 So I left California and moved to Florida. After 14 transformational years in Los Angeles where we built careers, bought a house, got married and had three kids, my wife Lindsey and I decided to pack up and relocate. And we're not alone. California's approach to the pandemic made life here harder than ever before. I've reported extensively on California's policies from the expensive and unreliable energy grid to the aggressive taxation and regulation from the draconian lockdowns that permanently damaged small businesses and kept children out of school for longer than anywhere else, to the failure of city leaders to cope with the nation's worst homelessness and mental health crises. Yeah, I've seen it all firsthand, but my reasons for moving aren't primarily political, they're personal. And California, I still love you. Sometimes I really don't, but yeah, I do. 14 years ago, my future wife's Honda Accord hustled us 2,400 miles in three days so that she could make it for a job interview in Los Angeles. We left behind friends, family and Florida, trading the swamps of the sunshine state for the glamour of Hollywood. We memorialized the moment with blurry digital photos snapped from the car window. We soaked in the famous SoCal weather, so consistently pleasant that the outdoors anywhere else just never quite lives up to it. We gawked at the natural beauty and gorged ourselves on the rich, variegated culture of Los Angeles, a city packed full of people creative, daring and delusional enough to follow their dreams. My kids are all California natives and life there on balance was good to them. They trounced through mountain streams in the Sierras, hid inside Centenary and Redwoods, splashed at the edge of the vast cold Pacific, played and learned alongside other kids from around the world, learned how to count Mandarin, greet in Spanish and express their gratitude in Korean. Then things started to change, both for us and in the world. Beijing tries to show its in control of the epidemic consuming this country. The coronavirus officially hitting the US. The coronavirus now classified as a public health emergency. The coronavirus forcing millions more Americans into virtual lockdown, over 75 million people in New York, California. I've never seen so much open road on I-10 as I did this Sunday morning in March, 2020. Stay at home, 15 days to flatten the curve. As the dynamism of LA ground to a halt, the smog cleared, the birds chirped and we would see and hear our surroundings in a way we never had before. It made us look at California differently. The upsides and downsides each coming into sharper focus. The rolling blackouts are more unsettling and the wildfire smoke more oppressive when you're already stuck in your house or compelled to wear a mask once you step outside. Gavin Newsom blames climate change but his policies matter too. The forests weren't properly managed and the increasingly solar and wind dependent grid is fragile and Newsom personally hastened the closure of California's last nuclear plant. When Germany closed all of theirs, emissions went up and so did prices. My oldest son was still in preschool last year so he was spared much of the frustration and social isolation of remote learning that so many experienced but it was disturbing to watch California keep its schools closed long after other countries and states were demonstrating that safe in-person schooling was possible. The governor's own kids attended private school in person while most public school campuses stayed empty. The powerful teachers unions used their positions to extract hundreds of millions of additional dollars during the shutdown and LA's union issued a list of demands that included a wealth tax, Medicare for all and a ban on all new charter schools. Schools back now with mandatory weekly testing, social distancing, mandatory masking for even the fully vaccinated and vaccine mandates for all eligible kids. And the situation on the streets, already bad before COVID only got worse as LA Mayor Eric Garcetti's underperforming 1.2 billion dollar plan to build homeless housing completely stalled and the city faced a violent crime and homicide spike. I voted for and still support sentencing reform believe no person should be jailed for drugs and think we need a social safety net of some kind for those who can't take care of themselves. But a city also needs the rule of law and safe public spaces to function and many of California's big cities are failing on those fronts. The city's cultural and culinary life nearly died as we shelter in place. It's coming back in its own socially distanced mask and mandatory vaccine verified way but for many small businesses there will be no second life. Shutting down outdoor dining without any grounding in science evidence or logic is one judge ruling against the forced closures put it ended the California dream for many restaurateurs. And yet California's political class seems more secure than ever. LA's mayor has failed upward towards a US ambassador ship. The governor survived recall easily and the Democratic Supermajority is rushing to make future recalls an impossibility. And when one party rules those who've captured that party can make the rules. Teachers unions, firefighter unions, prison guard unions, state service employee unions public sector unions feed public money and power to themselves so they can continually increase that power and influence allowing them to feed more money and power to themselves. What about my power and your power to make our own choices about our own lives? But as my moving date drew closer a new feeling washed over me a blissful detachment from California politics. When your voice goes unheard it's sometimes better to head for the exit. But again my move isn't purely political. If it were I might be in New Hampshire right now surrounded by more of the like-minded. Most of life isn't about politics thankfully. See people I love are in Florida and they're getting older as am I. And it's a new world with new rules where you can more easily live and work from where you want. And I still love you California. I made my career my home and my family here. I'll miss California. Despite politics this is still a spectacularly beautiful diverse and strange land where the waves meet the mountains where people follow their dreams or lose their minds or both. So I made it back to this humid peninsula jutting into the Gulf of Mexico. It's familiar but not quite the same as before. I'm sure I'll have more to say about you soon Florida with your terrifying reptiles and your COVID contrarianism and your lightning rod governor who plays by different rules for good and for ill. The saying has been as goes California goes the nation. Is that still true or is it Texas now? Or is the importance of geography simply diminished in the networked age? Is Florida the future? I don't really know. But it is my future and my home.