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we visited a very large western city..
rental cars.. found several places offering cheap cars for 16/day. 1 week rental was 150 including fees and taxes.
fuel... in the city was 3.19 and up. in suburbs unl regular could be found for 2.55 to 2.70
traffic was horrible. at large interstate intersections just about always found traffic crawling. even without an accident.
I would ask . "how far is it to the xx store? " answer would be in minutes. "oh about 30 minutes"
housing... no "bust" there. small 3 br 2 bath was 400k. in distant suburb. would have been 60,000 in my area) the lawn would be the same size as the living room. in city apartment (2br 1 ba) was 2000 to 3000/month and up!! and this was a 30 year old building.
food ... was high priced. lots of fresh food and fruits.
agriculture... I was surprised to see large farms right next to large office buildings.. I don't know how farmers can afford the land...taxes must be atrocious.
I suspect that there is some sort of limitation of taxes based on use of land. soil looked beautiful and perfectly flat. crops looked picture perfect.
water is the problem.. piped in from the north. taxes are regulations and fines are increasing drastically. some large farmers are just quitting. and
not planting. their failure to plant will cause higher food prices across the u.s.
water.. this area is in horrible drought... people would talk about rain with the phrase "it has been 4 (or 5 or 6 months) since it rained. may people are going to
plastic artificial grass or putting rock/brick over yards.
a nearby town is not hooked to the pipeline from the north end of the state. they get water from a large lake nearby... lake is nearly dry... that town is
going to be desperate very soon.
disasters? could be.. one guy suggested loss of electrical power would be his biggest concern. chaos would happen quickly. water supply and drought are going to cause a disaster soon. ability to leave area (see traffic comment) extremely limited.
population. very large number of Asians/central americans. but different races seemed to get along well in areas we visited... lots of inter-marrying.
vehicles... lots of tiny cars... predominant taxi was the Toyota prius. very few full size trucks.
politics -- this large city in large state will be going for Hillary or independent. liberal for sure.
computers... this is apple territory.. we stepped into a very large apple store.. and it was crowded during midday.
weather.. very comfortable... temperature good. no humidity. no gnats!
jobs.. available. and wages were high. had to be high for normal folks to buy 400,000 houses.
unsold cars... driving by a large airport, I noticed a huge area filled with parked cars. my associate (local) advised these vehicles were vehicles that kia (or some other foreign manufacturer) couldn't sell. folks, there were huge numbers. when I asked why they were all the same color, contact said that what I saw was a layer of dust. thinking about it now, it may have been some sort of protective cover. contact also stated that this was only one of several such storage facilities.
what got my attention was the memory that an associate in my home state had bought a new gm truck for about 27% off list. now i'm seeing a huge pile of unsold foreign cars.. my only guess is that this manufacturer is trying to limit supply to maintain price support. so, the americans and the ?Koreans? Japanese? someone manufactured too many vehicles.
not a good economic indicator
these folks are living in a fairy tale. they could not see how fragile their lives are. I hope nothing happens to upset their lifestyle... it would be bad for me, and I live many states away. .
rental cars.. found several places offering cheap cars for 16/day. 1 week rental was 150 including fees and taxes.
fuel... in the city was 3.19 and up. in suburbs unl regular could be found for 2.55 to 2.70
traffic was horrible. at large interstate intersections just about always found traffic crawling. even without an accident.
I would ask . "how far is it to the xx store? " answer would be in minutes. "oh about 30 minutes"
housing... no "bust" there. small 3 br 2 bath was 400k. in distant suburb. would have been 60,000 in my area) the lawn would be the same size as the living room. in city apartment (2br 1 ba) was 2000 to 3000/month and up!! and this was a 30 year old building.
food ... was high priced. lots of fresh food and fruits.
agriculture... I was surprised to see large farms right next to large office buildings.. I don't know how farmers can afford the land...taxes must be atrocious.
I suspect that there is some sort of limitation of taxes based on use of land. soil looked beautiful and perfectly flat. crops looked picture perfect.
water is the problem.. piped in from the north. taxes are regulations and fines are increasing drastically. some large farmers are just quitting. and
not planting. their failure to plant will cause higher food prices across the u.s.
water.. this area is in horrible drought... people would talk about rain with the phrase "it has been 4 (or 5 or 6 months) since it rained. may people are going to
plastic artificial grass or putting rock/brick over yards.
a nearby town is not hooked to the pipeline from the north end of the state. they get water from a large lake nearby... lake is nearly dry... that town is
going to be desperate very soon.
disasters? could be.. one guy suggested loss of electrical power would be his biggest concern. chaos would happen quickly. water supply and drought are going to cause a disaster soon. ability to leave area (see traffic comment) extremely limited.
population. very large number of Asians/central americans. but different races seemed to get along well in areas we visited... lots of inter-marrying.
vehicles... lots of tiny cars... predominant taxi was the Toyota prius. very few full size trucks.
politics -- this large city in large state will be going for Hillary or independent. liberal for sure.
computers... this is apple territory.. we stepped into a very large apple store.. and it was crowded during midday.
weather.. very comfortable... temperature good. no humidity. no gnats!
jobs.. available. and wages were high. had to be high for normal folks to buy 400,000 houses.
unsold cars... driving by a large airport, I noticed a huge area filled with parked cars. my associate (local) advised these vehicles were vehicles that kia (or some other foreign manufacturer) couldn't sell. folks, there were huge numbers. when I asked why they were all the same color, contact said that what I saw was a layer of dust. thinking about it now, it may have been some sort of protective cover. contact also stated that this was only one of several such storage facilities.
what got my attention was the memory that an associate in my home state had bought a new gm truck for about 27% off list. now i'm seeing a huge pile of unsold foreign cars.. my only guess is that this manufacturer is trying to limit supply to maintain price support. so, the americans and the ?Koreans? Japanese? someone manufactured too many vehicles.
not a good economic indicator
these folks are living in a fairy tale. they could not see how fragile their lives are. I hope nothing happens to upset their lifestyle... it would be bad for me, and I live many states away. .
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