The middle-class people who have made it the world's seventh largest economy are leaving. The movie industry rarely films there anymore, the aviation industry has left, the automotive industry left decades ago, the petrochemical industry is leaving and closing its refineries, with the constant water shortages, farming is dying off, business taxes are only higher in New York, fuel taxes are the highest in the nation, diesel trucks are being banned, diesel locomotives are being banned in areas like the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Most of the military bases have been closed. California is approaching the edge of a financial cliff and when it falls off the government will behave like Detroit did and not lower spending to match revenue.
I lived most of my life in Southern California and loved it, but the un-checked democratic governments have ruined it. I watched California decline for the past four decades and finally had to leave.
So you did not like it. I did. But I was on the coast between San Juan Capistrano and Carlsbad.
