Greener pastures beyond Sonoma?

Are there greener pastures beyond the state line?|

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.”

The real-estate agents Scheel interviewed told her that her place would sell fast, but so far she’s had few lookers and no offers at all. “The transition has been very stressful because I haven’t been able to sell the house. I listed it, and then we had triple digit temperatures, heavy smoke for two weeks, and another fire.” Scheel dropped the list price by $200,000, and is considering another price drop if the situation remains static.

Though her home is turnkey and ideally located, just around the corner from Sonoma’s famous Clydesdale farm, Scheel blames California’s new fifth season — fire season — for its failure to sell. “Four years of fire has really been… it’s enough,” Scheel said. “We’re all going through PTSD. My house is not selling because people are afraid to move closer to the fire zones.”

But Scheel’s not going to miss California’s liberal politics, either. “As a conservative woman in my 60s, I was constantly walking on political eggshells. People are wired to criticize and boycott and make issues if they don’t agree with you. That definitely helped push me out the door. Here, we have our differences, but nobody wants to kill you. It’s more prevalent there, because it’s a small town.”

The steady flow of departures is taxing the infrastructure of local moving companies, with more trucks heading out than into the area.

“I’ve twice recently had U-Haul cancel my reservation for a truck,” Sam Ridouy told the Index-Tribune.

Ridouy isn’t relocating, he said, but simply needed to move things from a storage unit to his home and has found the task complicated by truck shortages. When U-Haul called to cancel his latest reservation, the agent told Ridouy that because so many people were leaving the state, they just don’t have any one-way trucks left.

The company canceled the 15-foot vehicle he had reserved, and offered a 10-foot replacement. However, that truck was located in the Central Valley, more than two hours away, one-way.

Despite the uptick in traffic heading out of town, the prospect of living in wine country is still a powerful draw for many.

Tom Donahue bought his Sonoma home in 2008, after “living in 12 states and Europe” and acknowledges the flip side of the California Dream. “Northern California’s liberal politics can conflict with owning a business and remaining profitable. Property and income taxes are higher than many other states. The homeless problem and open drug use is out of control in San Francisco and Oakland. And petty misdemeanor crimes — including car break-ins and mail theft — are not a police priority due to budget cuts.”

But the list of positives remains more compelling for Donahue and his wife, and, for now at least, they plan to stay. “Sonoma’s small town charm, decent educated people, exceptional eateries and access to quality wines and winemakers, local musicians, hiking options, bike paths, overall weather, geographic ease of access to Oak/Sac/SF and Lake Tahoe and Carmel and Paso Robles, plus Sonoma Valley Hospital and access to doctors of all stripes,” Donahue said, enumerating the upside. “Overall, more positives than negatives, so we plan to stay and invest in our great community.”

Marilynne Pryor agreed, telling the Index-Tribune, “I’ve lived in most areas of the U.S. and in Europe and can say with complete confidence that California is the best place to live. Hands down!”

Contact Kate @ kate.williams@sonomanews.com

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.