Why we’re moving away from a changed California

I’m a third-generation Californian. I grew up here, graduated from high school here, joined the Navy and served from here, and earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from California universities. I’ve worked for California companies and taught as an adjunct lecturer at Cal Poly. My wife and I raised four children here. But they’re gone now, living elsewhere.

Now we’re leaving, after over 30 years of living where we thought we’d never leave.

It’s a bittersweet departure. We love the climate and the coastal beauty. We like our community; we’ve prospered here. But things have changed. The ever-rising taxes were tolerable while working, but they are prohibitive in retirement. Our kids can’t afford to live here, so they’ve left to start families elsewhere. The government has become dominated by one party that’s bent on social engineering by stacking the deck in favor of some at the expense of others. Schools and colleges no longer educate students — they indoctrinate them. The results have produced generations of sensitive and aggrieved souls with endless demands that the state feels obliged to remediate.

We’ll miss California and wish we could have stayed. But people like us no longer fit in. Adios.

This story was originally published November 22, 2015 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Why we’re moving away from a changed California."