A question someone asked me about relocating.
Someone asked when they should leave Los Angeles for San Diego.
“The best time to leave Los Angeles was fifty years ago.”
This is only partially a joke. Los Angeles has been saying goodbye to people for as long as I can remember. The traffic gets worse, the cost goes up, the fires come closer, and people stay anyway because the thing that brought them there is still there. The weather, the industry, the critical mass of whatever your particular scene is. Los Angeles delivers what it promises. It just extracts an extraordinary amount in exchange.
San Diego is a city that people move to when they’ve finished with what Los Angeles was providing. It’s smaller, calmer, less ambitious, and better situated on the coast. I’ve lived here most of my adult life. I don’t miss the freeway.
The second-best time to leave Los Angeles is whenever you’re ready. Which for most people is not yet.