All of this applies to Arizona, Texas, and Florida. Arizona in particular has had the highest increase in housing cost since the pandemic started of out of any state.
If you can't afford a million dollar home you're gonna have a much harder time in urban or suburban coastal CA than you will in... almost anywhere else, including AZ, TX, FL.
The rest of the parent poster's complaints are pretty SF-centric, though.
Also I'm talking about my perspective living in the Bay in general.
LA is less bad.
There are many many places that are nice to live in California - and I almost don’t want to tell anyone about my town (Aptos) because I don’t want it overrun. :)
Since we arrived as foreigners, the locals all have been telling a well rehearsed line of "that's normal for any major urban area". These folks don't know what normal cities are supposed to be like. Clearly they think this as a coping mechanism or because they don't know what they're talking about.
Great things and ideas come from California, but this stuff is the tax paid for that greatness. The social experimental tendencies don't come for free or without consequences.
> If I were single and in my 20s, SF would be where I go
You're conflating SF and Bay Area. SF is not the Bay Area. SF isn't even in Silicon Valley, technically. The issues with SF are not the issues in SV/BA.
> California is very expensive for what you get
California is crazy expensive. Often I look for alternatives. What would be a good alternative?
I want to be near the ocean. I don't want to freeze in the winter and don't want 100F with 90% humidity in the summer.
Just with that criteria I ruled out most of the country.
But then add the requirement of having good jobs. So what's left?
So, here I remain in California.
You are basically defining your requirements in a way that can only be met California. If California didn't exist, would you jump in the ocean? What I mean is that perhaps one of your requirements could be relaxed so you can get many other benefits. For instance, the "100F with 90%" humidity is greatly mitigated by Air Conditioning or going out very early in the day. When I spent some time in Louisiana, which is crazy hot and humid, I was able to mitigate the heat in the way I describe to the point that it didn't affect my life.
If I were single and in my 20s, SF would be where I go for all the bright minds. But the calculus as a 30s yo with a family is that California overplayed its hand. We left and aren't coming back unless a lot changes.