Exercise makes your lungs burn because So California is a bowl shape for smog. Not good.
30-35 years ago, you might have been correct. When I first came her in 1981, there were smog alerts almost everyday in the summer. The smog level was actually a part of the weather forecast. And you could not see the mountains for the smog.
I will have to give the enviro-whackos (and all of us for paying higher gas prices) credit for cleaning up the air. Now, almost everyday you can see the mountains and there really isn't a smog problem. I haven't heard of a smog alert in many many, years. Sure, 1 or 2 days a year in the summer it is bad. And no, I wouldn't want to go jogging downtown LA, but it has gotten way better. I live in Huntington Beach, and there is NEVER any smog.
Look, there are many problems with CA, and the whole state could be overhauled. It could be a lot better. But most of the problems listed in 1-16 above do not have an everyday, or any effect on me. The weather does, and for me, makes Huntington Beach an ideal place to live.