The thought did cross my mind; after the Palisades fire the state legislator passed a bill allowing land to be bought up for public housing. As I understand it, the Palisades land was on the coast and very desirable. I said at the time that I suspected that that was the cause of the Palisades fire or the other - name won't come to me - but famous hi value land.
California is almost certainly being run by some form of organized crime where 'bureaucrats' get richer and richer and the 'little guy' gets a tent to live in on the street --- you will own nothing and be happy. I hope the $20 billion 'hi-speed rail' project - and others - get investigated by the Feds and trace where all that money ended up!
California railroad? Organized Krime? Where on earth did you get that idea? (snickering here). That money is spread all over the place, mostly by no-bid purchases. You can’t even call them contracts. One of the biggest is Paul Pelousy. He buys farmland in the right-of-way by over paying but letting the farmer stay there. He then doubles, or so, the price, and resells to the railroad bookkeeper.
\
An audit would require looking at a whole lot of checks then first separating the ones to people/companies who don’t have anything to do with building railroads. I’m not sure yet if the Fedz could do it ‘cause it’s not clear whether strings were tied to Federal money involved. If it was Obozo/Bidum bucks maybe not?