Why Is California Getting So Much Hate Right Now?

We do have some serious issues...

Every time I open my phone, I see so many people writing posts like these about California:

“Los Angeles used to be paradise in the 1980’s, and now it’s a dumpster fire!”

“There is so much traffic in San Diego now, the city is ruined!”

“San Francisco used to be such an amazing city until the liberals ruined the state!”

“California taxes are the worst and everything is so damn expensive!”

“Get me the f**k out of this state, I am sick of it!”

I scratched my head and asked myself: “if you hate it so much here, why don’t you leave?”

What I realized is that most of the hate is not coming from people who live here.

A lot of the people who hate California are people who left the state because they couldn’t afford to stay here anymore or because they got way too fed up with the politics.

But, I know several people who fled to Tennessee, Arizona, and Texas during the pandemic, hated it, and returned back to San Diego.

California is the BEST state in the US, and it’s not even close.

Some of the nicest people I have met in CA are from Texas, Oklahoma, Portland, Washington, and Arizona.

They are all elated to be living in California.

How can you be mad and angry at the world when you walk outside your house and it’s 75 degrees without a cloud in the sky in January?

People who come from tough climates are the ones who are the most grateful people living in California. I love meeting out of state people who moved here.

People from all over the world dream of coming to California, and here we are complaining about first world problems.

Where else can you go surfing, paddle boarding, snowboarding, and hiking all in one to two days with some of the most beautiful sceneries in the world?

I got a lot of hate on X from people out of state for talking about skiing and surfing in one day, and then a bunch of fellow San Diegan’s backed me up saying that they have done this multiple times in their lives.

If I wasn’t so terrible at surfing, I would try this as well.

California isn’t perfect. We have some major issues with people who have been running this state.

The housing crisis is only getting worse, things are only getting more expensive here, and the state / local governments are ran like total dog sh*t.

Governor Newsom granted $50,000,000 in 2020 that came from us (the taxpayers) and gave them to animal shelters to give them the resources to make them “no kill” shelters.

But, in 2024 over 50,000 cats and dogs were euthanized in California... That $50 Million turned into fairy dust.

Fact: Los Angeles County is the worst run county in the US.

There are still people waiting to get their permits to build in Malibu, The Palisades, and Altadena to rebuild their homes that were destroyed from the fires.

The politicians do nothing to try to resolve the rampant homeless problem and drug problem. They should be ashamed of themselves, especially Karen Bass.

Their animal shelters are run extremely poorly, and instead of trying to solve problems, their logical solution is to euthanize dogs to create more space.

I have tried calling and emailing them multiple times with no response back. It’s a joke.

Rent control has also been a massive failure and is the most ironic law, because the tenants who voted to pass it, are the ones feeling the most pain from this law that was enacted in 2019.

There is extensive research that was done in New York about how rent control only made housing more expensive, and created a lot of slumlords.

I am fortunate to know a lot of landlords in Southern CA, and most of them never raised rents on their tenants until rent control was passed.

Why?

Because they didn’t want to fall behind, now that rent increases are capped every year.

To make matters worse, California is still the hardest state to build new housing in.

The fees are extremely expensive and the amount of time it takes to get a permit from the cities should be illegal.

If you try to build something near the ocean, good luck getting a permit to build it in under three years.

A lack of new development and rent control is the perfect storm for landlords to get even richer and renters to get even poorer.

Housing is everyone’s biggest expense, and what happens when the cost of housing goes up? Everything else you buy on a weekly basis goes up with it.

Your favorite coffee shop or restaurant needs to pay a higher rent? They need to raise their prices.

Your local gym, grocery store, and hair salon is getting their rent increased? They’re going to raise their prices. It’s a domino effect.

Another domino effect from real estate: Let’s say the owner of the coffee shop buys a house nearby and their housing expense goes up from $5,000/mo to $15,000/mo. More upward pressure in pricing to the customer to pay their bills.

It’s all connected, and I didn’t realize that until I learned the real estate game.

No one in Los Angeles is incentivized to remodel and upgrade their properties because of how strict their rent control laws are. It’s MUCH worse than the state laws.

There has to be change that comes from we the people if we want to see serious change happen in such a beautiful part of the world.

Instead of Complaining, Let’s Create Change.

I see a lot of people complaining about the issues in California, but I don’t see many people helping to create positive change.

Complaining only makes you and I more angry, and makes us feel like we have even less control over the situation.

Taking action is what makes us feel more fulfilled and empowered.

Let’s take a look at a man named Ron Finley as an example.

Ron Finley lived in South Central Los Angeles, one of the worst food deserts in America. The nearest grocery store was miles away. Fast food was everywhere. Diabetes and obesity were killing his neighbors.

He wasn’t a politician and he wasn’t an activist. He just liked to grow food.

So in 2010, he planted a vegetable garden in the parkway strip between the sidewalk and the street in front of his house. He started giving the food away to anyone who walked by.

The City of Los Angeles responded by sending him a citation and threatening him with arrest if he didn’t remove it.

Ron Finley could have pulled up the plants and gone back inside, like most people would have.

Instead, he filed a petition. He gathered signatures, showed up to city meetings, and brought his neighbors with him. He got loud... not online, but in rooms, in front of the people who made the rules.

The city backed down and the ordinance was changed. The people of LA won the legal right to grow food in their parkways. He then founded the Ron Finley Project, turning vacant lots in South LA into community gardens and training young people to grow and cook their own food.

Any law that exists today can be amended or changed by you creating the movement or being a contributor to a movement that you believe in.

Most people who create the laws are not smarter than you anyway.

In conclusion, there are a lot of systemic issues that need to be addressed, but nothing will get fixed by us pointing the finger at the left or the right.

If you are a conservative, you are my friend. If you are a liberal, you are my friend. Social media and the major news channels want us divided. Don’t let them win.

Being positive even when we’re having a bad day, building relationships, and helping others even when no one is watching is how we can make a difference every day.

What is one change in California that you would like to see today?

P.S. - The reason why I started this newsletter was to help raise money for non-profits (the good ones, not the corrupt ones) who rescue dogs from kill shelters.

If you have been enjoying my newsletter for free, I would greatly appreciate it if you just donated $9/mo to these rescues by clicking the link below.

100% of your donation go toward saving animals. I’ve made over $10 Million from real estate. I don’t need your money or want it. But animals in need do.

I’ve donated $15,000 of my own money this year, and I’ve only raised $30 from this newsletter. Animals without a voice need your help.