I don’t recognize the California described in this article and I live in Los Angeles. It seems like a politically motivated attack on liberalism using California as a proxy for the Democratic Party.
California's Vanished Dream, by the Numbers
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Re: California's Vanished Dream, by the Numbers
#32> the average income of the top one percent of households in the city averages $3.6 million Great example of why average is a terrible measure, as the top one percent will include multi-billionaires and centi-millionaires.
For context: the top 5% of income starts at about $200k, and top 1% of income starts at about $500k nationwide.
Re: California's Vanished Dream, by the Numbers
#33Unfortunately, these pieces could almost always be reduced to "housing costs". They address it a bit in this most recent one, but homelessness / school enrollment / natural population growth / middle class jobs / energy costs can all be traced back to the huge housing deficit that's accumulated over the past 30 or 40 years.
I've also wondered if the high amount of income disparity in California is at least partially explained by the high amount of cost of living disparity in California.
There is a high amount of population that lives in agricultural areas like the Central Valley where the cost of living is drastically lower than the very population dense cities.
If you compare the people there to the relatively smaller number of high income earners who live in the excessively high cost cities of Los Angelos, San Francisco, etc. then on a graph its going to look unfair.
Even though the house in the Central Valley might actually be much bigger and nicer if you are ok living in the suburbs/ex-urbs.
Re: California's Vanished Dream, by the Numbers
#34> San Francisco, meanwhile, suffers the highest property crime rate in the country. Businesses like Walgreens have shut down numerous Bay Area locations due to “rampant burglaries.” Hasn't the "we're shutting down this Walgreens because of rampant burglaries" been repeatedly debunked? https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/is-shoplifting-forcing-wal...
Funny that you read that article as “debunking”. All I see is a bunch of opinions (mostly partisan) and guesses, with the company itself not releasing any details. What are you reading that I’m not?
Re: California's Vanished Dream, by the Numbers
#35Here is some cherry on top. This treatment of people looks like it belongs to China:
https://www.calhealthreport.org/2018/01/25/anti-homeless-law...
>"Kimberly Sandoval holds a ticket in her hand in disbelief. Her infraction: being in possession of spare bicycle parts."
>"She has also been ticketed for being in possession of a tent, a lawn chair and a Bluetooth speaker—all items newly banned at the Civic Center under an ordinance passed by the City of Santa Ana late last year."
>"Also prohibited under the new law: shopping carts, pallets, golf clubs, hockey sticks, screwdrivers, solar panels, mattresses, carpets, anything that can be used as a temporary toilet or as an outdoor shower, and storing or sorting recyclable materials."
>"In addition, the ordinance established a new permitting process for charity and social service organizations that offer food or medical services to the Civic Center’s homeless population, a move that residents and providers say has led to a steep drop off in aid."
Re: California's Vanished Dream, by the Numbers
#36The thing I want to look into that this article points out is how the thesis of "building dense housing is good / reduces housing costs" is panning out. Article seems to be saying that it isn't - here in CA, and elsewhere in the world - and TBH, that makes some sense to me, now.
"There keep being more people in the world, and they keep wanting to live in the same places" isn't resolvable by making those places able to handle more people - it's resolved by making more of those places. Seems to me, anyway, but I haven't exactly done any actual research on this.
(Although you do need enough housing in those places, or you haven't actually created more of the desirable housing, just made the existing housing more desirable, and there's lots of those existing places that definitely do need more housing.)
Re: California's Vanished Dream, by the Numbers
#37This is a partisan rag - so take this for what it is.
Re: California's Vanished Dream, by the Numbers
#38I don’t recognize the California described in this article and I live in Los Angeles. It seems like a politically motivated attack on liberalism using California as a proxy for the Democratic Party.
I grew up in San Diego (and my parents still lived there until they retired last year) and it sounds about on the mark to me.
Re: California's Vanished Dream, by the Numbers
#39[dead]
Re: California's Vanished Dream, by the Numbers
#40> San Francisco, meanwhile, suffers the highest property crime rate in the country. Businesses like Walgreens have shut down numerous Bay Area locations due to “rampant burglaries.” Hasn't the "we're shutting down this Walgreens because of rampant burglaries" been repeatedly debunked? https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/is-shoplifting-forcing-wal...
I strongly urge you to just stand in an SF Walgreens and watch how many people walk out the door with stolen goods. None of those incidents are reported, the security guards don't even bother getting up.
And why are people so staunchly in denial about crime in Seattle/San Francisco? Why do they seem to feel personally attacked?