Let's see: Shut down the state for a year, mandate masks and jabs, stop prosecuting criminals, let homeless people take over, and embrace every single wacky left-wing policy from no-limit abortion to transgenderism.
What could go wrong?
Oh, yeah.
Since the 2020 pandemic response, Gavin Newsom's California has lost 500,000 citizens in a mass exodus.
The California exodus has shown no sign of slowing down as the state's population dropped by more than 500,000 people between April 2020 and July 2022, with the number of residents leaving surpassing those moving in by nearly 700,000.
The population decrease was second only to New York, which lost about 15,000 more people than California, census data show.
California has been seeing a decline in population for years, with the COVID-19 pandemic pushing even more people to move to other parts of the country, experts say. The primary reason for the exodus is the state's high housing costs, but other reasons include the long commutes and the crowds, crime and pollution in the larger urban centers. The increased ability to work remotely — and not having to live near a big city — has also been a factor.
Then, of course, you have the failed recall and California voters continuing to double down on failure.
No wonder moderately sane people are fleeing California for greener pastures.
The level of cope here from one LA official, where the most damage to the population was done, is impressive.
Paul Ong, director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge at UCLA, pointed to economic, health and sociopolitical factors driving people to leave the state. He noted that housing prices in California have pushed many to move to states where costs are lower.
"While salaries in other regions and states are lower, the cost of housing is even lower," he said. "This means that they have a higher standard of living because of more disposable income and/or high chance of owning."
His research showed that the bulk of departures in Los Angeles County were from the city of Los Angeles.
"There is a fast, clear and sharp spike during the pandemic," he said of net population losses in the city. People moved "away from the denser urban core, where COVID-19 risk was perceived as being higher. Remote work also added to this out migration."
Yeah, people moved away from population centers because they were afraid of catching Covid.
