Moderated by Ezra Klein — who's been on an "abundance agenda" kick that basically amounts to "what if the government just let people build things" — the debate forced candidates to get specific about why California, the world's fifth-largest economy, can't figure out how to put roofs over people's heads at a price that doesn't require a tech salary or a trust fund.

Credit where it's due: the wonkiness was refreshing. But let's not confuse talking about the problem with solving it. California has been "talking about housing" for decades. We've passed bills, launched task forces, allocated billions, and yet the median home price in the Bay Area still hovers around $1.3 million, and entire streets in cities like Mountain View look like permanent RV encampments. As one Bay Area resident put it bluntly: "What happened to the BILLIONS spent on solving the homeless issue? Where'd all that money go?"

That's the question none of these candidates can fully dodge. California doesn't have a compassion deficit — it has an accountability deficit. We spend lavishly and build slowly. We create programs without measuring outcomes. We treat zoning reform like it's radical surgery instead of basic common sense.

Meanwhile, the downstream effects are playing out on public streets. Another local resident described the scene near their office as "end to end RVs with full time residents — pure squalor." These aren't abstractions. They're the lived consequences of a regulatory environment that makes it nearly impossible to build housing at any price point while simultaneously making it easy to spend public money with no strings attached.

The next governor will inherit a state where people earning six figures still can't afford to buy, where permitting timelines stretch longer than some mortgages, and where CEQA lawsuits can kill a project before a single shovel hits dirt. "Abundance" sounds great on a podcast. But abundance requires the government to actually get out of the way — something Sacramento has historically found allergic.

We'll be watching to see which of these candidates means it, and which ones are just vibing with the buzzword.