stephanie brail

After many years of Southern California living, I am moving out of Los Angeles. I love the weather, the sunshine, and the ocean! I do not love the shallow plastic people, the traffic, or the sprawl. But mostly, the main reason I am leaving is that the energy does not feel good here anymore.

“Energy” can mean a lot of things…and I’m talking somewhat of the “chi” of traditional Chinese medicine but also the “energy” of emotion. Cities and locations can have energies. When I first moved to Los Angeles (now aging myself by admitting this was in 1992, fresh out of college), the riots had just happened. The “energy” in Los Angeles at the time was one of unease. Throughout the 90s the energy slowly brightened and Los Angeles felt “happy” for a while.

Now, in 2010, the feeling of unease is back. The energy is uncomfortable here. Sometimes it makes me feel downright icky…I have a feeling of urgency, as in: “I need to get the heck out of here!” This feeling of wanting to move started last year, but the icky feelings didn’t intensify until this spring.

I’m not the only one who has noticed the energy shift. A good friend of mine who had moved away to South Africa a few years ago visited in May and told me that the whole mood in Los Angeles had shifted. People here were more “somber” and there was not the sense of celebration he felt when he lived here.

The other day, another good friend of mine told me that he felt people here were “sad.”

“When I go outside, Stephanie, people seem so sad now. So I try to lift them up by sending them love if I can. They seem so stressed.”

Of course, the national economy is in sorry shape, so it could be that a lot of people everywhere are “sad and stressed.” However, in a recent trip to other parts of the country, I did not feel the concentrated stress levels I’m feeling here.

There’s a darkness descending over this city. I am reminded of a theater I used to be a member of. It was thriving for a while but then shut down. About six months prior to the shutdown, I started feeling a “darkness” when I walked into the place. It was like the place was dying. The energy felt dead in a way.

This is how Los Angeles feels to me now sometimes. While it’s not totally a “dead” energy, there’s definitely a big damper being put over Southern California right now.

I’m moving to Austin, Texas, and when I was visiting there, the energy was much different. A lot more alive and happy. People are having fun there…I’m sure the economy is hitting people there too, and it’s not all sweetness and light, but there’s just a lot more joy in that city than in Los Angeles right now.

I have other friends who are planning on escaping Los Angeles soon. Some to Denver, one to Houston, and another considering Brazil.

My concern about Los Angeles is that it’s headed for a decline (at best) and at worst, civil unrest. Many storefronts are closing here, although there are pockets of vibrant activity still. Downtown Culver City is still bustling, but there’s an entire strip of stores on Washington Blvd. not too far away that are empty and for rent.

My friend who noticed the sadness also told me that at the piano bar he goes to in Silverlake, only about half the people as usual have been attending in the past few months. “Restaurants are empty,” he said.

Now, it could just be the summertime doldrums. But…with Los Angeles due for another big quake, California broke, a very uncertain economy, and all this bad energy, I don’t want to stick around and find out. I feel it’s time to “get the hell out of dodge” and to any friend of mine who expresses a desire to leave, I tell them they might want to listen to their intuition and move on.

Does this mean it’s bad to stay? Not necessarily. But for some people, it may be time to move on.

The ACLU is helping a guy in Arizona fight for the right to fly a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag on his home. At issue is the Homeowners Association (HOA), which is making a stink about the flag. The “Gadsden flag” as it is also known, has been popular in the Ron Paul movement as an icon for constitutionalists. Now it’s also used by many Tea Party members, though the man in question claims he’s not involved with the Tea Party.

Of course, this is not the first instance of an HOA going overboard, but unfortunately, this may be a trend. Yahoo News reports that HOAs are trying to ban these flags around the country. While flags may be a sticky issue (what should you do if someone wants to fly a Nazi flag in the neighborhood?), HOAs seem to have gotten too much power in recent years.

HOAs are also making it hard for people to do practical, sustainable things such as hang laundry out to dry in the backyard, start a garden, or keep chicken on their property for food. As we hit peak oil, the ability to have your own garden may not just be a luxury but a necessity.

I’s not just the HOAs that are the problem. Governments in several Western states, including Utah, Colorado, and Washington, have banned the collection of rainwater in rain barrels, claiming that the water is being “diverted” from other places that might need it.

Rain barrel water and the right to hang a flag on your home may not seem like big deals, but as Mike Adams writes:

Today, we’ve basically been reprogrammed to think that we need permission from the government to exercise our inalienable rights, when in fact the government is supposed to derive its power from us. The American Republic was designed so that government would serve the People to protect and uphold freedom and liberty. But increasingly, our own government is restricting people from their rights to engage in commonsense, fundamental actions such as collecting rainwater or buying raw milk from the farmer next door.

Today, we are living under a government that has slowly siphoned off our freedoms, only to occasionally grant us back a few limited ones under the pretense that they’re doing us a benevolent favor.

HOAs and governments are more than happy to nitpick and slowly chip away at freedoms. But in order to navigate the changes ahead, we’ll need as much room as possible to try to create a new and better world. Let’s try to create a future that is more open and free, not less.