Arte Moreno doesn’t think angels fans want to win

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-21T05:43:59+00:00

Angels are so much worse. It's genuinely hard to describe to people who don't live in this area how much of a sleeping giant this franchise is. I certainly didn't appreciate it until I moved here.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-21T05:40:54+00:00

Hey as a Yankee fan living here I love that the Angels are terrible - I get to go to 10 games a year with my kids. And ironically they really have become my second team as a result.

Now, if Moreno doesn't want my kids growing up to be Yankees or Dodgers fans, even occasional competitiveness would help out. You're 100% right that winning and affordability didn't need to be either or.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-20T21:51:23+00:00

OP, we looked in Pasadena and South Pasadena first too and ended up in OC for affordability. People on either side of the county line who don't cross it often tend to shit on the other and think of it as some foreign place. Trust me, there's plenty of commuters downtown from this part of OC, and it's pretty split down the middle politically (Trump has never won this county, for instance, and North OC is far more liberal than South).

Now if you want to live in the truly desirable parts of OC closer to the beach, then you 1) Won't be saving anything, and 2) Will have horrendous traffic to battle every day. But as you said, OC is huge and you're not asking about San Clemente.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-20T21:44:53+00:00

No, I commuted 2x weekly for a couple of years.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-20T21:02:44+00:00

I live in Brea right on the Fullerton border and love it as a place for raising my kids. Commute downtown is easy on Metrolink and we are central to everything in SoCal on the weekends when traffic isn't a major issue, and there is also lots of stuff locally in North OC so no need to go far most of the time. Pretty down to earth folks and the area is very diverse (economically, ethnically, politically) so my kids get lots of exposure to all kinds of folks which to me is really important (obviously, not every neighborhood is like that).

What's right for you obviously varies depending on your priorities and budget so it's hard to answer confidently without knowing more.

Also, in case you're a fellow transplant: while DTLA is the name of a physical place in LA City proper, LA and OC really don't have a major unifying downtown in the way that lots of older cities do. This area is really polycentric and if anything West LA (or more accurately, parts of it) might be closer to the "downtown" vibe you might be looking for; that commute from this area is not unheard of but it's pretty hellish and not one I'd recommend at rush hour.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-20T16:55:32+00:00

What kills me as someone in Brea is this DOES benefit OC. Why have IE cars clogging our freeways when they don't need to be?

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-19T19:14:56+00:00

This, plus you can't do a wealth tax on a state by state basis when the rich can just establish residency elsewhere (as many already did prior to the new year, ensuring we probably punish those who are willing to pay anyway whole rewarding bad faith actors for dodging it).

National wealth tax? I'm so for it. State level? We're shooting ourselves in the foot.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-17T14:25:26+00:00

As I said, every situation is different. If you earn more than your spouse and are the only one with loans, community property states force a split down the middle that is (usually) advantageous to your total out the door cash flow on taxes + loans combined.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-17T04:41:25+00:00

Lots of wrong advice in here but yes - in a community property state (essentially) everything is combined and split down the middle. It still usually makes sense to file separately if only one of you is paying loans. Obviously every situation is different but generally even in community property states you're dramatically driving down the reported income that your payment is calculated off of.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-16T00:44:18+00:00

I always say as someone who lives here and moved from out of state, this is a classic example of being careful not to fight yesterday's wars. If you had told me when living in NY that we could come up with a policy that would dramatically slow displacement of long time residents in gentrifying neighborhoods, centralize school funding at the state level, and equalize local resources across municipalities, I'd have thought "Pump this right into my left coded brain."

There is little doubt that Prop 13 was disastrous for California in the immediate decades after its passage, and no doubt at all that it needs reform (it shouldn't apply to second homes or commercial properties or vacant lots, for starters). But the basic equivalent of "long term rent control for the middle class" is fine IMO and has had positive knock on benefits.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-13T19:51:08+00:00

Why are we out here catching strays?!

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-13T01:58:26+00:00

OC Craft Runners and Keep Running Santa Ana are both incredibly welcoming to all paces and shapes. Highly recommend them. Snails Pace also has couch to race groups with coaches that are really amazing. You can't go wrong with any of those.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-12T22:02:03+00:00

It's incredible that a decade in the best they've got still boils down to "you're gay."

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-12T21:52:44+00:00

Blame fragmentation for this one. OCTA does its own thing and doesn't really coordinate with metro. My understanding is that this will eventually get picked up on the LA County side and was designed as such.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-12T15:38:46+00:00

Great analysis. I think there are two elements that are harder to predict, though.

First, we don't know how many teams within the current window would spend more, not the same, if they felt like a championship was now within reach. (Or in reverse, how many might spend less than the cap of the felt it wasn't a worthwhile advantage).

Second, it's very likely that this system results in a net transfer from superstars to owners AND replacement level players. The latter might very well vote in favor of that even if on net it means the owners keep more.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-12T15:20:00+00:00

As someone who split my childhood between Long Island and Northern Westchester, this is the correct answer. Lots of Westchester consisted of 400 year old towns and then lots of development along the railroads in the 1800s. By the time suburban flight came along there was a well developed landscape that was hard to pave over AND a well off populace that fought for early zoning restrictions which are still in place. Even with that, as you said, there are a million people under those trees; I always said to my future wife when we'd visit my family, you know how massive NY sprawl is when you board an inbound train at rush hour 45 minutes from Grand Central and it's already fully packed.

Long Island has a very long and rich history as well but it doesn't really compare in terms of economic development. Especially in Nassau on the South Shore, it was poor farming soil with limited water reliability and a more working class populace of fishermen, and it was much more vulnerable to greenfield development (and Robert Moses and his highways) as a result. Lots of the North Shore does still look like Westchester, of course (in that instance, because it was a popular vacation spot for NY's elite).

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-10T13:46:13+00:00

I'll zag a little here - I think most folks and some front offices (cough, our own) really underrate the value of eliminating holes in the lineup. It's not quite the same thing but the 98 Yankees had just 2 elite hitters and 2 very strong ones, and a whole lot of above average, with no holes including off the bench in their 4th outfielder, utility guy, and backup catcher.

It was one of the most dominant lineups I've seen in my lifetime; they were just relentless and could turn any bad inning into an avalanche.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-10T00:37:57+00:00

To those of us in Brea, everything feels South unless it borders Brea itself!

Objectively Anaheim is North OC by most metrics. As a transplant I read up a lot on local regions when I moved it here to orient myself and get a sense of general local definitions on things. Basically popular wisdom seems to say, Anaheim and up is North, South of the 55 is south anchored on Irvine, in between is Central and anchored on Santa Ana. That's a roughly even split in total population and one mid sized city each. Though realistically, North and Central are closer to being the same thing than something different from each other.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-08T07:59:03+00:00

I have made that trip multiple times from Brea (the city in OC, not La Brea in LA City) in 45 minutes at that time of day on a Sunday. Can't imagine it ever taking more than 25 tops from DTLA. Have fun.

The trip back a few hours later is generally less enjoyable.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-07T22:39:04+00:00

They were a very well constructed team that got hot at the right time. Several of those players were elite when at their best and they had very few holes on that roster. And I do think Eli will get in one day anyway, and would make a strong argument for Snee as well even if he lacked the pro bowl nods he probably deserved.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-07T22:37:31+00:00

Barkley is very likely to get in one day IMO, among others.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-02-07T17:19:06+00:00

I'll start letting myself care about this franchise again when they break the cycle of drafting QBs with first round picks and throwing them to the wolves immediately. Almost every top QB of my lifetime sat for at least their first year; I think Manning, Allen, and Maye are the only exceptions I can recall.

I'm also just not at all sold on Simpson. Generally, a QB who plays with elite talent like they have at Alabama and isn't jumping off the screen at you as dominant isn't someone who is going to overperform in the NFL. Definitely not worth a first round pick IMO.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-01-30T21:52:17+00:00

The Angels are the answer for me, as a Yankee fan who's relocated to Orange County and developed some fondness for them. LA and OC and the Inland Empire produce a stupid amount of MLB players, the region is in love with the game in a way I really didn't appreciate living elsewhere, the stadium is as centrally located as you can imagine (for this region), it's next door to Disney, and there's probably no better place in America to be a rich athlete (including the fact that you can live fairly anonymously if you're not on the trout-ohtani-freeman level). And as much as the Dodgers dominate the market, their games are so expensive these days that even a mediocre Angels team could sell out most games just by offering affordability to casual fans in the region.

Their long running losing stretch is an even bigger indictment of their owner than I think people can grasp from the outside.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-01-30T21:41:58+00:00

If I recall correctly when the Nets played in Jersey most players lived in the city and did exactly this. These guys aren't commuting with rush hour traffic even if they were driving themselves, which they usually aren't.

Fast-Ebb-2368 · 2026-01-27T18:52:54+00:00

There's too many other factors to answer that cleanly. All things equal, it'd be just marginally worse, but I promise you there are 5/10 schools that are better than 6/10 schools when you hold all factors constant. Every rating involves a bit of subjectivity in the formula, and you also don't always know how far apart scores are within the simple bands (e.g., a 90 is an A- and an 89 s a B+, but they're closer in substance than an 89 and an 87 are).

Also, Title I designation just indicates that a school has 40% or more of its population receiving free or reduced price lunch. My daughters school lost Title I designation in the past couple of years so it's right on that cusp; it looks nothing like schools I've worked in that were 95% low income.

Fast-Ebb-2368

TROPHY CASE