When Gavin Newsom was Mayor of San Francisco, the city’s quality of life dropped like a rock (and has continued to drop ever since). So why would anyone think the state of California would do any better if he was elected Governor?
Well he was elected Governor. And a great many Californians are providing their opinion of his performance by….getting themselves out and heading elsewhere.
How serious an issue is this? From Daniel Greenfield’s article at frontpagemag.com:
California has taken a massive population loss for the first time in its history. People are fleeing it and they’re especially fleeing its failed major cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco. And bizarrely the man in charge of the state is using his track record to run for president. Meanwhile Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who oversaw the worst fires in its history due to DEI and out-of-control corruption, has historically low approval ratings, while people flee her city every which way they can.
Los Angeles County saw the largest decline of any county in the United States in 2025, according to new census data published on March 26.
Nearly 54,000 people moved out of L.A. County between July 1, 2024 and July 1, 2025, U.S. Census data shows. The decline is part of an ongoing trend. In 2020 L.A. County was estimated to have more than 10 million residents. As of 2025, the county was thought to have just under 9.7 million residents.
LA’s losses amount to 300,000 since 2020. The equivalent of a major city has moved elsewhere.
Maybe it’s just my pollyanna nature. But I can’t help thinking that when people are happy living where they are, they tend to stay there.
By contrast, when 300,000 residents (as of now – more to come, I’m sure) leave, it does not, to me, convey a sense of happiness. It conveys a sense of “What the eff is going in here, let’s get out while the getting’s good”.
And let’s remember: this isn’t just 300,000 people leaving. I strongly suspect it is a decline of far more than 300,000, being replaced by enough people so that the final total comes to minus 300,000.
In this regard, given what has happened to California under the Newsom years, my bet is that a great many productive people have been replaced by people with their hands out.
Another thing: I keep waiting for most of our wonderful “neutral” mainstream media to start asking what, exactly, Gavin Newsom has accomplished as a Mayor and then a Governor that would make him a viable presidential prospect. But, for them, a nicely coiffed hairline, happy smile and a clever one-liner here and there apparently is more important than an actual record.
As for me? While New Jersey, to say the least, is something less than paradise on earth, on a purely comparative basis I’m happy to be here instead of there. My only regret is that I missed a great opportunity years ago: to buy stock in a few California-based moving companies.
