I mean all of those things are demonstrably true.

The other things that are true are obviously traffic issues and homelessness as well as air quality. Of course in the cities there is also rent affordability and highly inflated land values. That doesn't diminish the fact that cali is an economic epicenter of the United states and produces exorbitant amounts of food and tech that the rest of the country depends on.

Many of the challenges facing California are not California issues but issues endemic to large, sprawling urban metropolises like LA and San Fran. Some are environmental - the mild climate attracts homeless people from seeing the country because the winters are very forgiving. And some issues, like pollution are man made side effects of heavy industry.

I'm not saying we should be California, but there are plenty of laudable things about California. It's insane to me that i even have to make that distinction when the state is so obviously integral to the functional American economy.