I also hate the neurotic need to privatize and contract out everything. My transit agency contracts out security instead of hiring their own and we get these trashy looking guards wearing high-viz vests.
I hate that everything is a study of a study of a study and nobody wants to DO anything. I remember an anecdote from mayor Rahm, who wanted to put chairs on a new section of Riverwalk and they spent months doing a feasibility study or whatever and he finally told them holy shit just go buy forty chairs.
This isn’t unique to blue states, and I think it’s dangerous to assume red states have the smooth running of their blue cities as a priority when they absolutely don’t. But I hate how nothing works.
rphillish on
Sorry, but the zoo in LA is always going to be more expensive than a petting zoo in Utah because the LA zoo knows it’s clients are much wealthier and it can get away with being more expensive
YaGetSkeeted0n on
I work in local government and this is spot-on. Too often there’s way too much focus on process and procedure and not enough on getting shit done. City managers and councils need to approach it with the so-called kaizen attitude that the Japanese have. Identify the inefficiencies and make them more efficient.
We’ve made some strides in some parts of it. If you report a pothole it’s usually filled quite quickly. But we still have awful processes for things like getting stop signs installed at dangerous intersections or speed bumps installed on dangerous roads. Everything has to be studied and engineered and this and that, as if putting in a four-way stop is akin to splitting the atom. News flash, it isn’t, you put the damn signs in and add those orange flags that new signage gets and that’s it. If it somehow makes safety worse, rip out the signs.
And for what it’s worth, this is in a very red state!
3 Comments
I also hate the neurotic need to privatize and contract out everything. My transit agency contracts out security instead of hiring their own and we get these trashy looking guards wearing high-viz vests.
I hate that everything is a study of a study of a study and nobody wants to DO anything. I remember an anecdote from mayor Rahm, who wanted to put chairs on a new section of Riverwalk and they spent months doing a feasibility study or whatever and he finally told them holy shit just go buy forty chairs.
This isn’t unique to blue states, and I think it’s dangerous to assume red states have the smooth running of their blue cities as a priority when they absolutely don’t. But I hate how nothing works.
Sorry, but the zoo in LA is always going to be more expensive than a petting zoo in Utah because the LA zoo knows it’s clients are much wealthier and it can get away with being more expensive
I work in local government and this is spot-on. Too often there’s way too much focus on process and procedure and not enough on getting shit done. City managers and councils need to approach it with the so-called kaizen attitude that the Japanese have. Identify the inefficiencies and make them more efficient.
We’ve made some strides in some parts of it. If you report a pothole it’s usually filled quite quickly. But we still have awful processes for things like getting stop signs installed at dangerous intersections or speed bumps installed on dangerous roads. Everything has to be studied and engineered and this and that, as if putting in a four-way stop is akin to splitting the atom. News flash, it isn’t, you put the damn signs in and add those orange flags that new signage gets and that’s it. If it somehow makes safety worse, rip out the signs.
And for what it’s worth, this is in a very red state!