California Folks ... whats going on with your state...?

Its sort all quite here on the east coast about the west coast...
starting to see video's of almost ghost towns out in the outback.
and massive foreclosures going on... and shut downs... what
are you guys doing to survive what I think is going to cause a
mass migration of at least 25% of the population to leave.
and thats if you paint the rosey scenario and 70% migration
if water and job and home failures continue.
any who .. tell us your story.. and post the plight as you see it ~

www.youtube.com...

video.google.com...#

Oh , Let me add, when California slips it's the 6th largest economy in the world -- and it will not go into the night without a titlewave ... get it...
property taxes from coast to coast will skyrocket ... and the second revolution begins or it may have already... so say hello interment camp.

[edit on 13-8-2009 by BornPatriot]

[edit on 13-8-2009 by BornPatriot]

Well, when I was in Mendocino County last month, they foreclosed a property near the beach, and installed police presence there.

reply to post by BornPatriot


Yes I am interested as well, about a month ago we heard that California was paying in IOUS and they past a budget, but it diddnt reconcile there there debt.. Then I heard the budget was shot down, and IOUs are still being sent out. Its like California or someone is hiding something whats the deal?

I live in California and we're totally fu#ked. Prices are jacked up and everything has sky rocketed.

Originally posted by poedxsoldiervet
reply to post by BornPatriot

 

Yes I am interested as well, about a month ago we heard that California was paying in IOUS and they past a budget, but it diddnt reconcile there there debt.. Then I heard the budget was shot down, and IOUs are still being sent out. Its like California or someone is hiding something whats the deal?

your right, we got an IOU from the state for our tax return overpayment...it cannot be cashed until october, unless a bank will take it. but hey...we get interest!!!!

i lost 50% of the value from 06', on a sale of a relatives house that was left to me, many stores are vacant, the parking lot at the wal-mart superstore is filled to the brim as if it was xmas. the dept. of motor vehicles, (where you get licenses and registrations) is only open 4 days a week for the first 3 weeks of each month. some people are only getting 4 hours a week for their part-time job. malls are like ghost towns, while regular gas prices are up to 2.89 a gal. chicken meat prices in the grocery store are 6 to 7 bucks for a small package. our water and garbage bill from the city is up to 80 bucks a month. our gas and electric bill is up to 300 bucks a month this summer (AC on for 100 degree temps). thousands of state workers have been laid off. school districts have had to close down entire elementary and secondary schools and consolidate them into other campuses. police and fire hiring has either been frozen, and actually cut back with layoffs. lines in stores and banks and other businesses have become longer due to lay-offs. the real estate section of the paper are now showing 2-bed 1-bath homes going for 50,000 dollars...unheard of prices in 2 decades. city services such as weed clearing, tree trimming, road trash pick-up are now hardly done at all.

i live in the capitol...and all i can say is what i see and hear when i'm out and about as we don't have the nightly news anymore since the digital switch. and so far we haven't been directly affected TOO much, other than some insane food price increases.

i imagine it isn't much different here than anywhere else. packed parking lots at the social services offices, closed and closing businesses, empty houses with foreclosed (or worse) signs.
we were at wal mart the other day and one of the checkers commented on how at LEAST half their business is done with food stamps/cash assistance.
wal mart parking lot gets more packed by the day while other grocery stores business seems to be less and less every time we go.

LOTS of people at the parks...on weekdays. especially furlough Fridays!
MIL is barely hanging on to her job and she was employee of the month last month...she works for Franklin Templeton and they are asking people (weekly) to take days off throughout the week...pretty much to save more jobs in the long run. they get employee lay offs every couple months since the end of last year, it seems.
yes, and as someone else mentioned, the dreaded IOUs which are not only given for state tax refunds, etc...but a friend of the family works for the state and he talked about getting one for a paycheck! insanity!

oh, and i almost forgot, you would think that apartment business would be BOOMING...BUT at my apartment complex rent has gone from 695 for a one bedroom (a great deal for the complex) to less than 550 a month!! they are even letting people move families in together to avoid people losing a place to live....its sad to walk around the complex knowing that and actually having seen these families that started out as friends now living together closer than family.

from my perspective things seem okay...
but when i really think about the state of things in this state...and how pretty much our states demise has only been pushed back (and its still falling apart) its pretty sad/scary to know that we literally are watching this state crumble from the inside (and why??) LOL

they've also recently cut back SOME social services almost completely and thats only the beginning. as it is a business is lucky to not get robbed if its on a main street....so...i only imagine crime will increase in the coming months.

i just hope we get out in time, now that i've typed this out! i don't really think about it enough to realize how bad it is.

I live in the bay area, not too much going on here except for a big fire in the mountains.

California really could be 2 or 3 states to be honest. I would refuse to live in southern cali, but I love northern cali. I don't see many of the things people say is going on in California.

reply to post by badmedia



Hey bossman, my old stomping ground is San Jose.. you know the silicon revolution... yea, I did that through the 90's ... saw the hand writing and left 24months to early it would appear.. my house doubled even after i sold it for 125% of what I paid for it and it was over valued then... so...
well, let me tell you of the best burrito that will ever cross your lips and that be SuperTaqueria ... dont let the name fool you... the owner wears about 5 lbs of 24Kt gold... and the food is awesome ... you want a super cane asada buritto with quesidilla.. it was about 5$ before..
on a scale of 1 to 5 ... this is a 10...

Originally posted by badmedia
I live in the bay area, not too much going on here except for a big fire in the mountains.

California really could be 2 or 3 states to be honest. I would refuse to live in southern cali, but I love northern cali. I don't see many of the things people say is going on in California.

The effects of the economic recession are largely invisible. Have you talked to that many Californians about how things have changed? 2009 doesn't look physically very different from 1989, or 1999.

Originally posted by BornPatriot
reply to post by badmedia

 

Hey bossman, my old stomping ground is San Jose.. you know the silicon revolution... yea, I did that through the 90's ... saw the hand writing and left 24months to early it would appear.. my house doubled even after i sold it for 125% of what I paid for it and it was over valued then... so...
well, let me tell you of the best burrito that will ever cross your lips and that be SuperTaqueria ... dont let the name fool you... the owner wears about 5 lbs of 24Kt gold... and the food is awesome ... you want a super cane asada buritto with quesidilla.. it was about 5$ before..
on a scale of 1 to 5 ... this is a 10...

I grew up in San Jose partly (well, Sunnyvale and Mountain View, but close enough ).

Originally posted by Donnie Darko

The effects of the economic recession are largely invisible. Have you talked to that many Californians about how things have changed? 2009 doesn't look physically very different from 1989, or 1999.

I am sorry but it is VERY DIFFERENT.

Did the state give IOU to citizens and including workers because they didn't have enough money to pay everyone off?

Did they have to close down malls, businesses, and even complex buildings because of a bad recession in 1989 or 1999?

Rich Dad, Underwater Dad: 21 Million Homeowners with Negative Equity or No Equity in Their Homes. 33 Percent of California Mortgages Underwater.

Things are bad, and the biggest cities, such as California, and Florida are getting the brunt. California more than any other state but about two or three weeks ago I saw an article about a new 32 floor highrise in Florida that only has two tenants, a couple, because nobody else would buy appartments in that building/area.

There are several areas around the country where people are living, their homes being foreclosed like there is no tomorrow, and this is happening everywhere.

Florida highrise has 32 stories -- but only one tenant

I also reported the following in a thrad on these forums, but here is the original article.

Retail industry braces for shopping center collapse


That is not all, but what is the current administration claiming? that we are out of the recession and there won't be a depression....

These are the same lunatics who claimed that there wouldn't be a recession, and even when we were deep in it they were trying to deny it.

Now once agian they are trying to claim "we are clear now, everything is ok", when everything is NOT ok.

[edit on 13-8-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

I meant physically invisible. It's a very real difference, but you can't see it easily just by looking around.

I see all the gloom and doom on the news, but i'm not sure what to think. I'm from the Inland Empire area of So.Calif and the unemployment rate is running at about 14% in this area, which is the highest in decades. My 21 yr old daughter is still jobless, but she does sell her art online as a backup. The wife is still unemployed after many interviews.

But while i was home on vacation from my job here in Iraq, things actually looked better in my hometown than the year before. There were less "For Sale" and "Foreclosure" signs in the area. But a few developments had stopped building with the downturn.

There are alot of new businesses that had opened in town since i was last home in Sept 08. The mall nearest to my house is building up for future tenants, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Forever 21, Sonic, a wings n' beer place, a couple other restaurants and a Well Fargo bank. Of course the WalMart Supercenter there is booming.

Gas was under $3 so that's a plus, from the year before. Groceries have gone up. But we've always used coupons, Von's Club Card, Costco and sometimes the military commissary anyway. So that helps keep it down some. We spend about $600-$700 a month in groceries, for a family of seven, or six when i'm gone overseas.

There have been cut backs in municipal employee's, furloughs and all that. A couple car dealers closed with the GM restructuring. A couple Starbucks closed down, no great loss there...lol One was replaced by a Subway.

As i said, i'm not really sure what to think, there's been some good and some bad happening here.

Originally posted by Donnie Darko
The effects of the economic recession are largely invisible. Have you talked to that many Californians about how things have changed? 2009 doesn't look physically very different from 1989, or 1999.

Well, there is probably a reason I don't see it. While the bay area is considered to be a very "liberal" place, I have found it to be one of the most segregated places I have ever lived in. I'm from the deep south as well.

See, they put most of the poor people on the other side of the bay. Or, what you might call "Oakland". That is the bay area secret. This area is based on technology, so while the economy as a whole suffers, the demand for technology hasn't gone down so much.

There are some effects from it, no doubt. Some people at my work have taken pay cuts and so forth. My work profit is based on the entire country rather than a single area, so it's taken a bit of a hit. But it's not as bad here as it is in other places.




[edit on 8/14/2009 by badmedia]

UMMM
You guys do realize that there is LESS FOR SALE signs and FORECLOSURES because Arnie put a halt to them right? Didn't look like you knew that one.
So basically none of the banks or mortgage companies can foreclose on any new homes they have on their hit list until they can show up in court and prove that they tried to reset the loan to a affordable payment.
Well you can reset it all you want but that isn't going to change the fact an out of work person can't pay the thing off.
Secondly I know a few Realtors and they are holding some properties off the market till they get the older ones sold.( like the more expensive ones ! )
If you look around a little more you will see them. They are the houses with the blinds up porch lights on and no furniture. You can actually see form the front to the back of the house through the front windows; at street view mind you. Is what I was told to look for when we where looking for a house.
They are holding them off the market so that they don't all loose their collective buttocks. If they where to let them all on the market the housing costs would come WAY down and it would actually be affordable here.

As far as the food going up in price and being in smaller amounts. I have noticed that one too. It has gotten really bad here in Sonoma County over the last year or so. Everything has gone up and nothing has been left uncut as far as a smaller amount of product for much more money. Almost everyone I know is spending the same amount on food and getting less than half of what it used to buy. My weekly shopping for five people use to cost me around 125-135 dollars. I am now lucky if I can get out of the store under 250 dollars!

Another thing they are not putting in the news is that a large number of employers are going with the wage cuts as an excuse not to lay people off and fire them. Then of course they lay them off again a week or two later. The men that work for my husband who is a foreman at a masonry plant have been lucky to see two weeks TOTAL a month since last summer (08).
They are now getting ready to strike because they already got a 7.5-15 % wage cut and now the company wants them to pay another 15% out of their check to pay for benefits from the union! So that is a 30% wage cut in less than a month. That still does not guarentee they will even have work.

If you guys haven't noticed the massive business/job loss and the major housing crisis; you need to be paying more attention to what is going on around you. I am not trying to be mean or disrespectful in anyway. I am trying to save you a smack in the face when everyone does figure it out.

Which by the way is not going to be very long from now, holiday shopping season is almost here. Have you noticed that it is AUGUST and there is Halloween stuff up for sale already? Some places have Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas up already! Pay closer attention!

reply to post by xoxo stacie


1. yes, but that was so the banks would not have to pay the taxes on the properties. if they did then they would go bankrupt and california might not have too, due to all the revenue foreclosing would generate.

... if you read thomas paine and Jeffersons Writings the whole thing comes together once you investigate jackson and Hamilton .. They are Back ... and the people will wake up homeless in the land in which there fathers conquered... I think these people take these writings and make them happen ... so reading them is a must in todays world...

I thought I would have some problem with your thread... but other than the real estate spin.... it was a ok... so, I starred you.

thanks for responding...
commerical real estate is fixing to wash up in a very big way... like a 1,000% over valued and commercial real estate is like 10 times larger than say the sub-prime debacle... so, get ready for hunger, famine and disease... hyper-inflation and massive crime waves and riots and senseless death.

[edit on 14-8-2009 by BornPatriot]

reply to post by jimmyx


What happens if these IOUs cannot be cashed in October... I.E The state has no money.