Everything You Need to Know about San Francisco, in a Single Story

 January 28, 2024 by Dan Mitchell @ International Freedom

What’s the worst-governed city in the United States  

 

• Chicago?
• New York City?
• San Francisco?
• Minneapolis?
• Seattle?
• Detroit? 
  

According to researchers, the answer is none-of-the-above. The right answer is either Riverside, CA or Oakland, CA.

But that doesn’t mean the other cities aren’t doing their best to become the worst.

Today, let’s take a look at San Francisco’s campaign to become America’s worst city. And we have a story that tells you everything you need to know.

In a report for the New York Times, Heather Knight describes how the city can’t even waste money properly.

Noe Valley still needs is a toilet. Fifteen months after city officials were ready to throw a party in the Noe Valley Town Square to celebrate funding for a tiny bathroom with a toilet and sink, nothing but mulch remains in its place. The toilet project broke down the minute taxpayers realized the city was planning an event to celebrate $1.7 million in state funds that local politicians had secured for the lone 150-square-foot structure.

That’s enough to purchase a single-family home in San Francisco — with multiple bathrooms. Even more confounding was the explanation that the tiny bathroom would take two to three years to install because of the city’s labyrinthine permitting and building process. City leaders quickly canceled their potty party, and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California took back the funds. …the episode has illustrated why San Francisco so often gets bogged down by inefficiency. …an army of more than 30,000 city employees with a $14 billion annual budget cannot build a simple bathroom in a reasonable way.

Actually, the reason things can’t get done in a “reasonable way” is in large part because there is “an army of more than 30,000 city employees.”

Those bureaucrats are part of various commissions and panels that get to review and micromanage projects. Which means they make things take longer and they increase costs. Typical government. Typical San Francisco.

P.S. Given the city’s problems with public defecation, you would think San Francisco would try extra hard to build toilets.

P.P.S. Then again, the city has long-standing problems with plumbing.