Quoted from clg:

I grew up in So Cal, born in 1970, I was a third generation native. I had a blast. We went to the beach, went to the mountains, road trips. In the 70s there were still orange groves in Orange County. I got to go to special Disneyland nights when there were no lines, we could go on space mountain again and again without getting off. We would go camping, just throw stuff in the car and go. No need to book a campsite months in advance.
I remember the 'Welcome to California now go home' bumper stickers.
More people kept coming, we stopped going to the snow (there also seemed to be less of it) and the traffic meant you had to be really careful with when you went. So Cal, seemed smaller and smaller to me as it grew since the traffic meant I went less places.
About 20 years ago I realised I was losing more and more of the things I loved about the place, they were still there but it just go too hard to enjoy them mostly because of too many people trying to do the same thing as we were. The trend was clear to me and it wasn't getting better.
When we go back and visit now the things I love are still there but so are more and more people. I like popping out to grab some good mexican food and finding some little pockets that remind me of what things used to be like. The good things haven't gone away they just get harder to enjoy as everyone else wants to do the same thing and that was what drove us out.