Much has been made of the “California Exodus,” with people leaving the state in increasing numbers to start over again in perceived greener pastures. In Sonoma, real estate agents are reporting a busy fall season, with unusually high numbers of people leaving the Valley while eager newcomers line up in their place.
Wildfires. Cost of living. Taxes. Politics. The reasons to go are as varied as the people leaving themselves.
Gary Nelson, 83, moved to Sonoma in 1978 and for 42 years called Sonoma Valley home. But last January Nelson and his wife decamped for Austin, Texas, pushed — primarily, he said — by California’s left-leaning politics.
“It got to the point where it was very uncomfortable to express myself,” said Nelson, who sits on the board of advisors for Sonoma Media Investments, which publishes the Index-Tribune.
In Austin, Nelson found a spectrum of political ideologies. “It’s very balanced from a political perspective. We have moderate people, liberal people, and conservative people. Not like California which is all blue. It’s much more open-minded here. Not so politically correct, not so constrained.”
Nelson reported feeling under siege as a political conservative in California, at personal risk for his support of Donald Trump. “If I went down the street in Sonoma and told them I was voting for Trump, they probably would have whitewashed me, or whatever,” he said. In Austin, he’s found simpatico new friends, and the freedom to engage in healthy debate.
What’s more, after 50 years building the Nelson Family of Companies into a behemoth that includes staffing, technology and global business units, among others, Nelson is equally enthusiastic about his new state’s tax laws. “No state income tax! Another plus,” he said.
According to the website LeavingTheBayArea.com, 46 percent of all Bay Area residents are currently considering leaving the state, and polls show that 40 percent of the area’s tech workers will consider relocating if remote work continues. Even before COVID-19, the state’s population growth had slowed. Every year since 2015 California has lost at least 100,000 more people than it gained; in 2019, that number nearly doubled to 197,594.
Last year, the total number of Californians who took the off ramp numbered 691,145, according to new data published by the Census Bureau. The majority went to Texas (86,164), followed by Arizona (68,516), Washington (55,467), Nevada (50,707) and Oregon (43,058).
Alexanne Bassett has lived all over the U.S., but settled in Sonoma a decade ago. “I thought this was my forever home. I really thought I’d stay,” Bassett said. Bassett has a lively circle of friends, and a mobile home she’s spent “stupid money” fixing up.
But the annual threat of wildfire finally forced Bassett to pack her bags, exhausted after four straight years of trauma. “It was the day with the orange skies that just did me in,” Bassett said, referencing the eerie August day last summer when smoke and ash turned the Sonoma skyscape blood red. “I don’t have a crystal ball, but I do think the fires are only going to get worse. I don’t want to live on an alien planet.”
Bassett, 73, will soon relocate to Asheville, North Carolina, and admits that it’s “daunting” to move to a new place without family or friends. But starting over feels preferable to the strange limbo in which she finds herself here. “The uncertainty of the fires is making me nuts,” she said.
Besides, the same money that buys a mobile home in Sonoma buys a nice single family home in North Carolina.
Fire fatigue is widespread in the Valley, and paired with the high cost of wine country living, the pull of distant places has grown stronger for many.
“We are still here but looking to leave,” Amanda Mizirawi said. “We don’t own, we rent and we can’t afford to get into our own home. And, we don’t know if we want to buy here, it might just burn down.”
Amy Bomberger feels the same way. “As much as I don’t want to move again, I don’t know if I want to weather many more fire seasons here,” she said. “Plus, cost of living, and this town has really changed. It’s still a sweet place, but too overloaded with tourists and wine stuff.”
Patty Scheel has already relocated, trading her small house on Second Street East for a place 10 minutes outside of downtown Dallas. Her children live there, and that was a draw, but Sonoma had begun to lose its allure for Scheel, too. “It just wasn’t working for me anymore,” Scheel said. “Sonoma is a bubble. It’s isolated. There’s lots to do and I like the wine vibe, but I wasn’t really growing as a person anymore. For me, it was the isolation.”
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