Asklemmy

California is cool, I just don't like LA. It's dirty, crowded, has traffic 24/7, and everything is expensive just to name a few reasons.

It's more that a lot of people move out from California and trash-talk it to anyone who will listen. This happens with everywhere, but because CA is so populous it has more people doing this than other places.

Though, IMO, the weather sounds terrible to me.

I don't know that California is super disliked (maybe politically if you're conservative?) - I think its among the great states in the US and while I may have some political disagreements with what California has done (Prop 13 for one has distorted the housing market despite good intentions) and it has awful mass transit and zoning, its the vast majority of the US west coast. It's got amazing scenery, food, people, and its an economic powerhouse. I am from NY, and love NYC, but its not nearly as important to the country as California and the economic disparity between urban and rural isn't nearly as bad as in NY state.

I lived there and made $90k a year. Lived like 50 minutes from work, still paid $2.5k per month for a 500sqft studio and qualified as low income for the area. If people making that much are considered low income, something has failed.

I grew up in CA but now live in the southern US. I get really tired of hearing this. Yes, the cost of living is ridiculous and the wildfires are terrible. But it’s actually a lovely place, on balance, and I enjoy my visits. The folks here seem to think CA is a crime-ridden urban hell.

Expensive, will be hit hard by climate change, subject of right wing propaganda portraying it as a hive of removed debauchery(lgbt people and abortion rights)

I wonder the same thing, especially since we managed to buy a house close enough to the shore for a breeze. Not too close, but while everyone complains about 100 degree temps, we've capped at 82. People are friendly, I can eat just about any type of food in the world, and the government keeps giving us tax breaks and helps with utility costs since there was a price hike this year (which supposedly the state is investigating), especially since we make below average wage. We literally paid no taxes last year!

That said, this is considered a ghetto neighborhood. Years of poor urban planning (and honestly, white flight, racist redlining, and manufacturing leaving in the 60s/70s) have made our neighborhood pretty neglected over the last half decade. And yet, our schools in the area, despite being 90% free lunch status (i.e. poverty) they are rated 8 and 9 out of 10 by most reviewers; the violent crime rate about the same as most parts of LA, and businesses are coming back--- albeit hopefully not replacing locals with gentrification. If all you see is Compton at it's worst, I understand the concerns, but they're unfounded.

I guess there's still homelessness to figure out... And I suppose property value, although again, kind of a boon for us. So yeah, tl;dr, I'm with you on this confusion!

Basically right winger media likes to paint California as the enemy (the right wing puppet masters currently hate the governor to really explain it), and the right wing muppets will not realize when they are out of their echo chamber and they will make some comment about commie Cali and your just supposed to agree and be mad. If you ask them to explain why they hate an entire state, the inability to actually explain why "California bad" is a sign that they don't really know and are victims to the right wing propaganda industrial complex

The others wrote essays so I’ll keep it succinct

Overpriced and overcrowded - however, if your main hobbies are eating and shopping, and you think weather is annoying, then you won’t mind the price & crowds.

So, not bad for everyone

Because every republican that talks shit about Cali act like they know everything when they literally know less than elephant shit.

Pretty broadly speaking, it's a population center and they'll always have a problem with those. There's more to it than that, but fact of the matter is even if the shit they tend to latch on to wasn't a thing they'd just find something else.

I dislike California because their life revolves around freeways and traffic. I also dislike the aggressive homeless population. I’m in nyc and everyone takes the train/ no need to be in traffic, and while there is homelessness they don’t bother you/follow you.

I love California but I dislike LA.

The houseless problem seems extremely poorly managed. I lived in NYC for six years and have visited California a few times. From my experiences, both SF and LA appear to have much larger populations living outdoors (I checked and this is true, 75% of LA’s population vs 6% in NYC, and the cities are comparable in both population and houseless population).

I would imagine it has most to do that those people world have extremely hard time surviving winter outside in NYC.

California as a state and population seems to be at least as much bluster as action. I don’t want to detract from some real actions, like car electrification requirements, but for example, prop 65, the “known to the state of California to cause cancer” labels. A) California seems to “know” many things that science does not. B) no one pays any attention to these labels, but they sure cost a lot to produce C) if anything, this will cause people to ignore future warnings for real things or even current ones like on cigarettes.

The proposition 65 aka The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, actually is much more successful at reducing harmful toxic chemicals and affects other states too. Businesses are encouraged to change formulations so they don't have to use the label.

Here's list of chemicals that require such label: https://www.p65warnings.ca.gov/chemicals

What you saw, likely was businesses trying to fight it, by being to opaque about it, and make it ridiculous (since there's no penalty for overusing it, and they are doing which results as you pointed out that waters it down) for example: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_California_Proposition_65#/media/File%3ADisneyland_Prop_65_Warning_crop.jpg

Although since enforcement is done via civil lawsuits. If they served food or something that did contain these chemicals, a sign like this won't be a good defense that they complied and warned their patrons.

They also trying different ways, like introducing bills on federal level to block it for example https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/6022/text

They are trying also via lawsuits, which meant are filled on behalf of strawman. Many businesses were created just for the purpose of filing prop 65 lawsuits.

Though probably biggest issue is that the prop 65 is being used for frivolous lawsuits (as anyone can sue for not informing and get a settlement because no one wants a trial). So now AG needs to approve such settlements to reduce it. There were attempts to reform it.

So yeah frivolous lawsuits are the biggest issue that needs addressing, but other than that the law actually helped reduce exposure to those chemicals not only for Californians but also people from other states.

It depends on your stage of life, financial situation, priorities, politics, etc. CA does have more laws than most places. Whether any of those really affect you is up to you to determine. Recommend looking at the CA constitution and frankly just seeing what comes up. Pertinent laws will tend to find you. If you really want talk to others that live nearby you as they likely represent your demographic and may be aware of things likely to impact you.

Extreme cost of living.

Whatever else is good or bad about the place doesn't matter very much if you can't afford to live there.

California is a garden of Eden
A paradise to live in or see
But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot
If you ain't got the do re mi

Woody Guthrie, “Do Re Mi”