I recently saw that San Luis Obispo has been ranked as one of the happiest places to live in the U.S. Somehow, I think whoever came up with this designation for SLO had blinders on. Or maybe they’re just selective about who they ask about quality of life here.
My wife and I have lived in SLO County for more than 40 years. We raised our children here. I’m not so ignorant as to think change isn’t going to occur. Change can be good; complacency is not. I think at one point in past years SLO might have qualified for being a happy place. We are also watching as quality of life here deteriorates.
Don’t get me wrong, SLO has plenty of things to be proud of. The climate is great. There are plenty of outdoor activities to meet almost anyone’s desires. There are numerous venues for live music and the performing arts. World-class wineries abound. There are great opportunities for higher education (if you can afford it). Scenic Big Sur is just up the road.
One of my daughters has already left the area due to high housing costs and poor employment opportunities. My other daughter and her family are looking to move for the same reasons. It’s a common occurrence among my friends and my children’s friends to leave the area due to housing and wage issues. They didn’t want to move; our “friendly” county just hasn’t ended up being so friendly for the next generation. My grandkids can’t enjoy what my children were able to enjoy. Retirement for me may well require a move to someplace more affordable.
Recently, my daughter took her children, 7 and 5 years old and 9 months old, into SLO for lunch. She bought sandwiches and drinks from a deli and went to Meadow Park to have a picnic and let the kids play. They never got as far as unwrapping their lunch. There were between 20 and 30 of what appeared to be homeless men, no women, in various states of inebriation. There were also people showing obvious signs of mental illness. They were walking around shouting at nobody in particular. There was no evidence of any organized free lunch program happening, which would cause this number of people in one place. Meadow Park just seems to have become a homeless hangout, not a place for kids to play. They packed it back in the car and thought they’d go have lunch by the creek downtown. Bad choice. It was worse than the park and the levels of inebriation were obvious. There were men passed out on many of the benches.
I’m not bashing homeless people. Saying San Luis Obispo is a happy place might fall on deaf ears if you happen to be homeless. I suppose SLO is happier than Skid Row in LA or the Tenderloin in SF. My problem is with the hypocrisy of San Luis Obispo being labeled one of the “Happiest Places” in our country, opposed to the socio-economic conditions which bring about the problems of low wages combined with a high cost of living here in SLO. Homeless is just a symptom of a much bigger problem. It’s also one of the more visible problems. Aggressive panhandling has become commonplace downtown.
I don’t have the solutions. I probably don’t even have a grasp on the magnitude of the problem. Prisons and jails are overcrowded, and non-violent offenders are often released early. Veterans aren’t receiving the help and care they need. Drug addiction is rampant with no good solution in sight, and there are not enough resources to deal with it. Untreated mental illness is a huge problem.
There are things we can all do that don’t cost much. We can all be kinder to each other, donate to our local nonprofits, which serve the local homeless population. Volunteer. Do something. Do anything. Or keep your blinders on and do nothing, hoping things will change by themselves.
But please take off the blinders and quit claiming what a happy place this is. Δ
Kirk Waddell says, “Sign me: Not so happy in SLO anymore.” Send comments through the editor at clanham@newtimesslo.com or write a letter to the editor for publication and send it to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Food and Drink.
This is an excellent commentary. It’s ironic that it’s been a refusal to change and an unwillingness to build enough housing to keep up with job growth that’s led to the housing crisis.
San Luis Obispo is just an example of what’s going on all over California. High taxes and housing costs lead to everything being more expensive. You can purchase a lb. of hamburger for less than $2 other places and the same product is well over $4 here. $2.7 Trillion economy and the highest taxes in the nation coupled with the highest poverty rate and now the lowest quality of life and it’s easy to conclude that the politicians in California have failed us. If you keep voting for poor leadership then it’s not going to get any better. There is already a mass exodus and it will grow significantly if we don’t get a regime change in November. A close friend informed me that many are looking to leave SLO due to the decline in the quality of life there within the last couple of years. Yes, it’s time to open our eyes and realize that there are a lot of great places to live in other states where the cost of living is significantly less. You get a raise just by moving!
The reason SLO is expensive, is because housing is expensive. The reason housing is expensive, is that there is lots of competition to buy houses. The reason there is lots of competition to buy houses, is all of the other reasons, like nice weather, nice shops, good food, etc. The high price of everything is just the result of the high quality of life here. It’s not surprising that housing is cheaper elsewhere, for example Idaho is much cheaper, but it gets really cold there in the winter. Same for jobs, expensive real estate means businesses chose other places, so there are less jobs. This is just the natural way of things.
this is disappointing to read as i just moved to SLO because i fell in love with the quality of life people have. i’ve only lived in major cities and SLO has everything i want out of a city. perhaps the solution here is to bring jobs in to create opportunities. but we need for residents to continue to spread the joys of living here.
The park-based vagrants sound like they are having fun; join them next time for a bit of the sacrament!
The real estate market seems high to us who grew up in slo county, however, to people from LA OR San Francisco it’s a low price haven. People are moving here and buying houses in droves, whether it be people from the valley buying 2nd homes or people relocating from other areas. This drives up the housing market. Also, lots of people have come in and purchased investment properties in slo to gouge the cal poly students (or their parents) because they have to pay it. This drives up rents and creates less housing. All of this pushes out the locals who helped create the culture that many considered the happiest place (and used to be hidden until oprah). I work in a retail furniture store and constantly hear these transplants complain there is no Nordstrom or saks for them to shop. Most of the time I respond that it’s the way we like it but I really like to tell them tough shit and move back to where you came from.
“Most of the time I respond that it’s the way we like it but I really like to tell them tough shit and move back to where you came from.”_Alicia
Alicia, this is the real you and the real SLO. SLO is no happier than any other town.
The only way SLO will ever have any class is to rid itself of Cal Poly in the altogether. SLO was once a cow town with real people now it’s nothing more than a communist think tank; a town of progressives who imagine rampant racism where there is none. This will soon be remedied by the hordes moving up from Sothern California, many of them, real people. SLO will become a sprawling metropolis with all the excitement that working people bring. Hedi Harman will be relegated to ASH where indeed she belongs.
The constant rise in housing costs are in part due to rising building costs and regulations. Land increases in value as open land becomes scarce.
Adding lots of safety features to homes, limited density rules, costs of permits and inspections as wages rise, need to provide water and other city and county services since SLO is no longer entirely a rural retreat. The list is nearly endless and includes all of California.
Providing services to residents, tourists and transients is expensive. Taxes and the cost of services hurt the low income families the most. It is, again, up to those who can to dig deep into our pockets to help fund private charities. No money? Give time.