What's wrong with California?

[StevenK]

I see california getting a lot of grief on here, always thought it looked quite nice.

What gives?

 

[Lagduf]

If you want a simple answer: Cost of living, primarily.

California has a wide array of problems but what has to be understood is the state's size is massive compared to most other US states and it has a wide array of geographical regions which are, again, each host to a variety of different problems. One could almost ask "What is wrong with the United States?" and receive similar answers. Where to even begin?

To put this in perspective - Great Britain has 63 million people. California has 40 million. Again we have all the same problems that entire countries have.

Specific issues that the state faces? Homelessness - almost 50,000 homeless in LA county alone. There is a serious water crisis, that is affecting the entire state, but particularly in Southern California where there is a lot of agriculture in areas that probably shouldn't be farms. There are regions of the state which will run out of water unless substantive policy changes are made.

I think there is a lot of dissatisfaction with the state government, despite being a single party supermajority, for decades. Why has the liberal paradise not been realized? It just seems "nothing" can get done. Incompetence, corruption, etc. Confirmed unemployment fraud during the Pandemic is confirmed at over $30 billion dollars. California creates dozens and dozens of new laws every single year but I'm not so sure they're actually making the state better for Californians.

There are a lot of economic issues.

California is probably great if you're wealthy enough to live there.

 

[HellioN]

Politics.

 

[BeefJerky]

Oh shit, it's Fox News time. lol

In all seriousness, @Lagduf summed it up well. It's not just California that suffers in the housing department though. It's the entire Pacific coast. Though, he did not mention speculative real estate investment. There's a huge problem with foreign entities buying and holding real estate from San Diego to Vancouver, BC (read: the entire Pacific coast) with no real intention of selling or renting at rates that are affordable to anyone that isn't well off. New York City suffers from that as well.

Source: former resident of Seattle. At least it's not Portland, ugh, what a shithole...

 

[Lagduf]

Yeah, from what I understand the Vancouver area is absolutely fucked with respect to housing. It’s wild.

 

[BeefJerky]

Yeah, from what I understand the Vancouver area is absolutely fucked with respect to housing. It’s wild.

It's mostly "investment" from Chinese mainlanders. A lot of Vancouver properties sit vacant. From what I know it's more widespread in British Columbia than the US, but Seattle has felt its fair share too. BC didn't do anything about it until it was too late though.

 

[SouthtownKid]

State government has run it into the ground. Even before the pandemic, they've chased business -- including the entire entertainment industry -- out of state. Then the lockdowns, which broke a lot of the business that had been hanging on. So you've got skyrocketing poverty and homelessness. Which of course leads to more crime.

Then I guess you have general weirdness associated with Hollywood or whatever, which is neither here nor there for me. I'd rather have weirdness than homogenous tedium.

 

[basic]

Oh shit, it's Fox News time. lol

In all seriousness, @Lagduf summed it up well. It's not just California that suffers in the housing department though. It's the entire Pacific coast. Though, he did not mention speculative real estate investment. There's a huge problem with foreign entities buying and holding real estate from San Diego to Vancouver, BC (read: the entire Pacific coast) with no real intention of selling or renting at rates that are affordable to anyone that isn't well off. New York City suffers from that as well.

Source: former resident of Seattle. At least it's not Portland, ugh, what a shithole...

the chinese. you mean the chinese. cue @wyo

 

[NeoSneth]

It has more regulations than NYC, that you will almost certainly be breaking a law.
Almost everything is labeled as a carcinogen in CA.
I can't imagine having a business in CA. There is zero benefit other than some dope weather in SoCal.

 

[wyo]

the chinese. you mean the chinese. cue @wyo

 

[Lagduf]

It has more regulations than NYC, that you will almost certainly be breaking a law.
Almost everything is labeled as a carcinogen in CA.
I can't imagine having a business in CA. There is zero benefit other than some dope weather in SoCal.

I will never get the appeal of Southern California, even the coastal cities. It’s just ugly.

 

[Arcademan]

Blizzards...
Floods...
Earthquakes...
Wildfires...
High gas prices...
Outlawing gas stoves...
LeBron...
Screwing the other western states over use of the Colorado River...
The occasional riot...
LA Dodgers...
Santa Ana winds...
Bank collapse...
Hollywood...
Pork law...

We could go on forever with this list

 

[neo_mao]

CA sounds horrible.

Come to Taxachusetts!

 

[Lagduf]

CA sounds horrible.

Come to Taxachusetts!

Just say no to Massholes.

 

[Tung Fu ru]

CA sounds horrible.

It is

 

[terry.330]

Don't forget the awful highway system since the state is so big and poorly planned. Concrete corridors of misery.

Also everything outside of the more heavily populated areas are total shitholes, junkies and huge stretches of desert or brown hills as far as the eye can see. Barring a few parts of Norcal.

 

[Lagduf]

A lot of people underestimate how rural a lot of California is. Start going North of Sacramento and you won’t find many large cities at all.

 

[Tung Fu ru]

True, but the amount of people that live in the bay area and LA area alone is fucking nuts.

 

[rarehero]

Anecdotal, but in the last week met California expats. We're getting our kitchen worked on and the two carpenters installing our cabinets came from San Francisco. We also had a server at an Irish pub that came from San Diego. All of them came here because California shut down during the pandemic.

 

[Orpheus]

I see california getting a lot of grief on here, always thought it looked quite nice.

What gives?

On top of what Duf has posted, feast your eyes & ears on this gem:

Here is some more (Cali specific):

 

[lithy]

Probably the worst thing that ever happened was making 50 state emissions compliant cars. Instead they should have stopped selling cars in California until CARB was abolished and we might have stopped the state from shoving its head further up its own ass thinking they were being a moral leader with regulation.

Now it's raining too much there, mere months ago it wasn't raining enough. Needy bitches.

 

[Heinz]

A lot of people underestimate how rural a lot of California is. Start going North of Sacramento and you won’t find many large cities at all.

Interesting, you don't find cities of any description once you start going in a direction here.

 

[ChuChu Flamingo]

Everything

 

[SpamYouToDeath]

Interesting, you don't find cities of any description once you start going in a direction here.

I took a train 6 hours out into the middle of the desert. I arrived in Kalgoorlie, a town that looks like it hasn't changed in 100 years. It was a Sunday morning and the pubs were packed. I saw homeless men fighting in a parking lot. Children rode their bikes around town. A man in a wife-beater yelled at his neighbor from a balcony; both had mini-fridges outside. The power went out - all of it, to every building. The manager of the Maccas let me sit outside and call my mom. The cell phone still worked and my call went halfway around the world.

California sucks shit.

 

[Heinz]

I took a train 6 hours out into the middle of the desert. I arrived in Kalgoorlie, a town that looks like it hasn't changed in 100 years. It was a Sunday morning and the pubs were packed. I saw homeless men fighting in a parking lot. Children rode their bikes around town. A man in a wife-beater yelled at his neighbor from a balcony; both had mini-fridges outside. The power went out - all of it, to every building. The manager of the Maccas let me sit outside and call my mom. The cell phone still worked and my call went halfway around the world.

California sucks shit.

That is one hell of a story lol. The further you go out the more time seems to have stood still.