4 ms·

The city government is bloated, pension plans are unsustainably generous, there is corruption of course, there is a homeless industrial complex that sucks up fu

The city government is bloated, pension plans are unsustainably generous, there is corruption of course, there is a homeless industrial complex that sucks up funds and does little, there are costly building codes that were written to benefit various trades, even though fire prevention has improved greatly, the SFFD spews FUD everytime a good government type suggests a few firehouses could be closed, Police refuse to do their jobs and blames the City Attorney, and it is true the City Attorney doesn’t do their job bit its no excuse for the SFPD, MUNI has the highest cost per mile in the US, and on and on.

jungler 8y ago
As one SF Chronicle article put it in describing CA Governor Newsom, SF politics are a lion's den that produces strong candidates for the national stage. Which in perspective says not that SF functions well, but rather that it functions so poorly that you have to have immense skill to survive. And like other established cities with some history, there is a vein of the upper crust - people whose parents owned property, went to the local prep schools and now own some property themselves. That's a thing that contributes to the quagmire, since it creates more complex entanglements than the basic economics would suggest. A lot of the tech billionaires have made moves to muscle in on this scene, which has perhaps helped it from getting too stagnant, but contributes to its overall incoherence.
tabtab 8y ago
Pensions often become bloated because it's easy for a politician to hand out future benefits to get current votes. It's hit-and-run gift giving: robbing the future Peter to pay the current Paul. An average politician's reign is roughly 10 years, but pension problems show up multiple decades later. We'd have to change our political incentive system to solve that. Same goes for national debt.

jungler 8y ago

As one SF Chronicle article put it in describing CA Governor Newsom, SF politics are a lion's den that produces strong candidates for the national stage. Which in perspective says not that SF functions well, but rather that it functions so poorly that you have to have immense skill to survive. And like other established cities with some history, there is a vein of the upper crust - people whose parents owned property, went to the local prep schools and now own some property themselves. That's a thing that contributes to the quagmire, since it creates more complex entanglements than the basic economics would suggest. A lot of the tech billionaires have made moves to muscle in on this scene, which has perhaps helped it from getting too stagnant, but contributes to its overall incoherence.

tabtab 8y ago

Pensions often become bloated because it's easy for a politician to hand out future benefits to get current votes. It's hit-and-run gift giving: robbing the future Peter to pay the current Paul. An average politician's reign is roughly 10 years, but pension problems show up multiple decades later. We'd have to change our political incentive system to solve that. Same goes for national debt.