Sorry about the station change, but welcome to Calironica. Some parts are not as bad as everyone thinks, but others are worse.
Commercials painted it like this:
But it's more like this:
Emissions thing is not as bad as it could be (certainly not as good as some states have it) - but for me it's the population that's the issue. 30Million+ people in this state, that's 10% of the population of these 50-states, crammed into one state - and unfortunately most of the people huddle into their little holes together.
My best advise to you as you come to California is to find places where people aren't. They are some of the most beautiful parts of the state (mostly because you'd have to want to look up from your cell phone long enough to drive to where it is).
The more MV people the merrier