I always have to laugh at the conservative messaging about California. They just can't take the possibility that it is a successful place despite repudiating most of their treasured dogma. I spend a lot of time there, it does not resemble these descriptions. That's all I'm going to say, can we now please go back to discussing development in greater Boston?
I'm not a conservative, and sorry to be unable to resist further derailment... but I don't think anyone would refer to California as a successful state. It's broken in many ways, from its universities that CA residents are unable to get into, to coastal housing crises of ever-worsening proportions, homelessness completely out of control in San Francisco despite more billionaires per capita than any other city, a severe economic divide between coast and noncoastal regions (the latter with cities struggling with severe poverty)... and, to me, the worst of all (although only consistent with the entire American West), rape of the environment on a massive scale due to damming of the great American rivers and allowing sprawl in areas that should be desert.
I go there frequently as well, and I like the state, and there's a lot there that we could stand to use up here... but it's got some very deep problems and it's not a "successful place" for everyone in the state.