traffic
There is no doubt that traffic in Southern California is miserable. There was a time that I had a job that was just 24 miles away, but it would take 2 hours each way. I’ve known people who drove 46 miles to work and spent up to 6 hours a day in traffic. But traffic problems are not unique to California. I was recently staying in Waddel, AZ and needed to drive to Sky Harbor Airport just 36 miles away. At 5:30am the trip took 97 minutes one way.
I was in Atlanta for a week on a business trip in 2022 and the shuttle going from the Convention Center to the Hyatt Regency Downtown, just under one mile away, could take 28 minutes. And bring snacks with you if you drive from Hayden Island in Portland to downtown Vancouver where I now call home. That 6.6 mile trip can take over 42 minutes during rush hour. So traffic wasn’t the reason I left California.
Taxes
Yorba Linda is an upper middle-class bedroom community in North Orange County. It has a higher tax base than some of the surrounding cities. When I sold my house my most recent property tax bill had gone up to over $6,700 after 22 years there. Double what it was when I moved there. Despite the price, I was happy to pay it. We had good city services, clean streets and roads which were well maintained. There were good schools, beautiful parks and miles of trails. The city offered a lot of free and low cost activity programs and classes for residents. And we loved the library. I felt that I was getting a good return for the taxes I paid. In the end, taxes isn’t the reason I left California.
Crime
This is a hot button issue for a lot of people. When Republicans are in power they don’t want to talk about crime. When Democrats are in power, the Republicans complain about crime, but never want to do anything about it. California taxpayers will complain about crime but then refuse to pay for more police officers or jails. Based on 2022 FBI crime statistics, California ranked 7th for violent crime and 10th for property crime. Living in Yorba Linda, ranked the 7th safest city in the U.S., we didn’t see a lot of crime. For me, crime wasn’t the reason I left.
Government Regulations
Often touted in the media as a reason for businesses leaving California are state and local regulations. And it is true, it does have more regulations than many states. As a former business executive and even business owner these regulations affected me. I spent a lot of time complying with regulations. Everything from labor laws, to environmental compliance, contract law, and even fire and building codes. And it did cost money to comply with all of them. Yet those regulations are important, they protect people.
There is a belief that businesses will regulate themselves, that they don’t need government regulation. Having spent decades running businesses I can tell you that is fallacy. I’ve worked at companies where if it were not for government regulations they would not pay overtime, or provide health insurance, or be concerned with the environment or worker safety. And as an employee I benefited from those regulations. I didn’t leave California because of government regulation. So what was the reason?
All of the above are big reasons why someone would leave California. But the reason I left was smaller, much smaller.
Making Our Decision
I had just finished installing a new floor in my sons house in Vancouver, Washington. Over a thousand miles from home. As I’m finishing a glass of iced tea I get a text from my son, they’re on their way home. I get up and head to the bathroom for a quick shower, then change into clean clothes. Standing on the new floor I look out the kitchen window and see them pull into the driveway. I grab my phone and start a video. My daughter-in-law gets out and I give her a big hug. My son opens the back door and pulls out a car seat which holds my 3 day old granddaughter!
We go inside and I sit in the rocking chair in the nursery and mommy hands Jena to me. I hold her for the first time, it’s been decades but I somehow remember how to hold a baby. This was my ‘small’ reason for leaving California. After a few minutes I begrudgingly relinquish this tiny bundle. Mommy puts her in the crib and we all tip toe out of the room.
Flash forward a year and I’m at my job in California, my wife has flown up to be with the kids. My phone dings, pictures from my daughter-in-law of my wife with the baby. My wife had a smile on her face that I’d not seen in a long time. Looking at those pictures I knew my life was going to change. The day my wife returned from that trip we decided that the time had come for us to leave California.
Home is now a 30 foot RV parked on the side of my sons property in Vancouver on a pad we built together. We spend 6 months in Vancouver and the rest on the road traveling the U.S. As I finish writing this there is a knock-knock-knock at the door of my RV. It’s not the sound of rapping but a tiny voice saying “knock-knock-knock.” I open the door and in walks my now 2 year old granddaughter. “Hi Gigi, hi Papa!” This is why I left California.
