The bay area cities allowed lots and lots of commercial real estate but relatively little residential (apartments and homes) to be built more or less in the entire bay area. Where were those workers supposed to live?

A decent article detailing the mismatch between people coming vs. housing starts: http://www.paragon-re.com/Supply_Demand_Money_and_Demographi...

Other metro areas have balanced these competing needs much better.

A lot of the laws proposed still require any proposals to follow the existing zoning (a law championed by the governor last year is one example), etc. but just prevent a few motivated individuals from blocking growth.