Even the Oakland Athletics have decided to pack up their things and leave, joining the mass exodus of Californians fleeing the once-Godlen State for a better life and the quality of life in Greasy Gavin’s soft-on-crime and high-tax state continues to decline.
That came out on Thursday, when one of California’s most iconic teams and the MLB’s best-known franchises announced that it had purchased land in Las Vegas after trying and failing to find a suitable spot for a new stadium in Oakland. According to ESPN, the team will now construct a 35,000-seat stadium in Sin City at the cost of about $1.5 billion.
Announcing the move, team president Dave Kaval told the Las Vegas Review-Journal during an interview that “For a while, we were on parallel paths [with Oakland], but we have turned our attention to Las Vegas to get a deal here for the A’s and find a long-term home. Oakland has been a great home for us for over 50 years, but we really need this 20-year saga completed and we feel there’s a path here in Southern Nevada to do that.”Predictably, the move has infuriated Oakland officials. Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, for instance, attacked the move in a blistering statement to ESPN, saying:
“I am deeply disappointed that the A’s have chosen not to negotiate with the City of Oakland as a true partner, in a way that respects the long relationship between the fans, the City and the team. Yet, it is clear to me that the A’s have no intention of staying in Oakland and have simply been using this process to try to extract a better deal out of Las Vegas. I am not interested in continuing to play that game — the fans and our residents deserve better.”But while Mayor Thao clutches her pearls and pretends that Oakland is a wonderful place to do business, the truth is that the city has declined thanks to George Soros-backed prosecutor Pamela Price, who is implementing the same kind of policies that have contributed in to the skyrocketing crime we’ve seen across the nation. For example, DA Price attempted to grant a plea deal that would have cut a triple murder sentence to just 15 years, instead of the 75-to-life sentence that is typical for such a horrific crime. The A’s didn’t mention the increasingly oppressive crime environment in California or the other negatives of operating there, though it’s hard to imagine that at least part of the reason for their move isn’t the same things that are on the minds of other Californians that are fleeing: high-taxes, high-crime, and a high cost of living. The New York Post, reporting on the exodus from California, said:
Over 500,000 Californians left the state in the two years after the pandemic began due to rising housing costs and crowded, crime-filled cities, according to a report.
Between April 2020 and July 2022 the number of those leaving California surpassed the number of people moving in by more than 700,000, The Los Angeles Times reported.
According to The Times, unaffordable housing, long commute times, crowds, crime and pollution in urban areas —which have also been plagued by homelessness — were primary reasons people left.
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