California 'Hell-Hole' to Run $7 Billion Budget Surplus

[John Dule]

Conservatives label CA a hell hole because of demographics and nothing else. You never hear them complain about quality of life in WV, KY, OK, KS, ect.

No. We call it a hellhole because it's prohibitively expensive in most metropolitan areas due to terrible zoning laws and rent control, which traps the working poor in a situation where they spend a huge percentage of their earnings on rent and gas. Oh, and violent drug addicts wander the streets in the cities. I love my state, but the people in this thread trying to pretend that it's some sort of progressive Xanadu (just because the government collects a lot of revenue from techies) are definitely not well-informed with regards to what it's actually like to live here.

[John Dule]

When people complain about zoning laws I always go back to how that fertilizer plant in West, Texas exploded and wiped out an entire neighborhood. You do need zoning laws for public safety.

This is not really relevant for California's zoning laws, which disproportionately favor construction of single-family homes in cities like San Francisco. If the market were allowed to function, the Sunset District would be skyscrapers today, and the whole housing shortage issue would be a thing of the past. Instead we have NIMBYs trying to protect their nice coastal views, in the process displacing thousands of commuters to actual hellholes like Vacaville.

There are some cities in California with overly restrictive zoning laws, but plenty of hardcore conservatives support them and have even written some of them, so it's not a partisan issue. Most areas don't even have rent control and the real issue with housing is that developers choose to build luxury housing as opposed to affordable. There was also the loss of the redevelopment agency that hurt the state's ability to build affordable housing.

Yeah, and why do the developers choose to build luxury housing when there's obviously a demand for low-income apartments? Because if they build cheaper housing, rent control laws prevent rents from being raised in response to increased demand. Also, with the limited availability of development space in the cities due to zoning restrictions, it makes much more sense for them to maximize profits by catering to wealthy buyers rather than low-income renters.

[John Dule]

Rent control isn't in effect in most municipalities, yet developers still refuse to build it. The state is starting to put more pressure on cities to raise density. But none of that was the topic of this thread. The topic was about the state having a surplus, but thread was turned into an "I Hate California" topic.

Yeah, rent control is only in place in California's most expensive cities. Strangely, those cities seem to only be getting more expensive despite this, which isn't a coincidence. Also, the thread implied that running a budget surplus disproved conservative arguments that the state is poorly managed, and I was illustrating that there's a lot more to running a state than just making sure the books are balanced. So this is very much on-topic; in fact I'm responding directly to the insinuation in the thread's title.

[John Dule]

Conservatives label CA a hell hole because of demographics and nothing else. You never hear them complain about quality of life in WV, KY, OK, KS, ect.

No. We call it a hellhole because it's prohibitively expensive in most metropolitan areas due to terrible zoning laws and rent control, which traps the working poor in a situation where they spend a huge percentage of their earnings on rent and gas. Oh, and violent drug addicts wander the streets in the cities. I love my state, but the people in this thread trying to pretend that it's some sort of progressive Xanadu (just because the government collects a lot of revenue from techies) are definitely not well-informed with regards to what it's actually like to live here.

So awesome to see conservatives give a flying f*** about the Working Poor when used solely to dunk on a successful liberal state.

Badger, I have tried to take you seriously on multiple occasions. But your constant insistence on assuming the worst of everyone you argue with makes this impossible. You add nothing to this forum's discourse aside from cheap generalizations.

[John Dule]

Conservatives label CA a hell hole because of demographics and nothing else. You never hear them complain about quality of life in WV, KY, OK, KS, ect.

No. We call it a hellhole because it's prohibitively expensive in most metropolitan areas due to terrible zoning laws and rent control, which traps the working poor in a situation where they spend a huge percentage of their earnings on rent and gas. Oh, and violent drug addicts wander the streets in the cities. I love my state, but the people in this thread trying to pretend that it's some sort of progressive Xanadu (just because the government collects a lot of revenue from techies) are definitely not well-informed with regards to what it's actually like to live here.

So awesome to see conservatives give a flying f*** about the Working Poor when used solely to dunk on a successful liberal state.

Badger, I have tried to take you seriously on multiple occasions. But your constant insistence on assuming the worst of everyone you argue with makes this impossible. You add nothing to this forum's discourse aside from cheap generalizations.

There's nothing generalized about it. It's a very specific indictment about Republican policies. Sorry if reality intrudes on your cool dunk on California.

The generalization is that conservatives only care about the working poor when they criticize liberal policies. Has it crossed your mind that people might be libertarians or conservatives because they genuinely think those policies will help the poor the most?