California housing crisis affecting middle class the most: It's 'a broken system'

[politicaljunkie41910]

32. Where is all this magical land people are talking about building on? I've lived in California all

Last edited Sat Dec 30, 2017, 03:22 AM - Edit history (1)

my life except for the 5 years I spent in the military. I can recall as a child when you could drive out of LA headed East to Pomona and it was all green grass and hills. Try and find some vacant land between LA and Pomona today. It doesn't exist. I was stationed at Fort Ord when I got out of the military. I remember when you could drive from Monterey to San Jose and it was mostly agriculture and vacant land in between. Now it's wall to wall housing.

I can recall going to a college football came in Fresno at Cal State Fresno in 1999 and there was one main street and not much else. It was mostly an agricultural town. Now all that was once farmland is housing. You have houses costing almost a half million dollars on 5000sf lots. I know what I'm talking about because my son and my grandkids live there.

When I left Monterey to return to a more affordable Southern California in 1981, I bought a house in Ontario and there was still lots of land there for development. I can still remember the drive from Ontario to Riverside when there was lots of vacant land in between. Not so much any more. There is a lack of affordable housing throughout the state, but it's not a result of building permits taking such a long time. It's because a lot of people enjoy living here in spite of the high costs and the long commutes.