Relocating - need advice

[John Larkin]

Oh yeah- environmentally California is the most toxic place in the
entire US. You will be exposed to the worst possible pollutants in every
form. These pollutants are produced locally and there is the toxic cloud
moving out of China that hits California first. It is a very filthy and
dirty place, and your drinking water will most likely contain human
feces in significant amounts.

The US east coast gets just as much Chinese smog, but added to that is
all the gunk from the cars and coal-fired power plants and factories
of the entire rest of the USA. Flying into San Francisco from the
east, the air goes from yellow to clear as you approach the coast. I
moved here, among other reasons, because the prevailing wind is
straight off the ocean, and the pollen level is very low.

Our water comes from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, melted snow from the
Sierras; the only poop would be from deers and bears (look up
cyclosporidium!) They run it over a bit of limestone to add some
minerals, otherwise the slight natural acidity would eat the pipes.

The pipeline from Hetch Hetchy ends at the Pulgas Water Temple

http://www.dakan.net/pulgas.htm

and runs down a sluce into the Crystal Springs Reservoir, a long
subduction lake directly over the San Andreas fault.


John

 

[John Larkin]

You can easily dislike a place that you associate with being poor and
unhappy.

I remember that sort of income, when I was a student.

I don't. I was designing electronics on the side, starting as a
freshman, salaried at $450 a month.

John

 

[Richard Henry]

.
:environmentally California is the most toxic place in the entire US.
: Fred Bloggs
:
Compared to New Jersey (chemically-based industry)
or Louisiana (petrochemicals)?
Please cite.

EVERY building I enter (even WalMart, even the high school gym) has a notice
at the door warning of the presence of carcinogens and toxic chemicals.

 

[Fred Bloggs]

I remember that sort of income, when I was a student.

My daughter's-in-law parents live in Palm Springs. But he's a
millionaire seller of Harley's ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Yep- I wasn't so poor I couldn't buy a Harley 1200cc FCXH or something,
it was the touring bike stripped of the heavy fenders to 550lbs, kick
start, sport seat, and 3.5 gal tank. It wouldn't get more than 20-25 mpg
at 80-100MPH which was about the average speed for crossing the high desert.

 

[Jim Thompson]

You can easily dislike a place that you associate with being poor and
unhappy.


I don't. I was designing electronics on the side, starting as a
freshman, salaried at $450 a month.

John

I was working part-time (1959-1962) in Building 20 of MIT, taking home
about $20/week and my wife's take-home from EG&G was about $65/week.

We did alright, bought a washing machine, a TV set, and a car (1961
Renault Dauphine, new), and had our first daughter in January of my
senior year.

...Jim Thompson

 

[Fred Bloggs]

You can easily dislike a place that you associate with being poor and
unhappy.

I was not poor and unhappy- had everything I needed. Now I was poor and
unhappy in NYC at one time for awhile and I do NOT dislike that place.

 

[John Larkin]

EVERY building I enter (even WalMart, even the high school gym) has a notice
at the door warning of the presence of carcinogens and toxic chemicals.

Analytical chemistry is now so good they can detect just a few
molecules per ml of some stuff. So naturally if they analyze anything
they can find a little something of everything.

John

 

[JeffM]

:environmentally California is the most toxic place in the entire US.

EVERY building I enter (even WalMart, even the high school gym) has a notice
at the door warning of the presence of carcinogens and toxic chemicals.
Richard Henry

Yup.
http://groups-beta.google.com/group...by-citizens-who-failed-science+proposition-65

 

[Richard Henry]

Yup.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group...by-citizens-who-failed-science+proposition-65

A case of good intentions gone bad. The idea was to inform the public of
dnagers in the workplace or businesses one might enter. However, all
businesses became overly wary, and anything remotely considered hazardous
(Is that wood painted? Do we use bathroom cleanser?) became a trigger for
the (now worthless) warning signs.

 

[AntiriadElectronics]

Thanks all for your advice. It's wise to get both opinions (good and bad). I
am sure that the air is usually cleaner in Sydney where I live, but the
number of cars per capita is most likely similar to CA due to the large
disparate distances people commute here. I'm sure when CA is finally putting
some decent measures in to place to mitigate the smog (ahem), Sydney's smog
will only just be getting unbearable Just MHO.

I had no idea this thread would get so interesting though

Antiriad.

 

[Jim Thompson]

AntiriadElectronics wrote...

San Diego is expensive. It's also well-built-up and crowded, with good
but full freeways, etc. Whether its fabulous weather, etc., is worth
the rest is a function of where you're moving from, and what you like.

Boston isn't expensive?

Crowded?

Armpit of the nation ?

...Jim Thompson

 

[John Larkin]

Boston isn't expensive?

Crowded?

Armpit of the nation ?

...Jim Thompson

Yeah, but they do have

Boston Cream Pie

Dunkin Donuts

Fried Clam Rolls

The Duck Tour.


John

 

[Bob Monsen]

Yeah, but they do have

Boston Cream Pie

Dunkin Donuts

Fried Clam Rolls

The Duck Tour.


John

Don't forget Legal Seafood, kite flying on storrow drive, the commons,
the MIT libraries, and cambridge bookstores. Oh, and the July 4th
celebration on the Charles... Actually, I'm kinda fond of Boston. It was
a great place to live. Sadly, the weather is horrible, the drivers are
insane, and all the relatives are on the 'left' coast...

--
Regards,
Bob Monsen

If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has
so much as to be out of danger?
Thomas Henry Huxley, 1877

 

[John Larkin]

Don't forget Legal Seafood,

Yeah, last time I was there I had a lobster bisque at Legal that was
so good, I should have cancelled the rest of the meal and just ordered
four more.

John

 

[Jim Thompson]

Yeah, last time I was there I had a lobster bisque at Legal that was
so good, I should have cancelled the rest of the meal and just ordered
four more.

John

Boston: Great restaurants, Legal Seafood is one of my favorites but,
indeed, insane drivers, and the snottiest people on the face of the
earth, at least in the city proper.

...Jim Thompson

 

[keith]

I was working part-time (1959-1962) in Building 20 of MIT, taking home
about $20/week and my wife's take-home from EG&G was about $65/week.

I got a job as a technician for the EE dept when I started school (6/70),
connections and all that. I was paid $.20 less than minimum, until they
found that that was illegal, even for a state school. I then got a raise
to $1.60/hr. After I soon got to $.25 above minimum and graduated at the
grand sum of $2.25/hr. ..for 20hrs per week (max when classes were in
session). I was offered more by other departments (and loaned out to
some), but thought the experience in the EE department, and sticking to
one gun, was better. After I graduated, my hiring manager thought so too. ;-)

We did alright, bought a washing machine, a TV set, and a car (1961
Renault Dauphine, new), and had our first daughter in January of my
senior year.

We had a lot of help from the parents. My mother held the paper on our
"mobile home" and the wife came home with a car-load of groceries from her
parents. S dropped out of school (Fine Arts at UIUC) to work in a nursing
home cleaning butts, to make a buck to pay the bills. SHe moved up to
making salads in a resteraunt, then to playing games (entertainment
director) with the old-folks in another nursing home.

We're still together after 34 years. ...best friends, though we're
individual enough to have fun in our own circles too.

 

[keith]

http://groups-beta.google.com/group...by-citizens-who-failed-science+proposition-65

A case of good intentions gone bad. The idea was to inform the public of
dnagers in the workplace or businesses one might enter. However, all
businesses became overly wary, and anything remotely considered hazardous
(Is that wood painted? Do we use bathroom cleanser?) became a trigger for
the (now worthless) warning signs.

Absolutely! People are so scared of "germs" that hotels use the nastiest
crap to try to kill them, polluting the air in the proceess. We stayed at
a place last spring, visiting my mother, that was *terrible*. We asked
that they not clean so well while we were there.

 

[keith]

Boston isn't expensive?
Is.


Is.

Armpit of the nation ?

"Nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there!"

 

[keith]

Yeah, but they do have

Boston Cream Pie

Dunkin Donuts

Crap! Other than barely acceptable coffee DD is only a place for cops to
loiter around. ;-)

Fried Clam Rolls

Gack. It's whole-bellies or nutin'.

The Duck Tour.

Of what? CRUD?

 

[keith]

Boston: Great restaurants, Legal Seafood is one of my favorites but,
indeed, insane drivers, and the snottiest people on the face of the
earth, at least in the city proper.

Oh, come on, Jim. The snottiest people on the face of the planet are
Manhattanites, followed closely by any other breed of southern
New-yawkers. Nothern Jersyites are equally brain-dead.