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/rant: As a relatively newer resident of California, I find extraordinary levels of incompetence in pretty much every aspect of public-government interactions c

/rant: As a relatively newer resident of California, I find extraordinary levels of incompetence in pretty much every aspect of public-government interactions compared to other states in the US. This place has the most dysfunctional municipal (I am in Alameda county) and state departments. Just yesterday I wanted to file for self-proprietorship DBA record in the state commerce registry, was sent to 3 different offices in Oakland, incomplete list of form requirements and completely fucked up online forms download page CalGold - https://www.calgold.ca.gov/ https://www.calgold.ca.gov/ that lists a billion forms but no central guidance as to what is needed. This is the state that built the Golden Gate bridge in 3 years in 1930's but took 8 years to build a little access road recently and more than the cost of the bridge adjusting for inflation. Worse - it is considered a positive thing to have dysfunctional government here. Usually, the response from people in places like Berkeley and SF is that "Why do you need to do all this so quickly? Relax. Life is more than that. Consider gov jobs as a form of UBI. We need to cut down on progress." and crime? "Oh come on, it's not that bad. Car theft is fine, just make sure you have good insurance and get the catalytic convertor shield so it is not easy to use an angle grinder to remove it". Jeez. Something drastic needs to happen. What a beautiful state occupied by overpaid Government employees.

CalChris 5y ago
https://rechart1.acgov.org/BusinessLicense/SearchEntry.aspx?e=newSession https://rechart1.acgov.org/BusinessLicense/SearchEntry.aspx?...
tkojames 5y ago
I wonder if there is correlation between what people think of as incompetence and the population of the state. Would be interesting to look at. I have no data to support this just a guess but I would guess when population increases you get things like this. I mean Texas is the second most populous state and is literally politically the opposite of California. There power grid was 5 mins away from literally crashing completely. So it sure is not what"side" the government picks. Both have struggled with power distribution.
- systemvoltage 5y ago
  Well I think it is perfectly ok to criticize and point out issues in Government whether it is Texas or California. I really don't care about "sides". What I care about is that ROI of tax revenue that the state forcefully takes from me. We should expect return on what we pay. Good roads, education, good infrastructure, forward looking plans and instead of asking for more funding, Governments should look inward to improve efficiency. There is a lot of low hanging fruit. I am also OK with more taxes as far as Governments are functional and serve the public. I really don't want to pay for some Gov official that sits on his ass all day getting paid $550k in compensation. Danger is when we stop criticizing governments and keep tooting the party lines. I want drastically more accountability for California government. Extreme levels of auditing and shaming, completely take off Emperor's clothes.
  - tkojames 5y ago
    That is what I am trying to get at. I think atleast here in the United States the bigger your state gets with population the more your going to see issues like you describe. Unfortunately I just do not see any government looking inward to improve efficiencies at this rate. I agree with everything you state and want the same. Honestly I just think this how all governments operate. In theory we can vote them out and replace them. Then the new people will do the same things most likely. You can shame them all you want but if they still hold office, they will not care. We should still keep trying though. Maybe we can find the right leader's that look out for everybody and do all the above. But I am pretty cynical about it. I like to think Churchill quote about democracy is right. We have been struggling with this issue forever. Plato's republic and all that. You are right being able to criticizing governments is really important. I guess we just keep trying. Wish I had better answer.
nouveaux 5y ago
What state did you come from and how is it more competent? Talking about what works would be helpful.
jjtheblunt 5y ago
> This is the state that built the Golden Gate bridge in 3 yeras in 1930s ... I believe it's a perceptual (understandable) mistake to think it's the same state. Only the state name has remained invariant. The 90 years ago state was more engineering feats oriented, perhaps wasn't paying attention to social justices in so doing; the modern state is inverted perhaps. I'm not sure quite how to think of it either. (I lived there too for about 20 years, am from a far nicer part of the USA)
carapace 5y ago
Not to be flippant but this is the state that elected Arnold Schwarzenegger governor. (The funny thing is he turned out to be not half-bad at the job.)
andbberger 5y ago
it's happened at the city level too. SF built out the extraordinary auxiliary fire fighting system back in the day. Now they're unwilling to extend it to the sunset so just bought a bunch of pipes. Could never quite put my finger on what happened, but I have to imagine Reagan had a lot to do with it

CalChris 5y ago

https://rechart1.acgov.org/BusinessLicense/SearchEntry.aspx?e=newSession https://rechart1.acgov.org/BusinessLicense/SearchEntry.aspx?...

tkojames 5y ago

I wonder if there is correlation between what people think of as incompetence and the population of the state. Would be interesting to look at. I have no data to support this just a guess but I would guess when population increases you get things like this. I mean Texas is the second most populous state and is literally politically the opposite of California. There power grid was 5 mins away from literally crashing completely. So it sure is not what"side" the government picks. Both have struggled with power distribution.

systemvoltage 5y ago
Well I think it is perfectly ok to criticize and point out issues in Government whether it is Texas or California. I really don't care about "sides". What I care about is that ROI of tax revenue that the state forcefully takes from me. We should expect return on what we pay. Good roads, education, good infrastructure, forward looking plans and instead of asking for more funding, Governments should look inward to improve efficiency. There is a lot of low hanging fruit. I am also OK with more taxes as far as Governments are functional and serve the public. I really don't want to pay for some Gov official that sits on his ass all day getting paid $550k in compensation. Danger is when we stop criticizing governments and keep tooting the party lines. I want drastically more accountability for California government. Extreme levels of auditing and shaming, completely take off Emperor's clothes.
- tkojames 5y ago
  That is what I am trying to get at. I think atleast here in the United States the bigger your state gets with population the more your going to see issues like you describe. Unfortunately I just do not see any government looking inward to improve efficiencies at this rate. I agree with everything you state and want the same. Honestly I just think this how all governments operate. In theory we can vote them out and replace them. Then the new people will do the same things most likely. You can shame them all you want but if they still hold office, they will not care. We should still keep trying though. Maybe we can find the right leader's that look out for everybody and do all the above. But I am pretty cynical about it. I like to think Churchill quote about democracy is right. We have been struggling with this issue forever. Plato's republic and all that. You are right being able to criticizing governments is really important. I guess we just keep trying. Wish I had better answer.

nouveaux 5y ago

What state did you come from and how is it more competent? Talking about what works would be helpful.

jjtheblunt 5y ago

> This is the state that built the Golden Gate bridge in 3 yeras in 1930s ... I believe it's a perceptual (understandable) mistake to think it's the same state. Only the state name has remained invariant. The 90 years ago state was more engineering feats oriented, perhaps wasn't paying attention to social justices in so doing; the modern state is inverted perhaps. I'm not sure quite how to think of it either. (I lived there too for about 20 years, am from a far nicer part of the USA)

carapace 5y ago

Not to be flippant but this is the state that elected Arnold Schwarzenegger governor. (The funny thing is he turned out to be not half-bad at the job.)

andbberger 5y ago

it's happened at the city level too. SF built out the extraordinary auxiliary fire fighting system back in the day. Now they're unwilling to extend it to the sunset so just bought a bunch of pipes. Could never quite put my finger on what happened, but I have to imagine Reagan had a lot to do with it