[rayiner]

At least in part, that's because the positional status of "many places" has changed dramatically. We have a growing population with a high degree of internal mobility. That means that places don't stay in a fixed position on the product lineup. Santa Clara County today isn't Santa Clara County in 1990. It's more akin to what Beverly Hills or the Gold Coast were in 1990.

[cucumber3732842]

Those places who got rich wrote laws for the whole state in the intervening time. In 1970-whatever if some poor mill town on the outskirts or some exurb didn't want to play by the rich big citys rules they didn't have to. They could allow street after street of garbage starter homes on postage stamps with nary a fuck about muh stormwater. These days they'll be fined by the state, lose their grant funding, etc, etc. if they did that.