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California has a GDP greater than that of all but about twenty foreign nations. It is far from a "failed state" despite problems like homelessness.
California has a severe homeless problem primarily because of its geography. If you were homeless, you wouldn't choose to live in a cold state like North Dakota. You'd pick a state with good weather. As such, states like California with a mild climate attract more than their share of homeless people. It has nothing to do with politics and little to do with most of the things you have mentioned, except for high housing costs. I wish that problem had an easy solution, but the reality is many, many people want to live in CA and that keeps housing costs rising.
Actually, California has the world’s 5th largest economy. No idea where you got 20th.
As for homeless migrating to good weather? They don’t. That’s a myth. On average across the nation only about 10% of homeless are transient. San Francisco is higher than average at about 15%. If you don’t believe me you can look up homeless point in time studies for California cities to confirm. Not only do most homeless become as they are in the cities and counties where they were formerly housed ... but roughly 65% (in LA for example) lived in their cities for 20 years or more before becoming homeless.
Actually, California has the world’s 5th largest economy. No idea where you got 20th.
As for homeless migrating to good weather? They don’t. That’s a myth. On average across the nation only about 10% of homeless are transient. San Francisco is higher than average at about 15%. If you don’t believe me you can look up homeless point in time studies for California cities to confirm. Not only do most homeless become as they are in the cities and counties where they were formerly housed ... but roughly 65% (in LA for example) lived in their cities for 20 years or more before becoming homeless.
Thank you for setting the record straight. I don't know why that belief persists.
California has a GDP greater than that of all but about twenty foreign nations. It is far from a "failed state" despite problems like homelessness.
California has a severe homeless problem primarily because of its geography. If you were homeless, you wouldn't choose to live in a cold state like North Dakota. You'd pick a state with good weather. As such, states like California with a mild climate attract more than their share of homeless people. It has nothing to do with politics and little to do with most of the things you have mentioned, except for high housing costs. I wish that problem had an easy solution, but the reality is many, many people want to live in CA and that keeps housing costs rising.
This is horsecrap and has been debunked multiple times by leaders and authorities in research on homelessness. In reality, it is a very silly claim. It has far less to do with good weather than it does high housing costs, lax laws, policies that attract despondent people, and an already-large homeless population. Don’t try to turn this into a good thing. “We have lots of homeless people because our weather is so good!” NYC doesn’t have good weather by any measure and has the most homeless people of any city in the nation.
Make a better argument. Or better yet, inform yourself.
Seriously? Everyone besides the politicians proposing it (while lining their pockets from special interests) knew it was bad idea from the get go.*
In 2019 over 60% of VC investment in the US was in California. This tells me that private firms believe in the health of the state more than those not wanting to fund a loser train. https://www.statista.com/topics/2565...north-america/
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth
China is CONSTANTLY working on the parts of their HSR that go through Tibet, because of the temperature extremes there. They have to replace the tracks regularly.
I be curious if a European country, Japan, China, Korea, etc is in control of CA. Would we be able to travel between San Diego/Tijuana to Los Angeles in less than an hour instead of 2 hour 25 minutes? It takes to drive or ride a bus/Pacific Surfliner the same distance?Or 3 1/2 hours from San Diego/Tijuana to San Francisco or Sacramento? This had been made possible a decade ago in these places with similar challenges. And sometimes private firms do step up to fund it. Of all these countries only China has it relatively easy about power of land acquisition as there is technically no private land(but nail houses still happen) while the other countries value property rights more than the power to use eminent domain to acquire land.*
While I understand that train tracks are not invincible to temperature extremes however they had weathered temperatures much hotter than the Central Valley think about the standard tracks that run across* the California*desert where 115 temperatures occur for weeks. I know Tibet being on the mountains has more issue with cold than heat. Though China is still able to keep building lines through harsh conditions.*
Also they are just about to build one through hot Texas completely privately funded I 'm curious*does this mean*Texas is more business friendly than California thus investors are willing to make the investment?
Though the issue is more than about transit ridership competing with the personal car. CA seems a failed state in maintaining its road system as well despite how many people are supporting the state's road system via high vehicle registration and gas taxes as well as parking fees yet CA's road infrastructure are still so poorly maintained compared to other states and developed countries and had not seen too much in terms of improvements since the 1980s. Freeway revolts in the 1970s lead to the traffic mess we have today and there just isn't much incentive to improve it i.e less intrusive roadways. Apparently pro public transportation these days seems end up setting up glorified bus*routes and reinventing the streetcar.*
The article, just one of hundreds that have appeared in recent years that use some version of the term “fail,” accuses California of failing at the homelessness crisis (by far, the worst in the nation), polarizing politics, a historically bad pandemic response, sky-high housing costs, and an energy debacle. I lived in San Francisco decades ago and began to see the ugly truth long before most wanted to admit it and hightailed it east. Missing the weather, I moved back to San Diego in 1996, spending 2 years there before fleeing again, this time for good. The weather wasn’t worth what the state had become. I have not looked back.
So why are you still in California despite all the failures? And are you planning an escape to Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, or Idaho?
I moved here from Texas five years ago based on the typical LA style California dream. Ended up luckily getting a 9-5 which puts me at middle class I guess. If I were making in Texas what I am here I'd have bought a house by now in a decent suburb or nice city neighborhood.
I really like the scenery here and the weather is top notch. Those marine layer mornings in the summer are relaxing for me. But California is so damn expensive. There are homeless everywhere. The politics like you said are terrible. I don't see many critical thinkers here as far as politics go. It's mostly follow the heard and react to the news versus predicting the news based on past events then acting accordingly beforehand. Plus the tilt is way too one sided. I thought it'd be more open so you could have good discourse, but little did I know Texas is definitely more open than California.
I kind understand why multi-millionaires+ would live here. If you have a house on a hill with views of the mountains, oceans/bays, or the city (if you're lucky you have all three), then you really can't beat that anywhere in America. If my investments work out maybe I'll be there too. But if you're below that...a family of 4 making less than $150k or single making less than $60k, I don't see why you would be in California.
Also California is going to be the testing grounds for a lot of the weird dystopian garbage they are going to be pushing. Watch the news very soon, I know of at least one UC school that is going to start requiring mandatory covid tests for faculty regardless of whether there are symptoms. Literally just because. WTF is that? In order to avoid going through stuff like that you have to be a millionaire, who are the only people who get to enjoy California the way many more "average" people used to before the 1980s back in your time.
I be curious if a European country, Japan, China, Korea, etc is in control of CA. Would we be able to travel between San Diego/Tijuana to Los Angeles in less than an hour instead of 2 hour 25 minutes? It takes to drive or ride a bus/Pacific Surfliner the same distance?Or 3 1/2 hours from San Diego/Tijuana to San Francisco or Sacramento? This had been made possible a decade ago in these places with similar challenges.
Would you be ok with the taxation levels of European countries? It's easy to invest in infrastructure when you have plenty of public money to work with. If you go for private financing, I wonder if that would affect the fares.
I moved here from Texas five years ago based on the typical LA style California dream. Ended up luckily getting a 9-5 which puts me at middle class I guess. If I were making in Texas what I am here I'd have bought a house by now in a decent suburb or nice city neighborhood.
I really like the scenery here and the weather is top notch. Those marine layer mornings in the summer are relaxing for me. But California is so damn expensive. There are homeless everywhere. The politics like you said are terrible. I don't see many critical thinkers here as far as politics go. It's mostly follow the heard and react to the news versus predicting the news based on past events then acting accordingly beforehand. Plus the tilt is way too one sided. I thought it'd be more open so you could have good discourse, but little did I know Texas is definitely more open than California.
I kind understand why multi-millionaires+ would live here. If you have a house on a hill with views of the mountains, oceans/bays, or the city (if you're lucky you have all three), then you really can't beat that anywhere in America. If my investments work out maybe I'll be there too. But if you're below that...a family of 4 making less than $150k or single making less than $60k, I don't see why you would be in California.
Also California is going to be the testing grounds for a lot of the weird dystopian garbage they are going to be pushing. Watch the news very soon, I know of at least one UC school that is going to start requiring mandatory covid tests for faculty regardless of whether there are symptoms. Literally just because. WTF is that? In order to avoid going through stuff like that you have to be a millionaire, who are the only people who get to enjoy California the way many more "average" people used to before the 1980s back in your time.
There's an interesting observation (bolded). Where in America are politicians pro-active? This would be a good topic for the History forum, to discuss examples in America's past, when foresight and a pro-active approach actually were practiced (if there are any such examples).
There's an interesting observation (bolded). Where in America are politicians pro-active? This would be a good topic for the History forum, to discuss examples in America's past, when foresight and a pro-active approach actually were practiced (if there are any such examples).
I'm talking about average citizens. It's mostly just react to the news versus predicting the news. The reason is everyone is too plugged into consumerism, the "work until 65 then retire" meme the boomer generation sold us, and believing their favorite news station tells them the truth.
When discussing politics I've noticed Californians are more closed minded despite voting "liberal". I'm a person of color. Many of the fluffy liberals I deal with here talk about wanting to help POCs yet they dont listen to POC suggestions, or parrot mainstream memes on how to help, or think yelling BLM makes them cool even though a lot of blacks dont stand with BLM the organization for obvious reasons.
Just too much virtue signaling and not enough listening.
Dab, you are preaching to the choir. I'm in total agreement with your statements. I don't watch the news because we cut the cord over 6 years ago. But, I've seen the homeless problem explode in my neighborhood over the past 20 years. There was a huge Hepatitis outbreak in downtown San Diego in 2017, several people died. They were bleaching the streets around the tent cities. The brand new multi-million dollar library downtown has been over run. I could go on.
We talk about affordable housing. For who? You still have to make $60k a year to afford SoCal. (your numbers are spot on Dab) You really need $100k. So who are we going to put in this affordable housing that no one can afford to build?
Section 8? Newson is paying hotels to house thousands of homeless people right now, that's giving a man a fish. Not teaching a man to fish. I have no answer, you can't just make everyone leave who can't afford to live here, or hope they will leave on their own. But it seems like the politicians are hoping for the latter.
The cities are going broke because they tied the pension funds to the results of the stock market, thinking a gaurentee of 8% for eternity. My city Lemon Grove is going to fail and become un-incorporated, we have run out of money. We will be run by the county.
The only 2 groups who can afford it here are the Section 8 Food stamps people and those who make $60-$100 for single or $200 and up for family of 4. I have a family of 4 and own 2 houses and still can't afford to live here. So we're leaving, very soon and moving to Texas. DabOnEm I'll let you know how it goes...stay true, maybe your CA dream will happen
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This would be a good topic for the History forum, to discuss examples in America's past, when foresight and a pro-active approach actually were practiced (if there are any such examples).
