You've basically summed up my opinion on CA in comparison with my current state of residence. The only major diffetence is our roads also suck like CA's despite having a similar weather advantage but at least I can blame them on the insane amount of truck traffic (~50% of interstate traffic outside of rush hour) fhat stems from our status as a major manufacturing hub. We don't pay much in taxes and all that sweet, sweet value added manufscturing employment and wage growth is worth the potholes in my opinion.

I recently visited SF, the capitol city of HN's core demographic and my wife and I stood aghast at the sheer filthiness and unseemly nature of the place. Present day San Francisco is a place ripped straight from the pages of a dystopian cyberpunk-ish novel from 20-40 years ago. Excessive wealth cloistered in enclaves surrounded by slums (homeless camps) and a complete degenration of the public square (in a broad sense, I'm referring to all the public spaces in the city center) into a gallery of feces, drug abuse, and general decay all bathed in the glow of private spaces reserved for the wealthy tech elite. The "high tech, low life" aesthetic popularized by that genre has been given life in that city and it is terrifying to see such a nightmare become reality.