Why California Has So Many Problems
Offset your carbon footprint with confidence with Wren--the first 100 people to sign up will have ten trees planted on their behalf for free: wren.co/start/wendover
Watch Jet Lag: The Game at / jetlagthegame
Buy a Wendover Productions t-shirt: standard.tv/collections/wendo...
Subscribe to Half as Interesting (The other channel from Wendover Productions): / halfasinteresting
KZhead: / wendoverproductions
Instagram: / sam.from.wendover
Twitter: / wendoverpro
Sponsorship Enquiries: wendover@standard.tv
Other emails: sam@wendover.productions
Reddit: / wendoverproductions
Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Josh Sherrington
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster
References
[1] www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/...
[2] siepr.stanford.edu/publicatio...
[3] www.theguardian.com/us-news/s...
[4] www.bayareaeconomy.org/files/p...
[5] www.nytimes.com/2022/08/12/te...
[6] calmatters.org/economy/povert...
[7] cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TigmV...
[8] www.visualcapitalist.com/this...
[9] www.energy.ca.gov/data-report...
[10] atlas.eia.gov/datasets/ae809a...
[11] oregoneconomicanalysis.files....
[12] rockinst.org/issue-areas/fisc...
[13] www.latimes.com/california/st...
[14] oag.ca.gov/immigrant/ca-law
[15] www.theguardian.com/politics/...
The countless tiny local governments are also partly why California’s public transportation is so bad. Facebook tried to get the Bay Area to reactivate an unused rail line near their offices. They gave up when they found out that *27* different government entities would have to be involved.
Commong bureaucracy L.
That’s WILD. Granted, SF’s shitty public transit problem is also why Uber/Lyft was born. So silver lining I guess
LA Metro keeps running into this issue. The Purple Line Extension was delayed because Beverly Hills kept suing (but lost all of them, even with Kamala Harris's husband as their lawyer), and now Bel-Air is trying to stop a subway through the Sepulveda Pass that would relieve traffic on the 405 and give people a transit option. Meanwhile, the light rail in the foothills keeps getting extended (even though it would serve fewer people) because the cities along it are more open to light rail expansion.
That is basically also southern Europe in a nutshell, too much bureaucracy, too much regulations, too much regulatory body you need to get permit from, so nothing gets ever done.
If you want to know one of the main reasons why the highspeed rail has taken so long it's mostly due to one giant district called kings county. Every step of the way they've been delaying the process for the sole purpose of making it impossible to finish.
California is like one giant country club...you're either in the club...or you work to cater to those in the club
💯
Perfect analogy 👀
Yep. I’m a pool guy. Running my own business. Taking care of the country clubs pools lol. Make just enough to rent and play at the beach every day. By peasant standards, I’m living large haha.
this is the best analogy
That's America
I'm a native multi-generational Californian who moved to Nevada, but -- believe it or not -- I'm moving back. Despite all its issues. That being said, this video is the BEST explanation on why California has so many problems, particularly when it comes to homelessness. I say this because the producer focuses on the history of California and most importantly, the specific policies that inhibit from solving any major problems, like housing and cost-of-living. Notably, I don't see any polarized left/right political agenda in the making of this video. Based solely on watching this video, I don't even know if the producer is left or right. If California wants to rise again -- and I think it can -- we need to move beyond ideology and focus on facts and data . And implementing practical, workable solutions based on facts and data irrespective of ideology. There are solutions! Other countries and cities around the world have identified, developed and implemented solutions that move beyond ideology and focus on utility and workability. Thanks for putting together this video!
I’m in San Diego. Don’t hold out much hope for evidence-based policies. Our government had this strange relationship where it’s more about deceiving voters and manipulating them as opposed to just doing what works.
the specific policies. not one single person has pointed out where these consistently bad policies continue to arise from. presuppositions turn into substance. if it continues to happen why blame the superficial aspect of the problem? blame the source
I’m having a hard time staying in California. I to, am a multi-generational Californian living in Orange. But after college, I don’t think my girlfriend and I can afford much here. We both have good jobs and make a stable income but a combined $160,000 can’t keep us stable here even without debt. We wanted to get a small house, but in most areas those can be 900k+. We are seeing how Oregon or Colorado are since we are both in the semiconductor industry.
Good. Keep the commies like yourself in California.
@@Okgeneric Not sure what you mean. Everyone knows (if they care to) the long laundry list of horrible CA laws, projects and policies that are ruining the place. Local rent control, refusal to do controlled burns, the train to nowhere, reducing shoplifting to a misdemeanor, gas taxes, predatory state lotteries, Prop 47, I could go on. We do nearly everything wrong here.
Fun fact. That little star on the California flag, is actually Texas! Believe it or not, California and Texas used to be homies, we helped each other so much they gave Texas a little spot on their flag. Its sad there seems to be such a rivalry between us for lack of a better word now. We still love you Cali! We may not show it as much as we used to, and we may disagree pretty often, but we very much still love you!
Texas is about to have a LOT of the same problems California currently has. Fucked up
I think a lot of the rivalry in recent years has been because of California's mass exoduses, followed by many of them still voting for the same types of policies that caused their problems in California
Thank you for mentioning the NIMBY's. They are one of the biggest problems faced by my state today. This "i got mine" attitude is killing California's ability to provide affordable housing to the point where californian-born americans are being priced out.
People are also living longer. I have a friend in his 40s who will inherit a one million dollar in San Francisco but his Asian parents probably won't die for another 20 years. So not only does that hurt his bottom line as decades ago he'd have already inherited wealth, but that house is also off the market. I know that sounds dark but it's just the reality of the situation. It's not something Boomer's control. They could downsize but would have to move out of California for it to make financial sense and many don't want to. The system is in need of a readjustment that likely won't happen with a major crisis because our politicians suck and are busy arguing for trans rights or other nonsense that affects a very small minority.
The state is on the brink of economic colapse just like SVB. Also their population doesnt represent normal America which causes its own problems.
Same in the Boston area my guy, the nimbys are a cancer and were all dying because of it.
@@RJT80 the boomers show up to community meetings to block projects and are in political positions that cater to the homeowning class. Its 100% something they control.
@@RJT80 simple - bring back landowners rights (cancel exclusionary zoning) and focus on land value tax instead of property tax. NIMBYs are not letting this happen and keeping us hostage
Fun fact: prior to the completion of the transcontinental railroad, it was actually faster to get to San Francisco from Guangzhou than from NYC.
Another fun fact - during that time period, if you could afford to have your laundry done by someone else, it was cheaper to send your dirty clothing to China for laundering, than to have it done locally.
@@lizcademy4809 I love your reply. Lol.
@@lizcademy4809 Unless time is money.
I wonder why Chinese immigration was so limited despite the geography… 🤔 Alas, I guess we will never know
@@BlueIron64 They would much rather go to B.C. or Toronto. Mostly B.C. Crime is too high in California.
I anticipate a housing market downturn due to the numerous individuals who purchased homes above the asking price, even with favorable interest rates. Despite the low rates, many are now at risk because they lack equity. If housing prices continue to decline, they may face difficulties selling or even risk foreclosure if they can no longer afford the property. This scenario is likely to impact a substantial number of people, particularly with the anticipated surge in layoffs and the rapid increase in the cost of living.
Can you suggest the investment coach you've been using? It appears you've had success with their guidance.
Bot @@Jason9o669
The housing market will indeed come down, however one feature which may mitigate the degree of crash would have something to do with the fact that this bubble occurred amid currency debasement (trump’s stimulus checks during Covid), Fed actions etc
Omg eww
@@WeekendsOutsideFL Nah the housing market won't have much downturn
this video made me emotional. I'm a Californian who moved to the East Coast for school and have never been able to articulate what felt so completely different about the two places despite being a part of the same country. this has explained so much for me. i feel such a mix of pride and confusion and disappointment and love after watching this video. thank you for this! you put it all better than any news site I have been able to find. and thank you for the references and links. I honestly feel enlightened and conflicted.
I think he was a little harsh. Go back to 6:00. He makes it sound like California is way ahead of other states when it's only 0.6 higher than Vermont in the number of people experiencing homelessness per 10,000. I think some of this is sensationalized. Not all of it, but some.
WRONG!!!! cal has one THIRD of the homeless in country and one THIRD of the folks in cal are homeless. cal's so fucked and MOST overrated place on earth -- but yeah, weather's great! duh, @@velvetbees
So... What makes California so much different from the East coast? I still can't quite grasp...
east coast is TWICE cal's age, for starters, so DEEP roots vs.shallow ones. ca's front of this crazy train, the face of murica. northeast (boston to dc) is engine, ie, the balls and brains of the country.. east coast is mind. west coast is body....and on and on ..... @@3abxo390
@@3abxo390 almost like being in a different country
Having worked in Homeless Services in California, it's really hard seeing people I know in stock footage of 'homeless people in California'
damn that sucks.
From very far away from California, I have to say: thank you. Not just for your service, but for the humanity you reflect with a small drop loke this. As alienated as I am from this situation, it's good to be reminded explicitly that these aren't just rendered NPCs that represent an abstract bad thing, but actual people that actually live in the world, actually going through complex lifes with many faces. Hope they're all doing better, wherever they are now - and hopefully we get to remember them as something better than stock footage for mass consumption.
That is hilarious
We need to get rid of the homeless industrial complex. THAT is the problem now.
@@TheseYeahThesewhat's a Homeless Industrial Complex???
My grandfather built a house in Atherton for his family in the 60s. It sold for 12x the cost of building and buying the original lot in 2015. We discovered recently that Steph Curry purchased the home through an alias and sold it soon after that multi level housing project was axed for 35% more than he purchased it for. Atherton CA is absolutely unreal.
😢
Multi-family units can be built in other cities where they wouldn't adversely affect property values.
You mean it's evil.
@@BillGreenAZsure but you have these wonderful democrats that preach for equality and then when it's too close to them they fight it and push it out to everyone else. The word is HYPOCRITES!
I moved away from California as soon as I graduated college. I'm not spending my earnings for 20 years to pay your grandfather's million dollar retirement.
I go to San Jose state university, in San Jose in Silicon Valley. I’ve grown up here my whole life. At school I learned from a professor whose on the board of supervisors for Santa Clara county that while tech averages $200,000+ a year, outside of that, we have an average of $30,000 a year. Also San Jose may have a million residents, but it swells to 3 million during the day because people come from 2-3 hours away to work in San Jose
The moment i realized Cali was a lot more glamour than truth was when i dated a girl from Cali, and how she told me how programmers earning six figures month were commuting via airplane from Texas, New Mexico and Oregon. As a European, that is just uttely inconceivable for me. It's like travelling from Berlin to London for a normal job, each day.
It’s important to remember that US wages are kinda skewed While US average wages are higher, Americans don’t receive stuff like free healthcare and that’s messed up because there are so many rich people in America. The regular American lives about just as well as the average person from any Western European country
At this one company, people that take a cooperate jet between Oregon, Arizona, and California daily. Its hundreds of people at dozens of locations and this is just one company. They fly for a in person meeting and then fly back. Some of the stuff they work on is classified, and they are not allowed to write it down or transmit it.
Oh yea, cause Europe’s housing is SUPER affordable….🤣
@@Brandon_TG_SmithCountries like England are only able to have universal health care because they're under US protection and can skimp on military spending. The UK only has 75K troops. The've shrunk their Navy and Air Force. If they had to actually defend themselves their universal healthcare would collapse. It might still fail even while they're under US protection.
The VAST majority of programmers in Silicon Valley earn six figures per YEAR and commute by car from neighboring cities. Salaries over $1M per year are VP-level positions, and these days, most executives who live outside the state routinely telecomute to work.
People: "Somebody has to get the homeless off the streets!" Government: "Okay, we'll build a shelter." People: "Nooooo not like that! We'll sue you!" Infuriating.
Also infuriating that it’s called “Californias homeless people problem” while other states literally put their homeless people on one way buses to cali
Kinda like building a wind farm next to the upper class echelon...
Stupid people. Yep
@@skylineXpert and an airport
I think they want them to bus or fly those to Texas, Florida or New Mexico instead.
Japan used to have a housing crisis too in 1950's but then turned it around by building lots of homes especially mixed use ones. Japan was influenced by American ways of life at the time such as suburbanization and urban sprawl. It had most of the problems California and the rest of North America have today. In 1968, Japan passed the New City Planning Law with the goal of reforming city planning/simplifying zoning and eventually paved the way for housing abundance in Japan. Japanese zoning only has 12 zones which encourages mixed use developments. Zoning in Japan is determined by the national government unlike how it is determined by the local governments in the US. This is why it's more difficult to upzone in the US. Japanese zoning gives Japan the ability to build tons of houses and create dense, walkable urban areas and meet housing demand. This in the end makes housing more affordable because there is no competition for housing. (I may be wrong on some things here so feel free to correct me!)
Nationally-determined zoning wouldn't be practical in the US because of the scale of the nation. But perhaps state-determined zoning would work better, at least in California.
no idea but I like the ideas behind this
Didn't get how more dense equals no competition. Isn't it more competition? Idk, maybe punctuation is at fault
@@tomasbeltran04050 more dense means supply goes up. more supply, less competition.
@@chinglamyung more supply less competition? Ðat doesn't make sense
"California is America's America" ooohh boy I can hear Texans screeching at that statement lol
Meh: California if American in all the wrong ways
Texans when they find out cowboys, ranches, cowboy boots and rodeos are mexican and Spanish in origin 😮
California is run by Democrats. The whole ethos of the Democrat Party is take away everything that makes America American and turn it into another generic Western nation.
@@DakotaofRaptors You're saying tech is wrong?
@@DakotaofRaptors It may not seem like it, but California is the perfect representation of everything that is wrong with America, but with exaggerated effects
Great video! As a Californian who moved away about 6 years ago, I am always looking to return. Unfortunately, as the years go by, moving back feels increasingly impossible...such a shame. I love California! Maybe I should just move on...
I work in Architecture in the Bay Area. I had a multi-family project die after being approved for construction, not because of local pressure (there was a lot of that though), but because of fees to the city. In CA, it's law that a certain number of all newly constructed multi-family homes must be allocated to low-income individuals. That's all fine and I agree with this. The issue is that city fees for these multi-family projects are astronomical. The property owner stopped the project because, in their words, the fees would have made it borderline impossible to ever make their money back from this project due to the low-income (and therefore lower rent) requirements on some of the units. While there's always backlash to change in the Bay Area when it comes to construction, sometimes the city themselves unintentionally block a project due to fees. My situation was unintentional, as the City really did want the project built, but they've failed to adapt their fee schedule to reality for these types of projects. It's gotten to the point where only the super large new multi-family complexes can even make a profit due to the sheer number of people living there and economies of scale.
Its the reason a Cyberpunk future can never happen. Voters won't allow their property values to collapse like that.
You would think the state would have the rich pompous assholes it hosts foot the bill quite literally with their taxes. That way it's not a question of making even. It's solely for the development and growth of the state with the people it will host and maintain for possible economic benefits. Your low income janitors, barristas, and street sweepers quite literally are an endless pool of labor for maintaining your city. Along with being your pool for future skilled labor. Your STEM grunts and coders come from somewhere. So why not invest in growing those benefits at home instead of from afar? It drives me nutty how much benefits I could make for any given city by telling these pompous "fuck you I got mine" rich assholes to shove it. We're building this. Fuck off somewhere else if you don't like it. Eat the rich. Eat the assholes. I'm tired of this bullshit.
"I had a multi-family project die after being approved for construction, not because of local pressure (there was a lot of that though), but because of fees to the city." One could argue those ludicrous fees are a form of local pressure. Those small municipalities can't overturn the legal requirements, but they can kneecap any attempt at following through on said requirements. Excessive red tape, ridiculous fees that aren't even close to being justifiable, etc.
I wondered about this. I really don't want very large apt complex in my home area, but don't mind 4-10 unit buildings mixed in with the homes. you don't end up blocking sky lines and it feels more neighborly. I'm also the type that don't like gated communities for the same reason.
@@jeremywerner9489 not just could be said, but a large part of it is explicit in places like mountain view (dunno how universal that is, I just know that for mountain view
I've always seen the old money in California. I grew up in different parts around socal, traveled and lived up north a few times end EVERYWHERE there's old and big money that refuses to allow change. I know California is viewed as incredibly liberal from the outside, and to some degree the state is. But more so it's a constant battle between old and new money, I've seen desalination plants shut down because it would hurt property value, I've seen cities make it illegal to feed the homeless. ive seen business plots go empty for years because the old heads didn't want more bars in their town. I've spoken to a hobby store owner who was warned about letting his customers get too "rowdy" playing magic lmao. We have to fight over everything and it doesn't stop for community or even family.
This is the most nuanced comment on this video
THIS!!!!!!
Very well put, it’s sad beautiful so many properties sit empty
Perfect example as to why diversity is good but also bad.
I always found it was the prime example of a failed government. As an outsider Canadian I have watched them fail as much as the CCP. Dump a bunch of shade balls into a reservoir then complain when a forest fire starts from dryness. Stop policing just allowing criminals to do whatever they want, particularly in San Francisco. Give almond farmers insane rates on water then complain about water shortages. Making themselves a haven for drug addicts. I see California as very liberal. Keep in mind if you look at the Forbes top 20 for the USA 18 out of 20 are very far left. People like Gates, Zuckerberg, Buffet, Bezos, even Musk was far left until like 2 years ago.
I grew up on the East Coast, moved out here for college and work. Now I know why it felt different, when you explained that both SF and LA are made up of multiple "cities" within. You don't get the same suburban feeling like you do on the East Coast with trees and green.
I only moved here in October, also from the east coast and it's lole seeing the difference between earth and Mars is some cases. I miss treed on the mountains, water I can see (rivers, streams, lakes), cities that look like cities and not a typical su urban whuch it seems that all of LA county is. I dislike it here very strongly ans want to move back east asap.
@jennifertarin4707 that's why I love Santa Cruz County. You're super close 2 SF and Silicone Valley but n the redwoods over looking the Pacific Ocean.
Only two problems - Democrat mayors and Gavin Newsome.
"change the character of the community", one of those nice euphemisms that boils down to "keep those poors away from me".
+
What's wrong with that? Usually poor people come with crime, noise, and blight. The whole point of earning a good living is so you can live a better life, separate from the people you don't want to interact with. Otherwise, why go to school and get a good job?
@@wallyballou7417 +
It is not lack of money that produces poor people. It is poor people produce the lack of money for themselves. In the usa for sure
@@wallyballou7417 but separating the poor people like that is what causes them to become/stay poor, which in turn causes even more crime.
Yeah, when you drive to California across the deserts and mountains, you start to get a true perspective of just how isolated most of California actually is from the rest of the country.
As someone who lives in Las Vegas, we are also quite aware of this. You leave our city and it's pure desert for hours
@@hiphipjorge5755At least you’re just 2-3 hours from LA, SD, and Phoenix. The Bay Area is like 7 hours away from the nearest metro.
Hey, sac is only an hour and a half away. @@rickowskii
yea i lived in cali my whole life and while i was able to visit many different states as a kid I know a lot of people who never left the state until after they were 18
You got Bart?
"Mexifornia" by Victor Davis Hanson is a great book.
I so want to love California right now. I can't stop loving all my Californians. Let's continue to pray and come here and share the love to California
Another reason it's so difficult to build in California is because of CEQA lawsuits. While CEQA was well intentioned to protect the environment, it's abused by NIMBYs to block the higher density housing the state needs.
I noticed that when the High Speed Rail was coming thru to my county. Local republicans didnt like it calling it a waste of money. They sued. It delayed the project for a few years- costing money, got caught up in court- costing more money. Nothing ever came of it and the project resumed. My local government patted themselves on their back, stuck it to the Libs, and still get reelected. If anything, it brought a good amount of money to the area, people got jobs for the project and selling materials to the project, the workers bought stuff from local shops.
@@CaseNumber00 A lot of NIMBYs go after transit projects which is infuriating. Just because they want to drive a car everywhere doesn't mean everyone else wants to. I'm in OC and very excited for CAHSR along with the opportunity to visit Fresno (for Yosemite trips) and SF (tourism and family) more often.
@@renaes2807 It's not just that they want to drive. It's that it makes their areas less accessible to poor people if there's no public transit.
⁶⁶
It's all Democrat fraud and corruption. From the 100k in permits to build a new single family house to the over 85k a year spent per homeless person to non profits to solve the homeless problem...
I'd say that California is more like two islands than one. You're absolutely right on the isolation, but that distance between the San Francisco Bay Area and the greater Los Angeles Area (with San Diego being close enough to Orange County not to be too isolated) is pretty damn massive itself.
Yes, and no. It is a large distance, but it is a manageable distance that - for example - several European countries and Japan also have between their two largest cities.
Yeah definitely like two islands. 6 hours to go to NorCal and us in SoCal don’t here much of what occurs up North. Along with Central Cal being mostly farm land and not as populated.
It would make sense to split the state in 2
Sure but it’s connected by road and valley cities like Fresno
@@TheElizondo88 talk about big ones like Brazil China India Russia Australia they have too
California's politicians might be terrible *cuts to Newsom* LMAO
What makes me fucking depressed is when i know its such a shitshow economy yet all of my friends my age and cousins are making 80-100k work from ANYWHERE jobs, moving out with ZERO problems and thinking about living in japan for a year JUST BECAUSE THEY CAN and i cant even get a 50k job with zero benefits
clifornians: "houses are so expensive!!! why doesnt the state do anything??" california: "we'll build a condo building then" californians: "NO YOU DONT!"
Just like everyone else in america, we’re waiting for the dang boomers to die.
there’s a kind of unspoken second half to NIMBY “Not in MY backyard… but you should totally do it somewhere else!”
The problem is those people are generally two different groups. People that want new housing are usually younger people who dont own a home already. The NIMBYs are usually older home owners (and Republicans that dont give a shit if it doesn't affect them)
Essentially it all boils down to income inequality.
@@LonecloneProductions literally in this comment sections californoïds are advocating jailing the homeless, deport them out of the state, or "round them up and put them in colonies in the interior" as if they were cattle. Finland has solved the problem, Japan has too, the solution is and always was simple : build housing and put homeless people in. Simple as that, and you'll save so much more money than you spend on palliative care.
There was a plan to connect the Californian oil and gas pipelines to the rest of the country. But the state government banned the project as they argued it would 'harm the environment.' Which makes a certain amount of sense until you realize that large amounts of fuel is instead shipped by truck into California because the state is dependent on outside energy resources. This creates a very expensive and very carbon intensive petroleum market in California, ironically in the name of being carbon neutral.
Don't forget that they banned owner operator truckers from the state, meaning they have fewer drivers and more freight needing imported
arent the pipelines already connected? LA is a huge oilfield wendover covered it too
This state does so many stupid things. My only hope is that as things get worse and worse for the regular working class people they consider finally voting for something else then the party that fucked them over for decades.
In the long run it would save the state so much money and stop more environmental harm if they just connected it. But because of how massive a project it is people only see the consequences in the short term, such as the cost and environmental damage. Its almost paradoxical because by building it your costing the state too much, but by not building it you end up doing the same.
Well isn't that partly why they want to ban oil vehicles ?
One mistake often assumed and mentioned in the video, is that Silicon Valley/San Francisco is the center of California's economy with $725 billion in GDP. It's pretty important, but its largely played a secondary role in the state. The Los Angeles metro has been more important with a $1.3 TRILLION GDP. That's put it behind Tokyo and NYC for the 3rd largest global metro GDP (that's one third of the entire state's GDP). It has had the largest manufacturing base in the country and the busiest ports, along with Hollywood and numerous other industries. Even if you counted household millionaires on paper across the conurbations, LA would top San Francisco/Silicon Valley because it's population has been 3 times as big as SF/SJC, and the median home price in both regions is about $1 million. Regards construction--many journalists have a very singular focus thinking it's only about lack of construction. It's not. There's actually been A LOT of construction. There's entire cities and exurbs that didn't exist 23 years ago. In urban areas every single empty lot is bought up and brand new condos and apartments built on it. The actual problem NOT TALKED ABOUT BY THE MEDIA, is that we allow equity and cash rich investors of all types from mom and pop to institutional investors and Black Rock, and flippers, buy up single family homes. That takes out housing stock from the market diminishing supply. Would be first time homebuyers are priced out and keep renting. Until that is addressed housing will continue to be expensive. It's almost like they know, but ignore the issue and instead focus on the supposed regulations and construction (which has not been lacking). 5 years ago for instance Los Angeles was among the top 5 cities with construction starts in the U.S. By mentioning construction and regulations it shows they either don't understand the reality or keep repeating the straw man argument with no concrete evidence. Its not, I repeat not been a lack of construction. It's been a lack of real estate investment regulation. That would go a lot farther because all that cash being poured into real estate, particularly buying up existing homes, would drop. And first time buyers would not face bidding wars with cash flush investors.
Funny, I live in the Netherlands and our housing market has the exact same problems. And the government response is almost exactly the same. They keep spouting rhetoric about building more housing. We have 8 million homes for 18 million people. Thats 2,25 person per home, and most of those homes are single family houses that can easily house 4 people. Lack of housing is not the problem. Neoliberal government deregulating the housing market, reducing what in America would be section 8 subsidized housing for the poor, international investment mainly from other EU countries, and the government selling out to the private sector, with local governments preferring to sell plots of land to real estate developers that build 600K+ each luxury apartment complexes and villas to get a bigger profit margin instead of building affordable housing, are some of the problems I can name. Oh and besides the foreign investors, guess who owns most of our real estate? The banks, insurance companies, pension funds, and of course old money. They are now talking about changing laws to force farmers to sell their land to build more villas for the rich and powerful to buy so that we peasants can pay rent for the rest of our lives. Im emigrating.
@@TheSuperappelflapreal estate is not the reason for the attention dairy farming is receiving from regulation. The vast nitrogen output produced by so many dairy cattle is genuinely destroying biomes. There are far more productive means for producing food at scale than exporting a ton of Gouda. Lentils, for instance, are a far more efficient, economical, and environmentally sustainable source of protein. Besides, most of the farmland is already owned by large corporations over there too, right?
@@saelkyl Incorrect. What you’re saying is the official government narrative. In reality most of the nitrogen comes from pig farms, not from cows. But the government wants to pass laws enabling them to force farmers to sell their land so they can sell it to housing project developers. Pig farms don’t take up a lot of land. Cow farms do. That’s why those farmers are being targeted. It’s always about the money.
@@saelkyl It's not your business what farmers produce and to whom they sell.
By FAR the wisest comment in this video. (and informative) ... thank you. What disgusts me, on the other hand..? And why I can't listen to this lib turd..? He thinks CA deserve to cleave off from the nation for abortions & gun bans. But Texas..??? Has to just shut up and take it as mass illegal migration run by cartels persists ... and all the crime + murders that come with it. Or heck, why not just put CA in charge of the US ... then, you can legalize shoplifting up to $1,000 ... so instead of some of the most profitable stores only fleeing SF, etc., they'll simply cease to exist. Who needs drug stores!? Liberalism is a disease.
People that live in CA complain about the un-sheltered masses but they're not willing to create practical solutions. The idea that towns won't build multiple unit housing is just ridiculous.
Having lived in California for a few years, one issue is (subconsciously due to being the center of the entertainment industry) people sometimes like to push through faux solutions that appear to be fixes but don't truly do anything. There can be a focus on appearing to be a progressive fix and virtue signaling over actual fixes. Being such an appealing place with favorable weather and so much going on and to do, it naturally attracts more people...which means more problems.
Their is a simple question to "Why California Has So Many Problems".... The people their are democrats and Socialist leftist liberals.... The majority of the people their are w0ke and it's disgusting.... They keep voting democrat expecting change lmao.. They got what they voted for and every Californian deserves the increasing crime rate over there. Not to mention the majority of the people their believe in exposing children to filth and harming children... The majority of the people in california especially the Black community has a victim mentality.... The majority of the Proletarians in that state and the lazy college students born into middle class families support and believe in socialism even though time and time again in history it has been proven to fail. Not to mention the majority of the people their are promiscuous... So the californians deserve everything that is happening rn in their state, I just hope these people who keep voting democrat never leave their state because they deserve everything that is happening to their cities, Especially the californians who are living in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
That's how they launder the tax dollars.
Economists call this the "agency" problem. Government agencies can never solve the problems they are charted to solve because then they would no longer need to exist.
You just describe what almost every poltician does.
You just described so many social programs paid for with high taxes. They sound great when you vote for them...but in reality are terrible
I’m glad you mentioned the piece about oil in California, as I think that’s played a pretty big part in the state’s history. While the oil taxes do the state no favors, California still has to import a lot of oil to meet demand. I believe it’s one of the reasons that LA was originally more of an oil town before it became what it is today.
LA still is an oil town; they just try to hide it
There's plenty of oil left...however the land is worth more as RE than oil well space. When I was a kid Venice & Playa del Rey were filled with oil wells. Every open lot had wells.
This documentary is not entirely true on the subject of oil. I live in Salt Lake City, where we have oil and natural gas wells. We also have refineries. We export petroleum products to CA via truck or rail. We have to refine our gasoline and diesel to CA standards.
I just started the video, can't wait to hear all the excuses for failed government policy and agenda. They dwarf everyone in tax base. California has so many things going for it they manage to ruin, it's crazy. I expect many will be missing based on title of vid. Texas is #2, but they don't have problems because their government is conservative. LOL. He really just concluded that 19:18, almost directly. I'm not even conservative, just sure as hell not progressive left... but that is great stuff, W
Well well well lmao
Florida also has agriculture inspection stations although they’re mostly restricted to semi trucks but they still exist
Something I learned in 4th grade (when there was a focus on CA history): Besides the trans-Panama route, some also sailed around the bottom of South America (Cape Horn) to reach California during the Gold Rush. We read a novel taking place during the GR where the protags took that ship-only route from the East Coast. Edit -- the novel was "By The Great Horn Spoon!"
HOLY MOLY! We read that same exact book in 4th grade too! XD A big fact I still remember to this day lol
@@thewackyrandomkidsamee
I’ve lived in California my whole life but I may have to move out because of the high cost of living, it’s really difficult and frustrating. Thanks for sharing /making this!
When you flee to a red state are you going to vote for the same political party that causes all of the problems in California?
You’re not alone! My aunt just moved from Cali to North Carolina.
Me too, I’ll really miss being Californian but the entire state is just too expensive for my family
Pittsburgh is calling.
@@PeanutTheSnail - I'm seriously considering moving to North Carolina from NJ. I've never been there but yet that's where I'd like to move to. Maybe somewhere outside of Ashville, Idk. 🤷♂
First year moving to LA I had the realization that CA is America concentrated. All the good and the bad about the US are louder here. Everyone I talked to about this could get it, but I’m glad to see someone else sees that
Because of gentrification lol
What a garbage take. LA is a dumpster fire of filth, drugs, violence, and everything wrong with modern western civilization
Theres another problem....you moving to california.
@@MrLynch-ei4dc this is the only problem. We were fine until everyone wanted to be a movie star or a tech start up.....
@@knockhello2604 No, Demographics is destiny, people mistook the brain drain of a war torn europe as universal effect of immigration from anywhere, once that ran out, we imported dysfunction. A California with ~1960's demographics today would be the claimed nordic dream of its voters.
In 1996 we went to CA. The people in LA were nice. we found a lot of people in SF rude. We're from NYC, and found the SF people ruder. Sorry. I'd like to visit CA again. We have family there.
I feel like I could learn so much if you did this for every state
California is also a state that requires massive amounts of cooperation to make livable. Huge dams and other water projects carry water across the state, building code relies on extensive geological research to be safe, and megafires need huge amounts of coordination to be put out. Breaking the state into three would have detrimental effects of all of these things, making cooperation at California's scale more difficult and maybe even impossible
Not really. Compare it to the states in the east of Australia, which has a lot of similarities with regard to megafires and water management. There is cooperation/interconnection where necessary, but economic and governmental separation otherwise. A lot of this is inertia because the wealthy refuse to compromise on their lifestyles. The rest is political coming from Washington.
California could not exist without piping in water from extreme distances. California is an engineering marvel. Also, California is a Social Engineering marvel... 😄
We have the same 1400 dams give or take 1 or 2 that we had when I was a kid and there were 11 million people here - The 30 million newcomers have built nothing - only used up what the "original" people built decades ago (if you apply natural birth and death rates to the 1950s/1960s the CA population should be about 12 million today - Instead the population is 40 million
@@grisall CA mostly wants complete control over how to allocate water from dams. So they built their own dams, like Oroville Dam, instead of the US Corp. of Engineers. Yet when when the state built and owned and operated Oroville Dam's spillway and Emergency spillway spectacularly failed, it cost about as much in adjusted dollars to fix that, as it did to build the entire Oroville dam to begin with. And the Feds found a way to help with that rebuild, for a dam the feds don't get to have any say in how that water is allocated. Nice arrangement when you can get it !!
@@HardRockMaster7577 CA could definitely exist without water projects it would be less populous though
So the thing about Atherton (and forgive me if I'm confusing this since it happens so often out here) it wasn't just an apartment proposal, but it was apartments specifically for senior living. So it wasn't even like this development was going to dramatically change things to let in stereotypical single partiers, it was going to be for more relatively quiet living older folks. The NIMBYism is strong here. Too many people only care about their own personal impacts, and care little for the community at large. Especially when taking a little personal hit is what's better for everyone as a whole.
Steph curry is portrayed by the sports media as such a wholesome nice guy 🤣so funny to see that mentioned here
Important clarification. We do have the solution to homelessness. It's Homes. Full Stop. There is no other solution. Just like the solution to hunger is food, the solution to nudity is clothes, etc etc. Now there are obviously other factors. Like Mental Health, under employment, substance abuse, etc. But solving those issues does not solve their homelessness. Only a home does that. So we just need to build more homes, specifically next to jobs. That ratio is quite eye opening as the primary driver of it. It's basic supply and demand, we either increase supply (more homes) or decrease demands (reduce jobs) that's it. Ta Da!
Most if not ALL the Cali homeless are from other states.
I disagree. The reason a person became homeless (insufficient income, addiction, medical problems, etc.) don't just go away simply because they are given a new home. Without personalized long term care, they could just become homeless again.
I grew up in California and the population was smaller and the need for housing was based on affordability. If you could get better employment housing could be attained. The homeless were not based on social problems like drugs. If you keep adding more people to your location and do not have jobs or housing available this is the outcome. California wants to build housing for people that do not want to be controlled by the government. It makes no sense.
I’ve lived in CA Bay Area suburbs my whole life. We need to build more housing and improve our infrastructure. I think we need to change parking lot requirements, build more parking garages and housing, and get rid of the huge sprawling parking lots that take up a huge amounts of land. A lot of the people here are very stuck up and refuse to concede that fixing the states problems might mean some taller ugly buildings, but we NEED to use that vertical space.
No, we don't need more parking garages.
From a European perspective, you dont need more parking, you need alternatives to cars, e.g. busses, subways/trams, trains, bikelanes that people actually want to use without getting overrun by a car/truck. By doing this, you decrease the total number of car ownerships, thereby also the number of parking lots required, you make the population healthier (less airpolution, more fitness activities with by riding bikes or walking to and from stations) and you make transportion in general more accessable for everyone (including the poorer people).
One of our biggest problems is too much parking, too much car focus, too much valuable real estate sitting there for an inanimate car with a very, very low usage rate. No, less cars, less parking, more transit options that ARE NOT CARS will absolutely help California.
@@SaltyDroscho exactly. Get people to react to urbanism KZhead channels like Not Just Bikes, it’ll be a huge eye opener for everyone as to why American car-centric infrastructure is dragging us down.
We need to STOP paying people to breed. Close the Borders and cut-off the slave trade which allows 90% of the wealth to accumulate in 2% of the people.
I love California and have lived in multiple parts of the state. Metro area and rural. The only thing California's residents agree on universally is that it's someone else's fault.
I put my hamster in a sock and slammed it against the furniture
@@TippyHippy as one does.
Of course they do. They're democrats.
And that someone else should pay for it.
I lived in Sacramento for some years in my 30s, and during that time, the cost of housing DOUBLED, while my pay went up by like $2/hr (over 7 years). Housing is a shitshow there. I'm now back in the rural Western New York town that I left in the first place, and my mortgage is cheaper than renting a room anywhere in CA. The combination of a housing shortage and a complete lack of local-level will to do anything about it is infuriating. NIMBY is way out of control and causes the problems that need to be solved.
He says our gas costs more because of a mountain range???WTF??? He’s making stuff up. As a 62 year veteran of Ca. With a political Science degree from UCLA. Who pays close attention to all of our political policy’s I can tell you for certain EVERY problem we suffer from (high gas, high taxes, homeless problems, over regulation of building codes, etc.). is a direct result of the policies of our leaders. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s all self inflicted.
Democratic state of Sh1te
Mountain Range of Corruption and Rent-Seeking.
Your degree is outdated old man
@@stellviahohenheim your degree in Elizabethan lesbian theory is useless, please stop acting as if you have any real education. Spend less time trolling utube and more time paying off your student loans and moving out of your mommies basement.
I don't think the mountains help with prices but their impact is nothing compared to every governing body adding their own gas tax.
Born in and lived around Hayward and the general Bay area and it's always blown my mind how you can hop on the Bart or just drive a couple miles and see homeless shanty towns made out of sheet metal and trash that look like a 3rd world country and then immediately stumble upon million dollar homes and districts
Honestly, that is the 3rd world experience: shanty towns and million dollar homes.
Yeah that's interesting. I spent a summer in San Jose and had a hard time figuring out some of the things I was seeing. In Milpinas, you had an abundance of multi-million dollar homes and drivers turning their noses up behind the wheels of their Teslas and BMWs. Yet, this area was in the path of a constant Jetstream of wind coming from the nearby waste management facility. Imagine working so hard to earn your fancy house and car, only to be living in an area that constantly smells like shit. The American Dream is subjective for everyone I suppose.
@@rustyshackleford6637 They might not even be living in those homes that's why. A lot of rich people who don't have a single location to work from, executives/politicians/celebrities who are constantly living in fancy hotel rooms. If they do live somewhere sort of permanent then it's in rural isolated areas, far away from any "poor" people to bother them.
This state is great if you're mega rich or super poor. If you're middle class you're getting screwed. People choose to vote this way though. Things could change yet every election they choose to keep things this way.
You just described every major city in the US lmao
As a Californian we do in fact have many problems.
California is an invention. The earliest settlers from the East spoke of contact mudslides and the air full of smoke almost year round. So they figured out ways to deal with the mudslides and put out most of the naturally occurring fires. Now California deals with mega-fires while the governor makes a video weeping about the redwoods that don't even burn while refusing to allow people to do anything in response. It's a state in a constipated state. Prisoner to its own ridiculous politics. And it's losing to other states now. The Texas triangle (Dallas investment, Austin R&D, and Houston and San Antonio manufacturing) is going to put Silicon Valley out of business. Even Miami is becoming a new global tech hub. California is a weird state. 30 miles along the coast it's artificially expensive. Way up north it is fairly affordable but very tribalistic. And then the inland desert is very interesting and beautiful but full of very odd human beings. It's a shame Republicans couldn't hold onto it because it worked at one point. Now it's kind of in a zombie state. Still plenty of money coming in but everyone can feel the slow decline.
Population has declined more than there are homeless. Everything mentioned in this video is absolute garbage. There are enough homes, there's enough room to build more. The problem is you keep voting Democrat.
From my POV its just like most bigger cities. A term in Denmark I like to use is Rødvinds socialister, or translated redwin socialists. From the video it seems like there are ton of good meaning people in the state, but when push comes to show...They dont really mean action.
As another Californian I can confirm this
I grew up in CA. It was amazing. However, after graduating college, it dawned on me that in order for me or any of my peers to "live the way we grew up", is to either be a super smart hard or soft engineer, or another very high paying job. For the majority of people though, when they realize that even with the combined income of them and their partners, they might be relegated to apartment life. My theory is that mentally people don't like the idea of being "behind" in life wealth and accumulation vs their parents, so they find other more affordable states to move to.
California is under represented? You’re joking? I’m all in succession of California.
Are there any statistics to show what state the homeless people in each state are from? I would like to see how many of the homeless population is actually Californian and for those who aren't, if they were homeless before they moved to California. I lived in Phoenix and many homeless people were from places like New York, New Jersey, Chicago and colder climates and they had either moved to Phoenix to carry on being homeless in Phoenix (because it was easier for a homeless person than the bitter cold of the places they left) or they were trying to get enough money to get to S. California which also has mild winters but the summers are not as hot, so a lot more forgiving, especially for homeless people. Also, California is very permissive (at least in the last 2 decades) of where homeless people camp etc. 15 years ago, I used to travel to many parts of LA and barely saw a y of the homeless people living on the streets. Now they pitch tents everywhere! Phoenix and some cities clear out homeless encampments from most areas within the neighborhoods and businesses so it incentivizes the people to keep moving (especially because most their possessions get destroyed in many states, but many cities in California literally lets them set up permanent tent cities along many neighborhoods, therefore rewarding the habit)
Exactly. I was wondering why this video didn't connect the dots as to why homelessness decreased in some states while simultaneously increasing in California. As if that's just a coincidence. Or magic?
Another reason Cali has so many homless is that its one of the few places in the country you can survive year round in a tent and not die of exposure. The weather is ironically too nice.
not so much in the interior of Cali with high mountains and dry desserts. I'd say there is a looooong stretch of country where this IS true like the whole stretch of the south border of the USA.
True, homeless people in places like NYC usually leave for the winter or resort to finding hidden places in urban areas like subways which keeps them warm, meanwhile there are zombie like humans wandering and sleeping around on the streets of warm states like Cali
stop lying to yourself
I'm sure the open air drug markets have nothing to do with it.
The NIMBY component of the homeless crisis is so heartbreaking and enraging at the same time. People will say homeless people are lazy bums and that there’s government resources out there, but when selfish, self centered communities refuse to make even modest changes to improve the amount of housing, where will anyone, not just homeless, find a place to live?
Allow the homeless to live in your home then This is the first step towards solving the issue
@@misturdean3189 now explain to me how the absolute fuck that's the same as doing what countries like Japan and Finland have done to solve homelessness
I agree with the first part of your statement but having spent time speaking with the homeless, it seems that it's not just a simple matter of giving them a home. Most of these people suffer from drug addiction, many of them suffer from mental illness, usually one leads to the other. Sure there is a minority that just needs a one-up but curing homelessness for real is a mush more complicated issue than building homes.
@@legalcams that’s a fair point, some of the root causes of homelessness are easier to deal with than others. My frustration was more that, as the video states, there is wealth and the desire by local lawmakers to try and make an impact with rezoning efforts, but their blocked by excessive resistance. Other issues like drug addiction are a massive driver too, but the nimby thing is something we as a society can easily and should make a change to avoid
@@wizardmix wait till you find out homelessness leads to drug abuse, rarely the other way round. Desperate people will do anything to alleviate the pain.
San Diego was amazing to visit. People were so friendly.
As a Californian, I can confirm that everything he said in this video is 100% correct, I am glad you brought this up; these are problems we have been dealing with for years and no one truly seems to understand why its happening or what it is and how to solve it. Thank you for clearing the air.
Mildly surprised to see no mention of Prop13 and it’s unintended effects on inflating property value since it encourages homeowners to hold their properties which contributes to fewer homes being available and worsens the housing situation.
Wendover Productions is a conservative content creator so of course he is going to gloss over the failure of Californian Republican rule. While the video bashes the left at 22:38 he fails to mention that until recently California was a purple state, Ronald Reagan was governor of California before becoming president for example. Prop 13 is the proverbial conservative boat anchor left over from California's purple era that keeps dragging the whole state down.
@@srenchin idk fam i don't think his "left-bashing" was sincere. it reminded me of Cicero's courtroom technique: "the other guy *may be* right, but actually x, y, z" i remember Wendover bashing Trump anyway. naw, Wendover strikes me as a progressive, just the increasingly rare progressive who actually looks at data and wants to help other people
@@srenchin I'm not going to say you're wrong here... but let's stop blaming Reagan. Regan was elected governor over 40 years ago, and for almost my whole life Democrats have had a control here of every branch of government. We can blame him for putting the problems in place (similar to the asylums being shut down with the homelessness crisis) but Democrats have done almost nothing in the decades they've been in charge to actually fix it.
Prop 13? What was that, 50 years ago?
@@spidgeb3292 Yeah and it's . . . . . still a law, sooooo . . . . . kinda still relevant? My street is 60% retired, zero-income households in million dollar houses.
While visiting CA i was wondering why I didn't see any apartment buildings. This video helped me understand! People with low-income jobs have a tough time living in CA!
There are countless apartment buildings in CA lol
@@punchnazis3498 evidently not, tf?
Gee if only we didn't send $100 billion to a corrupt country to fight a fake war, we could have actually helped these people...
There are apartment buildings, but not clearly enough to house everyone at the lower income levels. California should be taking pages from Japan's (and Asia in general) playbook in building small apartment complexes (like building 5 family unit apartments on the same plot of currently 1 housing unit of land) but NIMBYism and poor Transportation makes those buildings a pipe dream. In all honesty, the major cities in California should be using Eminent Domain and use rezoning to turn light residential (getting rid of the idyllic single-unit family homes) near Major sections of cities (like Downtown LA) into medium residential density zones (opting for more single building multi-unit apartment buildings). Again, all of what I stated would never EVER come to pass because it'd affect too many lives despite it paving the way for keeping up with the future growing pains of California. As is, there just isn't enough room people-wise in California - which is why many are moving to other states like Texas, Nevada, and Arizona. And the change California needs to make to accommodate the amount of people in California currently would take too long to actually get done.
This is entertainment. Don't take it as factual.
Thank you for the fair analysis. I'm a native of California who no longer lives there for several reasons, mostly because I could not afford to live there. I know California has its problems but it's too easy for some to reduce it all to political talking points. The problems are complex but there are factors (some are self-inflicted, some can't be controlled) that make it difficult to solve these problems. I do roll my eyes when people describe California as some kind of hellhole when many of its problems come from the fact that there are too many people who want to live and work there but there isn't enough housing. This is a gross simplification, but it's kind of like that Yogi Berra expression. "Nobody lives there anymore. It's too crowded."
I just want to mention something about California homeless numbers. While it is largely due to high cost of living and housing and whatnot. Thats not the whole story. Homeless people also get bussed from all over the country to California. So not only do we have our own homeless to deal with but also other states as well. There's also another factor screwing the numbers. For large portions of the state we have no actual winter or a mild one. Which means less homeless people die each winter. Which in turn means there's always going to more homeless people here than in other states where winter kills alot each year. Its easyer to physically survive in California due to the climate. So its always going to have more than average.
I'd be curious to see how many of these issues apply to Pacific Northwest states, such as Washington and Oregon. I know they're also historically distant from the rest of the country (though less so with the Oregon Trail) and struggling with housing and homelessness.
Yeah i was thinking that many of these things resemble the pacific Northwest, just not the size and scale part. However, Cascadia would be a formidable neighbor with similar social values. It's no surprise that the three west coast states formed a response pact for COVID, and OR/WA be emboldened by California should a national rift form. Unfortunately tho there's a lot of people who support Cascadia on racist grounds and stain the idea.
The difference is that California has far more people than Oregon and Washington combined.
Seattle is pretty much like California just less insane
PacNW is Cali light at this time. And mostly it is about scale.
It’s a lot less pronounced in PNW than Cali but I definitely see the early stages of something similar in the Seattle metro area as it’s been growing faster than infrastructure or policy can adapt to handle for some time.
I was born in California and I live in California. California is a beautiful state to live in. The ocean, the mountains, Believe it or not, even the deserts. However our politics suck.
Here in California we have everything, beaches, mountains and beautiful scenery etc. Said by some fool whose never left the state.
Politics sucks everywhere. If it was so great on the other side 8 of the 10 poorest states wouldn't be red... That's not a knock to either side really but they need to become more centrist to actually get anything done not only federally but at the state and local level as well...
@@jasonlee8156 I say those things and I travel across the country for work. 🤷♂
@@ironmonkey4o8 To be fair though I will say this. Very few places if any has everything. State or country. If you want to see everything you are going to have to do some travelling around. As sure as hell Ca. doesn't have everything.
@@jasonlee8156 Sure. Would be stupid to think that any one place have "everything". But California has everything that the original poster mentioned (oceans, mountains, deserts).
I always thought California was this dreamy, amazing place until I actually went to California.
And now major cities are seeing crime escalate and perps not being punished. Who wants to visit san Francisco when the stores are all closed.
I recently went to Naples, and the density in the old Roman city was absolutely staggering, buildings stretching five or six stories, and yet streets barley wide enough for vespas. It was like no large city I have ever been in, including other large European cities.I know you already did a video on healthcare in the ancient center of Jerusalem, but it would be interesting to get a deeper dive on the solutions people have come up with to live modern lives in such places
I hope you didn’t get robbed bro
Love Naples, dense but so safe, safer than any American city, and the melt in your mouth 🍕 😋
@@jamesedwards1284 I live abroad, near Naples. I've been there many times and it's safe. Safer than Portland anyways 😂
@@spacesabove8780 safer than Portland is like saying a place has better education than Mississippi, not the best example😂
@@isaackolman2861 just taking the chance to shit on Portland
As a Californian I think the major problem is the red tape. Cutting a lot of that away for new infrastructure would help a lot. And even though a lot of politics is left-leaning, We still have problems with corporations getting waaay too powerful
It's really not corporations that are the problem in terms of red tape. Corporations would love for there to be less red tape, more affordable housing, and more workers. The problem is that wealthy individuals, who say they support progressive policies, block them from being implemented anywhere close to their neighborhoods. This results in affordable and multifamily housing never being built in the areas where it makes sense to be build. The fact is that "left-leaning" rich people do not want to live near regular working people. To them we are untouchables that must be segregated out of their utopias, even if that means suffering that grows at an exponential rate.
@@sososo4713eh, I do get it. As someone who grew up poor but was given privilege by God later in life I see both sides. California IS full, and there’s a lot of crime done by the lower classes. ie: San Francisco. If you spent $5 million on a home would you want people who live in inner cities moving in by the masses to raise the crime around you? I grew up in the inner city and I NEVER want to live near those people again. It could seem hypocritical me saying this but I didn’t upgrade via affordable housing units so
I'm from south Carolina and in California. Time to confuse you like all the other Californians lulz. Bojangles Publix waffle House huddle house sweet tea QT. 😂😂😂😂😂
@@hotmess9640If a person can afford a $5 Million home,.. and isnt doing more to help the less fortunate,.. I’d have some words to say about them which I can’t repeat here.
It's almost as if the biggest corporations directly benefit from generally high tax rates that destroy their small-business competition. Entry barrier regulations that the left wing loves so much is exactly what corporations want, which is why the biggest media that they own keep largely supporting the left wing
As someone who lives in oakland over the past 5 years more and more apartments spring up but no one actually lives In them because of the price. If you walk around at night you will see maybe 1 in 50 windows lit up
I grew up in California after moving from Moldova as a small kid. The state seemed like the promised land to my parents and even to me. I absolutely loved it. Although cracks were beginning to show. My parents recognized them and moved out in 2004. Well, before the housing crisis of 2008. I still love visiting the state and my relatives, but I am so glad that my parents moved out of there when they did.
"California's economy is *too good* for its own good" is such a California thing to say 😂😂😂
Something else to consider is the founding of Nevada in 1864. One of the proposals would have had the border at the crest of the Sierras, which would have added a lot of the smaller communities to Nevada’s counties. Alpine County is a unique example - they contract with Douglas County, NV for many services because it’s cutoff from the rest of the state during winter storms.
My opinion is that they should make some kind of express train line leading out of the big cities somewhere they can make more houses. My reasoning for this is that clearly, the people of California won't accept high density housing, nor will they want to slow down their economy. They don't want homeless shelters or anything, and their highways are too clogged to fix with more lanes. Anyone in California won't accept anything less than the American dream, with their own single-family home, but driving to work is not an acceptable option anymore Therefore, if they simply make high-speed or express trains leading far from the city centers, they can have their low density housing, and their beaches, while still getting the higher salaries of working in the city with a bonus of shorter commute times. They have the average income to buy a big home outside the city, and California is rich enough for it - plus they could always get rid of a lane or two of highway for the trains to avoid backlash from property owners.
We just need to get rid of greed.
A big part of the homeless problem comes from other big cities in other states shipping their homeless to California. Most note-ably to areas with consistent good weather like coastal towns. I used to live in Santa Barbara, where homeless live on the beach and are in every single public park. My college roomate did a project where he interviewed a bunch of them, and not one originated from the area. Most of them were given a free one way bus ticket to California, only to realize once they arrived they had no way to go back.
The "refugees welcome" image doesn't either.
Most of the homeless comes from these other terribly run states and yet they have the audacity to label California as the homeless capital of the nation when in reality most of the homeless aren’t even from here. California has areas where it is already difficult to get to so imagine being homeless and dropped off in one of those areas and you can’t even leave because of how spaced out California is? I live near the Sacramento area and the only way to get around from town to town is by car since the public transportation is nearly nonexistent, so the homeless are literally trapped here because you can’t just walk these parts freely without a car
@@Johnson-ji6bg No government agencies hand out pipes or foil. There are plenty of other programs that will provide basically the same amount of money for different reasons. That isn't just for the homeless. Pretty much anyone can get that ~$600 a month no matter who you are for one reason or another. There are also no "open use drug policies". A lot of places are so "progressive" they actually don't even let you smoke in public. They don't arrest the homeless unless they are caught in the act doing drugs because arresting every homeless person would cause more problems for the cities than it would fix and it would never stop until you had to make gulag style internment camps to house them all. Do you want to pay more and more taxes to house every crazy homeless person that comes to the state? A huge amount of the homeless here do in fact come from other states because they think there is more money here and will die in the winter otherwise where they are from. Everyone knows that and any of them can tell you that. The problems come from all of the "nonprofit" companies that are exploiting local governments to collect income under the guise of helping the homeless, which happens across the west coast. Idiots like you are completely clueless and only exist and get promoted to dumb down the discussion on these topics so nobody gets held accountable for defrauding the government and so people can sell more weapons/equipment/etc to the heavily militarized police forces they have in this state. The problem is corruption and it isn't exclusive to one party despite what idiots like you and the crazy bay area corporate liberals say.
@@Johnson-ji6bg Except that other states sending the American Southwest their homeless has been a well-documented thing for at least 20 years. The same thing has been happening to Arizona, who has a very different stance on the issues you feel are the deciding factors. Plus, it was pointed out that the states these homeless were coming from were the sources of these one-way tickets that lead to people leaving the states they originated from.
@@Jose04537 That's a false equivalent. Mose refugees aren't drug addicts, mentally ill or people who would readily want or accept a homeless lifestyle. I'd argue most refugees would proudly work and want to be part of a community as they were in the war torn areas they came from.
the californian housing crisis is impacting our rural areas, too. i was born in LA and moved to rural NorCal for college, living in a logging community turned college town. our university very recently became a polytechnic, and it's been a disaster on housing. we already had a crisis of houseless students, and now that number has skyrocketed as the university dramatically increased its amount of accepted students without building more housing first. there are several hotels in our town being rented out by the university to house students. i paid $1500/month when i lived on campus; i don't even want to know what the school is charging these students to live in hotels. now that my partner and i have graduated from college, there are no local jobs that pay enough to recoup our tuition fees, and most university jobs are filled by people from out of the area. we can't afford to move back south to silicon valley or LA, and so we really have no choice but to contribute to the problem of californians leaving en masse for oregon & washington. i want to live near my family but am being chased further and further away from them by how absurdly expensive CA is
Lumberjacks!
I feel sometimes college is very unnecessary since debt and cost's are really a outrageous problem. Why not just hire a personalized teacher so they come to your house and teach you via 12-17 dollars sub payment every week depending if you are a slow learner or not to teach you every day and eventually test you on required school subjects. Let's say someone wants to be a programmer, which means the private lessons for the job degree you need for programmer is Math's 1 and 2 plus algorithmizes and computer science training pass all that and get a trained degree so you would not need to go to college to jump through unnecessary classes that you should not have to jump through. This would allow every one to get the job they want without the need to waste time with college. this new one on one personalized teacher sub-pay system would allow everyone to go at the pace they want and the teacher can use any teaching method to fit the persons learning curve speed plus this personalized teacher would even treat you to go out to lunch ,or even dinner if things take too long those same personalized teachers still get your payment weekly subs when they come to your house and teach you. I know online classes exists ,but the problem is some people need one on one teaching in person not just screen based PC teaching. The problem with getting jobs right now becomes a "Doubled Edged Sword" is the debt of the college students who go through college besides people should not have to waste time with college to get their dream job since there should be "Personalized Teacher Committee " ,so teachers who want to go solo and get more people the knowledge and skills to get people with both bad and slow learning skills success at getting their college degree's without needing to jump through unnecessary classes and just get those same people through the required classes to get the job they want at their own pace when those "Personalized Teachers" come to your own house to teach you at any pace or even someone's else's house towards anyone at home ready to get their dream job which means those "Personalized Teachers" can focus people who have a terrible time surviving in a college Environment to focus on those people who can finally be free to actually work for a living.
@@1BadAssArchAngelvs14 learn to write for Christ’s sake
@@1BadAssArchAngelvs14 degrees and connections. Some jobs require degrees. and universities can give you connections to jobs and graduate programs/internships etc.
Yeah, sorry BadAss. IMO, besides the unworkable economics of 1 to 1 tutors (there's a new degrees speciality to compete for) most of what you describe is apprenticeship. Damn sure my late father, a master machinist, never read Shakespeare. And that's fine. But many careers require intensive, knuckle down factual learning, often beyond the requisite testing for certification. Then there's the licensing requirements to hopefully keep us safe as they venture into their new careers. On the current 'degree chase... First... job requirements today have vastly overinflated the importance of just having any advanced degree. Period. It's ludicrous how inflated they've become. Second... there was and should be, a secondary benefit to young people seeking education to live, associate and yes... party, with folk of other backgrounds and life experiences. It's first a growth opportunity and also as said... networking for the rest of their life. But it's become the bellwether for much upper career opportunities. And that's the double edged sword.... too many are left behind for merely never having had that boon.
I moved from FL to WA with hopes to move to CA years ago. I couldn't afford to if I made 3x my current wage. The only way I could live there is in a tent. And if rent prices keep rising in WA, that's actually the plan (or Hawaii).
California: it seems my insufferable population has lead to the under appreciation of my natural beauty
One more thing I've been told and would like to share (not because it really changes the discussion, but just because I think it's a topical addition to an already very informative video) is that a lot of people experiencing homelessness in California moved there after already becoming homeless for the simple reason that it is warm. Percentage-wise I don't know how notable the number is, but a lot of people I spoke to when I lived there said that they came to California because the climate provides a higher chance of surviving each night spent outside. That, and they said that since they'd never be able to afford a real home anywhere, they'd rather be homeless in warm, glitzy beach towns than wherever they used to live (and I know I would do the same).
Yes, you can sleep outside here nearly every night of the year with the moderate temperatures, and lack of extreme weather in other parts of the country.
I saw a video before where the person went to a desert town in California and asked about their ancestry and found everyone mostly came from Oklahoma during the dust bowl days. (Read John Steinbeck's novel for more information). Overall, it pointed out that these people were more likely to be very independent thinkers and not highly educated. Some of these people also made up part of the homeless. I used to live in Portland and I wouldn't have believed this until I met local politician whose grandfather was an Okie who rose up to be mayor of a suburb and he completely ruined it and went on to ruin almost everything he touched. No big government, no co-operation, everything NIMBY, basically argued that the town should remain stupid and poor (cut funding for education) like it always had been. This was 20 years ago. I see that the problem hasn't improved at all.
Law enforcement needs to make it even hotter. Problem solved.
Yeah, absolutely, winter in the Northeast and Midwest can be brutal and lethal in ways that it can't be out on the CA coast. But also, those places that deindustrialized often have buildings left over that can be repurposed/rezoned without as much trouble. Superfund sites aside, warehouses can be turned into self storage spaces, mills turned into lofts, etc. While in LA, everything is already single family and would need to be built up instead of revitalized.
I’ve seen plenty of homeless in skid row in LA and it is not a glitzy beach town 😂
I think California has it harder than most when it comes to homelessness. Not to excuse the lack of action on the issue but not only do they have one of the most competitive economies so the value of housing is naturally going to be high. But they also have the best weather to be homeless in. I was facing homelessness in my home city this last fall and I strongly considered going to CA at least for the winter. Luckily for me it didn’t come to that but a lot of people have to make that decision.
There's nothing natural about the housing prices. People only make so much, the "natural" thing to do (if housing is commodified, which it shouldn't be) would be to have people pay rent that is some percent of their income. Not have poor people paying half their paychecks on rent just because it's the "market rate"
Glad things got better for you, man. Thanks for sharing. Keep on keeping on.
Also, other states with far less hospitable winters have a history of sending their homeless to states like Arizona and California, which further increases the population beyond what would be seen as the more standard percentages.
Having been a resident of both NY and CA it is shocking how many homeless live in NY. CA doesn't even have a real winter for most of the population and NY is brutal in comparison. Now Hawaii being high makes a ton of sense. I could live homeless there year round and not even feel that much worse off than if I had a house.
Exactly. If you’re homeless, you’re not going to risk dying in extreme heat or extreme cold, and by default there’s literally only 1 place in the country that would suffice- California.
most of the country would love if california was not part anymore
Do we really need to take a 25-minute video to say why California is so jacked up
Pretty simple: Keep voting as they are for years and the results will eventually catch up.
I am a huge fan of this channel, and as a born and raised Californian this topic I feel tends to be done poorly by many. This is the best of the over a dozen videos and articles on the topic, showing how much of the problems are not as simple as people like boil it down often because either an overemphasis on talking points of the political right or by taking situations out of the unique context california provides. It is also quite fantastic to see also the facts on how california's relationship with the federal government is different in the way that alot of programs throughout the country are paid by california while at the same time being heavily isolated from alot of the country. California is a unique location unlike anything else in the world. The secession movements are always looked at as ridiculous by majority of Californian's. I also really like the ending you include where you talk about how political talking points heavily weigh in on the situation and make objective analysis difficult if not impossible. Also the mention of the NIMBY mentality many people have and it's negative impacts is something that hits home as every Californian has seen that happen. Thank you for your fantastic content!
The all encompassing corruption is the real problem. The Liberals use nonprofits to steal government money. Like the 85+k per year San Fran spends per homeless person to non profits to solve the homeless problem. The entire government is just a scam to rip off the uneducated poor that still believe them.
These are not talking points of the political right, mass immigration, 187, eco obstruction of infrastructure, the mistakes of reagan and purging plantation demographics through gentrification, and demographics being destiny etc. Why are things expensive, because that is what it costs for certain types to insulate themselves from their opinions.
California is a state of narcissists.
I will give you an actual right wing talking point, a California with 1960s demographics would be on par with one of those nordic countries socialists love to drool over today.
Agreed, it understands CA as the reality vs. the rhetoric. It's frustrating to see those in other states fundamentally misunderstand what CA is and that the "liberal vs. conservative" narrative alone isn't the core issue here; but hardline economics, housing, and social realities that political ideology can't fix on its own. CA is a weird experiment in a nation built on experiments rarely seen in the world. CA is the great American Experiment cranked up to 11...warts and all.
I'm for the California split and always have. We are not heard at all in Northern California. And everything about the different locations are completely different.
Very interesting video. Some I I knew and some is new to me.
Thank you for this video detailing California's problems, I've always heard about them from a multitude of different perspectives and sources, but having one singular video detailing the specific worries in extremely descriptive fashion is very educational. But one thing I surely NEVER heard before is the fact that California contemplated becoming their own nation and actually put it on ballots once before. Thanks again Wendover 👍🏾
❤
It's all about the corruption but he doesn't really touch it For example San Fran spends over 85k per year per homeless person to non profits to solve the homeless problem. La is the same way the whole state is just a massive Democrat fraud. Look up how much LA spends. Check out Newsom privatizing the water. It costs over 100k for permits in LA that provide no value
Its a narrow window of opinion. Fact is California wouldn't have its problems if it had retained its post war demographics, and relied on almost exclusively internal immigration alone.
ommitted from the video is the fact that it costs several times more in CA to build and renovate homes compared to other states mostly due to psychotic regulation. having worked in construction in several states, I can say this with certainty. some other factors are extreme licensing requirements, rent controlled areas, competition from illegal labor, and a mega skilled labor shortage from decades of pushing for degrees.
Welcome to California!
As a Texan, If they were more united than as some comments describe it as, it would be a lot better
I’m a Los Gatos Town Councilmember and this is all really good stuff. Even in affluent towns and cities, there are those of us working to build more housing, take care of our most vulnerable community members, and embody the best ideals of this state.
Hello. I Googled your town and it's very beautiful. Make sure to include architectural and public realm policies in city planning documents! Beauty should also be addressed by planning.
Also, make sure to ditch the ugly streetlights that all of America uses... make them beautiful! In terms of density, my preferred approach is mid-rise (like in Europe) instead of a few tall buildings. If you want to build tall buildings, make sure there are transitions to them instead of one tall building next to small buildings, and make sure to avoid repetitive condo designs and full-glass façades.
@@Daniel-jv1ku The type of design review you’re talking about is a contributor to big US cities’ housing crises
Why is it that councilmembers are constantly pushing for low income housing projects to be built in affluent communities? First, it's stupid because you know there will be a lot of pushback. Second, are less affluent communities not acceptable for the unhoused? It's just so nonsensical. From the affluent household's perspective, they buy a very nice house in a nice community and councilmembers want to put a multi-family structure across the street and build low income housing in their neighborhood, while of course they are paying the highest amount of state income taxes anywhere in the U.S. and looking to increase that rate. Highest property taxes in the state. Why would you want to stay in CA? Ever wonder why so many corporations have left CA with all of the business unfriendly tactics of CA? Stop pestering the wealthy and corporations. Some states get it, some don't. Unfortunately CA doesn't get it.
@@Vuran2001 No, inefficient design review is a contributor to the housing crisis. This entails those with long periods between each review, unclear policies and expectations and a reliance on the personal opinion of each panel member, design review decisions that contradict planning policy, design review that isn't integrated with the regular planning review, and a lack of flexibility for different kinds of housing typologies and target incomes - meaning the application of market housing design expectations to affordable housing projects. That's not what I'm advocating for.
This is what happens when you have incredible wealth driving up demand and costs, but no efficient way to direct it to (and maintain) effective safety net, housing, and social services. The state can tax and spend with abandon, but can't compel the cities and neighborhoods to actually do anything. It really shows how personal storage of wealth in home property values made maintaining property values the be-all, end-all in municipal decision making. As a result of individual's economic interest, it amounts to pulling up the ladder so that if you don't own, you have no representation, and are unlikely to ever afford to get off the rent treadmill.
Just look at how impossible it is to repeal prop 13 which is meant to regulate house prices and bring in tax revenue
Good points. That pulling the ladder up, especially.
Less dense areas are good. It's not "nimby" its protecting life quality. Need to build more in outside of areas of interest and provide good transport links.
*”Why does CA have so many problems?”* - Wendover Productions: posts a high-quality, very informative 25-min video addressing the complexity of the issue. - Lots of random people on the internet: “Because Democrats”
I really appreciated the editing at 9:31. The shot of the old highway sign, then cut to the present day with the same sign.
former Oakland resident it’s not even necessarily the monthly rent which is astronomical but the even higher hurdle of getting into a space. Needing $6-9k just to pay first and last month and security deposit to get into an apartment makes moving a daunting task.
As California goes, so goes the nation.
Conclusion: people
I messed up when I didn't buy a house in the 90's when I was 5 and they were actually affordable
Haha that’s funny because in the 90’s my parent took my 5 year old brother and my 6 mo old self out of California since the Bay Area was getting too congested and expensive.
@@jesseeswain3079 And out here in Modesto, it just keeps getting more expensive, thankfully I have a cdl, so if I ever need to bail out of here, employment won't be an issue
Should have chosen better parents.
As a Californian, I have to say this is the best video I've seen about the state's problems. I'm often frustrated with the direction things are going in, and I've thought about leaving. At the end of the day, I stay here because 1. the temperature is 65 average in the winter and 75 average in the summer, 2. my entire immediate family is here, and 3. we have some of the best labor laws, and in general the liberal bent aligns with my values (although it's starting to go off the rails in some places). But yeah, I really, really, wish we could start fixing our massive problems here.
Well said and agreed. 65 degrees year round is unbeatable. Access to parks, beaches, nature… good left-leaning values (that, like you said, unfortunately go way too far sometimes). Lots of interesting people and a good enough job market to offset high rent. I couldn’t imagine a more ideal place for me 🤷🏼♂️
The hell do you at where the average is 75 in summer and not 90+?
@@AngraMainiiu 65 not 75. NorCal a stone’s throw from the 🌊 lived in the Central Valley for years where it would go above 110 some days. Never again lol
@@jonathanleuschel Well you specifically said summer is 75. But yeah 110 is what working class Californians literally have to work with!
The "good left-leaning values" is what made your state a hellhole to begin with. So yes. Stay in California. Please don't plague the rest of the nation with your stupidity.
Living a calafornia desert multiple times the size of my home state has given me a big perspective on the middle of nowhere xD
My brother is a teacher and has a friend that teaches in CA, my brother lives in NV, my brother makes about 50,000 year. His friend makes 70,000 in CA. We were talking about this and he said he wish he made that much. We both agreed it sounds nice on the surface, but CA has a much higher cost of living than where my brother lives. My brother’s friend is probably making what my brother makes if you take out how pricey CA is.