"Why Are We Still Moving to California?"

"There is truth in the contradiction between these two pieces of writing, as the same brand of cognitive dissonance has appeared to infect those gleefully packing it up for L.A..

There has always been an element of incongruity to Los Angeles, a city that exists as some sort of glimmering haven for the pale, shrunken, overworked refugees of an increasingly inhospitable New York—a narrative that has been compelling for as long as New York has been overpriced and stressful. I, along with almost all of my friends, have considered making this particular move every single winter, despite the fact that I’m a fair-skinned nervous driver with an extremely low tolerance for vegan restaurants. Joan Didion understood better than most the strange, unsustainable dualities inherent in that collective belief in the West, writing inSlouching Towards Bethlehem: “California is a place in which a boom mentality and a sense of Chekhovian loss meet in uneasy suspension.”
But now there is no water in California. There is no water in California. And yet it’s never been more popular."

Sometimes Jezebel just has great essays.

Related: “R.I.P. California (1850–2016): What We’ll Lose And Learn From The World’s First Major Water Collapse”