[hifromLA]

A genuine question from a life long Californian: do other states not have problems? It seems like there’s an entire cottage industry dedicated to negative news about California.

Obviously we have some challenges, but my feeling is that we are at least taking baby steps in the right direction w.r.t. the kinds of policy solutions we need (even if the execution is not always perfect and things don’t happen fast enough).

[paxys]

It's all relative. No one is talking about poverty and drug problems in the Rust Belt or the Appalachians or the deep South or crimes/murder in inner cities all over the country or a hundred similar problems because they simply aren't newsworthy. Everyone knows it is happening, and no one sees themselves as affected by it.

California on the other hand is supposed to represent the economic might of America, and its decline, however small (1) makes great headlines, especially from a political angle and (2) scares people because the image of American supremacy they have grown up with their entire lives is under threat.

[colechristensen]

The problems in California are, in my experience, considerably worse than other places.

Everywhere else has the same problems, but they aren't as bad.

Rent isn't as high, the homelessness issues are lower, the local governments are somewhat less ridiculous...

[PopAlongKid]

>Everywhere else has the same problems, but they aren't as bad.

On a per capita basis, yes they are.

[marcusverus]

A quick google search gives results indicating that homelessness in California is significantly higher in CA, even on a per capita basis, with a rate that is marginally higher than New York, ~3X higher than Florida, ~5X higher than Texas. [0] https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/states-with...

[PopAlongKid]

Well, there is the mild year-round climate thing. Note that the survey in your link was conducted in January.

More importantly, the comment I was replying to was not limited to "homelessness" as the thing where CA was worse than elsewhere. Rent in particular needs to be evaluated relative to local worker earnings.

[CameronNemo]

Don't Florida and Texas ship the people they don't want to California, Illinois, and New York?

Only one of those states has weather suitable for living outside.

[marcusverus]

Texas and Florida give free bus rides to illegal immigrants who want to travel to self-described “sanctuary cities”. How does that relate to homelessness?

[CameronNemo]

https://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/road-to-nowhere-...

[colechristensen]

They're not.

For example, I no longer have to step over human feces and used needles. My rent is literally half what it used to be.

I was paying twice as much to live in a place with less space and more unpleasantness, and I don't how how you make any of those "per capita" problems because everyone experienced them.

[PopAlongKid]

>For example, I no longer have to step over human feces and used needles. My rent is literally half what it used to be.

You could move to hundreds of places within CA and make the same claim.

[kaesar14]

Spend some time in New York and San Francisco and say with a straight face the problems are correspondingly that much worse in New York (which has a population of 10x vs SF) per capita. There's probably LESS homelessness, visible drug use, and crime in New York on an absolute basis than SF.

[PopAlongKid]

The comment I was responding to was about states, not cities. Further, SF-San Jose-Oakland metro has way more than one tenth the population of NYC metro, your comment seems to imply that homelessness doesn't exist outside the city limits of a single city in a large metro area.

[sys_64738]

The elephant in the room is that insurance companies are not renewing policies due to bankruptcy or leaving the state. FL and CA are the biggest problems with the wildfires and increased hurricanes.

[ericpauley]

If California were a country it'd be the 5th largest economy in the world [1]. It's not unexpected there'd be a lot of news about it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_California

[ROTMetro]

A lot of people like me that were forced to leave for financial reasons are grasping for justification for leaving other than 'because we didn't have enough financial value'. It sucks when your hometown kicks you out because you're a 'poors'.

[therealdkz]

in wa/seattle we start to have them

my pet peve example is crazy agressive driving/general disregard for speed limits and on the road etiquette

the joke used to be „watch out for that corrolla driver” now it is „watch out for that tesla with out of state plates”

[Sohcahtoa82]

As opposed to Oregon drivers, who will happily drive 5 mph under the limit in the passing lane, and then engage in nice-offs in surface streets, where someone who has the right of way will think they're being polite trying to wave someone else through.

As an Oregonian, I'd welcome more California drivers. They know where their accelerator pedal is and how to use it.

For me, the joke is "Watch out for that left-lane driving Prius".

[allturtles]

I agree. I don't live in California and don't want to for a variety of reasons, but I'm not about to start throwing stones, my state has plenty of issues.

I think there's some sour grapes involved [0], and also the fact that it's a bastion of left-of-center politics makes it a natural target for right-wing media .

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_and_the_Grapes