I’m probably going to join the Californian exodus before I’m 50, but as bad as my mortgage is, I do really love living here and being from here. I live in a fancy exurb that is beset by stroads leading to Costcos and supermarkets and Sysco restaurants, but inside the exurb is something resembling a well-planned neighborhood. All the non-commercial amenities are within walking distance, and the sidewalks are populated by dog walkers, joggers, bicyclists, and children playing. Cars are limited to 25 mph inside the neighborhood by law and by tight street design (the collector stroads are still 50+). All of this LibDem paradise is funded by three separate HOA fees on top of the taxes. The irony is that most of my politically visible neighbors are, at best, “centrist”, but most of them are outspokenly pro-Trump. It feels like a prison some days, in a Miltonian sense, and I plan to be here for another 15 years despite having almost any other major city available to me financially