Posted on 01/11/2004 8:20:10 AM PST by daviddennis
I just bought a house in Woodland Hills, and am about to receive my first property tax bill, of over $5,000 a year for my $428,000 home. For those unaware, I was very lucky to get such a cheap home out here on the hills. The average price in my zip code is pushing $700k. The home itself would be laughed at outside of California; it's 1000 square feet and has two bedrooms. It's a great house, and I love it, but it sure is pathetic value for money compared to other places.
The streets around my house are narrow and cracked and potholed. They have mysterious lumps and valleys.
The public schools serving my house are dismal swamps. I visited a junior high on business, and it felt like a prison. It was near the end of the school term, and yet students in the computer lab were given 15 minutes to save their projects - and it wasn't enough time.
I pay 8.25% sales tax. I pay 9.3% income tax (on amounts over $37,500!) We pay $.15 a gallon in state gas taxes. My property taxes are ... well, I already told you.
I've heard that in the states of the midwest, there are adequate schools and well-maintained roads, and yet overall taxes are less than half what they are here. And don't even get me started about Texas.
It seems to me that the state should be awash in money, and able to do, as Arnold says, Great Things. We should have gold-plated, microchip-embedded streets that fix themselves for what we're paying.
Now, this doesn't actually seem to be a California thing. If I call the cops here, they might come in half an hour, and they won't respond to alarms. If I call the cops in Newport Beach, they'll show within five minutes. Heck, I saw an auto accident in Costa Mesa, and within five minutes they had three police cars and a tow truck on the scene! Traffic had barely started backing up when it happened.
I have to ask, "Why?" I don't think there's that much income difference between Los Angeles and Orange County, and taxes in the latter are actually lower. Schools in Irvine, a community with a very similar demographic profile to Woodland Hills, are actually good.
So why is it that Los Angeles city services are so awful? Why is it that Los Angeles County - not just the city, the county - is a pothole-wracked mess of bad roads and worse schools?
At the height of the Orange County "bankruptcy", services were still far better than LA County. Now that Orange County is no longer "bankrupt", visible services have rapidly been restored to pre-bankruptcy levels.
LA County has never been bankrupt, and yet they cannot provide even slightly adequate services.
Both LA and Orange County have been affected by Proposition 13. Both have the same state income tax. I even hear that the Democratic state house is a lot less generous with Republican OC than Democratic LA.
Someone's going to mention illegal aliens, but they exist in both places.
So, with all this being said, why are Los Angeles services awful, and what can be done about it?
I'm sure our fellow FReepers will say many of the same things I'm going to say, but here is my two cents: California has for a long time been, as the American Prospect proclaimed, a "laboratory" for Democratic politics, and therein lies the answer to your ponderings.
Well, the experiment has failed. Miserably. In the opinion of this college FReeper, California (especially Southern California) is yet another example of what results from liberal policies: inflation, gross inefficiency, and thus, ultimately a reduced standard of living for all but the exorbitantly wealthy (*coughBarbaraStreisandcough*).
And yet people still can't seem to wake up to the fact that socialism is BAD. It has failed over and over, but thanks to a liberal press feeding us propaganda, a liberal teachers' union controlling public education, and liberal college environments trying to tell us that we haven't actually tried communism yet (or that communism only failed because it was too extreme, and that modern [Western European] socialism can work), the ordinary layperson won't figure it out for him/herself.
See, the ordinary layperson just doesn't have the time to go and look up the stuff for themselves, or else it never occurs to them to do so. If it did, and they looked this stuff up, liberals would never win elections ever again, especially in the United States.
Huh?
That's way more than I pay on my *home* in a very nice area of Southern Californa.
Dang, I thought we had it bad. That's beyond outrageous.
You bet. I hear it was like -8 degrees in some areas back east this week, and expecting more to come.
Today in Southern California it was 74 degrees, with a sleepy pacific breeze, and unlimited visibility, in January!
It doesn't get any better.
The greatest state of the greatest country on earth
What's worked for me would be more difficult in L.A., but for what it's worth.....
If scheduling works out, show up at city council meetings. The only citizens who ever attend those things are those who have something to complain about. If you, instead, assume the role of a concerned citizen who just cares about the community, you'll find that after seeing you at half a dozen meetings some of the politicians will make it their business to find out who the heck you are. You'll also find that during that time you've developed relationships with a number of people who are heads of departments.
Once you have those relationships, you can express your concerns about various issues and frequently get responsive replies. If you act like a cheerleader most of the time, they pay attention when you suddenly get serious. Most of those guys are subjected to constant stream of complaints, and are always surprised and appreciative when you act like you understand their problems.
Strange Days. My daughter wants to go to college in CA, and my wife and I are considering a move to Southern Cal from Florida.
I like Florida, don't get me wrong, and I know this is a low tax state, but there is simply so much going on in LA that it's hard for me to consider living anywhere else. That said, I was not under the impression that LA city services were that bad. OTOH, LA itself is a cesspool of Democratic swag and patronage, so it shouldn't suprise me.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
This is what you get in Southern California for $428,000 - if you're lucky enough to find one like it.
Have you considered Miami? That's a pretty lively place. I really enjoyed visiting South Beach a few years back.
D
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