Not discrediting your point, it's just that I'm not sure HK is a great point of comparison. How many people live in a room the size of a narrow walk-in closet? They have a massive, massive real estate problem in Hong Kong -- there is none left where people want to live.
It's true, real estate is expensive here, and apartments are small. I'm sure most of the people living in tents in California would be happy to have an apartment, though, even one the size of a walk-in closet. Is it better to have small apartments or thousands of homeless people living on the streets?
I don't think anybody has a problem with investing in their community, but when there's no return on an investment you cut your losses and move on.
Tent cities, rolling blackouts, no healthcare, no public transportation. What are you getting for the taxes?
I moved to Hong Kong this year. Public health care, amazing public transportation, no tent cities[1], and the top tax rate is 17%. It's not perfect, but this idea that the solution to every societal problem is just to pay more and more taxes is nonsense.
California has the highest taxes in the country. If the quality of life there is worse than in states with lower taxes, then it's time to start questioning how that tax money is spent, not shovel more of it into a black hole that isn't doing anything.
[1] I won't say there's no homeless, because I don't know that for sure, but there are hardly any panhandlers. I know there is subsidized housing available, but I hear the wait list is long. Whatever they're doing, there's hardly any homeless on the streets.