Soon to be refugee from the the California Republic

[Kingjoey]

I left CA in '93, fortunately was raised redneck so didn't ever drink the KoolAid. Change clothes at the border, delouse thoroughly, and never vote for any Democrat or RINO no matter how many promises they make. This state is under attack from CA and other places trying to infiltrate the political system here. Buy guns and carry them in case you run into any CA transplants that didn't take my advice

[xerts1191]

Keep AZ the land of the free

[Isnake]

Gotta say I was born Cali (Vietnam war baby, dad was in the Navy) and grew up in Chicago. When I moved out here AWB had just sunsetted and “Who needs an assault rifle” was drummed into my head just like everyone else out there. Luckily, my brotheinlaw was an AZ native and an avid shooter. We went out in the dez shooting and I loved it. 3 weeks later he took me to a magical place called the “SAR show” and I walked out the door with my very first rifle, a Romanian PSL. Been hooked ever since. I have taken every relative and friend out shooting when they came to visit and I have have to proudly say every one is now a gun owner. They mostly still live behind enemy lines but all own evil black rifles etc. while my kids were young and in school I met people from Cali, Connecticut, etc and most are now all avid gun owners. My best buddy is from Connecticut and his collection rivals mine. All you really have to do with most transplants is expose them to it and it kind of takes off from there. In his own words “I had no idea how cool this was”.

[Boriqua]

When I came out here for my interview I remember going to a bar restaurant and it was filled with cigar smoke.

I had a brave heart moment having come from NYC and thought ..."this cigar smoke smells like FREEDOM!!!

See I am of the mind that if a restaurant allows smoking in THEIR own business and you are offended .. dont go ... Find a place that doesn't allow it.

Government mandates for my own good is not freedom and I was coming from somewhere that had more rules than the bible.

Now .. I dont smoke ... its just a principle thing.

I hadnt yet been given the job but I decided since I came all this way for an interview I would stay a week and change and make a vacation of it. Liked what I saw. A lot more open carry even 15 years or so ago.

Was offered and took the job and spent about a month getting affairs in order to some degree and came back to start my new job and ... Smoking in public places had been outlawed in that time.

Was kind of bummed ... not so slowly over the last 15 it has gotten less like the AZ I was digging and more progressive. Still .. its better than most places I have visited so if it can hold out and not become a Dem retreat for another 10 years .. I should be safely nestled in an urn and they can do what they want.

I personally think ... it will be a liberal bastion in short order.

[Harrier]

I was going to Univ of Oregon back in the mid 70's and we had a few Californians in classes- they were mostly curiosities and I couldn't understand why the ones from LA didn't like the ones from SF but I could tell they were different and usually both not well liked in Oregon.

After I graduated I moved to Portland, where I started working with the goal of buying my own place... Then I realized there were a lot of Californians moving up there driving RE prices thru the roof - they would sell their old 50's ranch for 500k and come up and bid up a new 150k ranch to over 250k (out of my price range) and still have money left over to flaunt on new cars and boutique restaurants downtown. This was the beginnings of my distaste for anyone from Kalifornia...

Over the years I have seen this exact scenario play out in other nice places to where there are very few places to live now on the West coast that isn't influenced by their presence and politics. Arizona is one of the last bastions but they have made significant inroads in Phoenix, Prescott, Tucson and Flagstaff. Even little Sierra Vista is changing (but I suspect the new people are from the Chicago area).

[xerts1191]

NW Az is getting hammered with Cal. and Eastern transplants, majority seem to be the sensible ones, but time will tell.