So I take two things away from this
- high population growth does not make an area attractive
- an area's political background does not always coorelate with the state of the economy
The Central Valley and Inland Empire grow faster simply because more people can actually afford to live there.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
And that, in turn, drives down the stats for those areas because (surprise, surprise) poorer people are less educated, less healthy, etc. I'm always amused by surveys that assess quality of life in different places. And the "most livable" locations are usually places that nobody can afford to live reasonably well in.
