California is a victim of its own success.

Let's be honest. California, where I spent all my life until just two years ago, is a hot mess right now. A lot of people blame the left-wing policies for ruining the Golden State. While there is truth to that, the are other reasons for California's problems. The main reason being, in my opinion, is that they never expected to have as many people as they do now. California's transportation, water and utility infrastructure is almost the same as it was in the 1970s and has not seen many upgrades, yet its population more than doubled in the past 50 years. This is even more true with its housing stock. Many of California's cities, with San Francisco and Los Angeles being among the worst offenders, have passed laws that make it nearly impossible to build more affordable housing in their cities, thanks to the NIMBYs(which means Not In My BackYard, for those unfamiliar with the term) as they care more about their property values than making sure people have a place to live as they believe in the stereotype that poor=criminal. The NIMBYs(and taxpayers in general) also don't want to build homeless shelters, drug rehab or mental health facilities to get people who need help off the streets, which as resulted in the situations the Golden State's cities are facing right now where homeless people and junkies are defecating and even dying on the streets.

Also, not allowing more affordable housing has resulted in urban sprawl where homes are built outside of the major metropolitan areas, which in turn has resulted in more and people commuting to work in the cities, clogging the already clogged freeways. In addition, since cities have made it impossible to build more housing, California has had to build in areas that weren't historically populated, which has resulted in new suburbs being built in areas that prone to both flooding and fires, putting millions of people at risk.

So basically, I think California was a victim of its own success. For many years, people wanted to move there(and still do), but the fact that they never improved their housing stock or infrastructure has made it very difficult to maintain any sense of order.  Hopefully, the Golden State will find a way to become golden once again.