Are you safe?

[Guest.Visitor]

Are you safe?

Hi Nathan, Funny you should bring this up. My wife is Russian and she and I just returned yesterday from two weeks there (my first time). I have never met more consitantly warm, hospitable people. It's incredible, and it's sad that we've had SO much in common over all these years and yet we've only recently begun to realize it. Brian

[Guest.Visitor]

Are you safe?

maybe Arizona is the new mecca!

And Kipling said, "East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet". Dave...

[Guest.Visitor]

Are you safe?

The FBI accumulates crime statistics from cities within the U.S. And, twice a year, they post a listing of the safest cities in America. I happen to live in a city, Thousand Oaks, CA, that has been either first or second on that list for more than 15 years. What may be surprising to many of you is that Thousand Oaks is a suburb of Los Angeles. What may be even more surprising to many of you is that 5 of the safest cities in America are suburbs of Los Angeles. Even more surprising may be the fact that 9 out of America's top 10 safest cities are in California. Only Amhurstville, NY made it in the top 10 from out of California. So, put Hollywood's stereotype aside and don't believe all you see, hear and read about California, especially L.A. What was most surprising to me was that I have lived in 5 of those cities; Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Santa Clarita, Huntington Beach and San Jose. I guess you could say that I gravitate toward a comfortable safe town. I know I'll get hammered by the non-Californians about the negatives of California. You'll say things like, well yeah, but you have earthquakes. Sure we do, but so does Seattle and many other places are "due." The largest, and most dangerous fault line in the U.S. runs down the Mississippi River. The last time that rattled they felt it in Maine. Imagine the floods after that thing blows next time. (BTW, as an aside, statistics show that more people die in Chicago _every year_ due to winter related problems than have died in _all_ of SoCal earthquakes. Earthquakes make more sensational news, though.) You'll say we have smog. Sure we do. But so do you! The air in L.A. has improved dramatically in the last 22 years and it'll get much better in the future, probably better than your city because of all of the proactive controls in place. SoCal had 177 3rd stage smog alerts in 1977, there were 80 in 1988, there were NONE in 1998. And none since 1998. The air is cleaner than it has been since W.W.II. Sure, you say, we have an energy crisis. Well, some do, some don't. The DWP (Dept of Water and Power) in the city of Los Angeles didn't participate in that silly deregulation of a few years back and the energy in L.A. is just fine. In fact, the dilemma facing DWP is that they make so much money on selling extra power to the rest of the state they could, literally, not charge their L.A. customers for power. But that wouldn't be politically correct, would it. But, because that's good news, you won't hear about it on your local news. I've traveled enough to know that local news stations around the country will only show negative, never positive, news about L.A. BTW, most prognosticators say that YOU will be in a similar energy crisis in the next 3-5 years. California, as usual, is the trend setter here. Unfortunately. You'll also probably say the traffic is unbearable here. Well, for the last 18 months I commuted to Atlanta once a month. You haven't seen traffic until you've been to Atlanta. It's a piece of cake here! BTW, the smog in Atlanta is terrible! And, finally, you'll probably say that you couldn't live here because there's no change of seasons and the weather's boring. You love the feel of the crisp cold air on your cheeks. Yeah, right. :-) Whew, thanks for letting me rant for a few minutes. chuck Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer.

[Guest.Visitor]

Are you safe?

we've had SO much in common over all these years and yet we've only recently begun to realize it.

As a nation founded on immigration you guys should be more aware of it than most. Remember the scene from the Deer Hunter? - Is that a Russian name? - American. Dave...