Why are Los Angeles services so bad? (Vanity Question)

Self | 01/12/2004 | David H Dennis

[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?

[daviddennis]

This question has bothered me for many decades, but it seems particularly apropos as I settle into my house and start paying property taxes.

Thoughts?

[daviddennis]

An interesting question for you folks to chew on this morning.

D

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[Tijeras_Slim]

To many takers and fakers, not enough makers.

[cyborg]

I live on Long Island paying more taxes than you are (in a house worth 350K) but at least my cops come on time. Cities, counties,villages have different ways of doings. Worth looking into.

[Dog Gone]

While I think about it, I can't help but marvel that a $428k house with 1000 sq. feet is a bargain in LA County. I will avoid hurting you and will refuse to tell you what that could buy in the Houston area.

[Servant of the 9]

This question has bothered me for many decades, but it seems particularly apropos as I settle into my house and start paying property taxes.

Thoughts?

You are complaining about relatively low property taxes.
My taxes on my $125,000.00 condo in Houston are over $3500.00.
Although I will admit a $125,000, close to Galeria area condo in Houston is likely to be larger than your house.

So9

[Dog Gone]

It looks as if the highest priority of the LA County is to redistribute wealth, not provide services.

[Pukin Dog]

A better question would be: Why would you waste so much of your hard earned money there?

Move.

[Semi Civil Servant]

You are suffering from L.I.C. (Liberals In Control) Syndrome. Gainfully employed citizens are not a priority.

[Non-Sequitur]

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 pay 7.45% sales tax. I pay 6.45% income tax on amounts over $60,000. My gas tax is about $.09. My property taxes are about $2200 on a 2500 square foot home (estimated value of $250,000 I might add) and my school system (Blue Valley) is one of the best in the nation with foreign language taught beginning in kindergarden, daily music lessons, art, technology, all the rest. Welcome to Kansas. Now go back where you came from.

[EggsAckley]

Homeless bums and services-sucking illegals.

[Hank Rearden]

I remember Woodland Hills from 30 years ago; nice place.

Now, from your description, it sounds like a grossly-overpriced s#$thole, and you just bought at or near the top of a real-estate bubble. What did you expect? Didn't you look around and check it out? And you JUST moved in? Why would you do that? And what mechanisms are in place to turn CA around and back on the road to prosperity and a population without a sleazy "urban" mentality?

I abandoned CA 9 years ago and have never looked back.

[steplock]

I love harrassing californians!

I own a 1700 sqft brick home on 1/2 wooded acre running stream just the other side of my fence, you can't see the neighbors houses in summer because of the dense trees.

We have (don't tell the Sierra club) red-headed woodpeckers (the big ones!) owls, hawks, eagles (yes, Bald-Headed Eagles), squirrels & chipmunks (a lot less thanks to the eagles & hawks) racoons, etc....and I live INSIDE the city limits.

Now...for the harrassment part....

3 years ago I paid $63k for the house, my taxes are $0 (homestead exemption - otherwise they would have been $350) our sales tax here is close to 9% but they do tax food and medicine as all good socialist states would. Income tax we have, but reasonable (If you're a politician/lawyer you don't pay much income tax - they exempt most of their money) but overall this state is nice and we are bit by bit erasing the socialist/communist influences.

Oh yea ---- ARKANSAS ---- no jokes please - I came here from Texas.

The only bad part about the cost of living / pay scale here --- try to buy a new car/truck. $30,000 for a truck is ridiculous when I can buy a house for the same price.

$30k for a truck is cheap maybe for the union auto worker in detroit, but it's priced way too high for many across the USA.

Now you see why companies are outsourcing jobs?

[sergeantdave]

The problem is that the area is run by thieving socialists and the solution is to vote them out and then throw them in prison. However, the citizens love their goodies passed out by the socialists. So voting them out will never happen.

I left the socialist state of CA just as they were unfurling the hammer and sickle flags.

Perhaps Arnold can provide tax relief, but when the socialists start screaming "The children! The children!" he'll probably back down. Even if he does provide relief a socialist judge will hack him down and order a court-mandated tax hike.

You're doomed. Take your talents to another state where your contributions will be appreciated, and you're rewarded with lower taxes.

[LisaMalia]

I think the pie chart says it all.

[Vigilanteman]

Notice the dark red color of Los Angeles County and the deep blue color of Orange County? In the 2000 election 63% of the people in Los Angeles County voted for Al Gore; whereas 56% of the people in Orange County voted for George Bush. Attitudes at the national level are generally reflected at the local level.

[CalKat]

I don't know the reason for the difference. But when you mention the police...I used to live in Pasadena and someone tried to break into my house, and they slashed my tires and cut my phone lines. I didn't call them until the next morning, when I went outside and found my tires slashed and when I called the phone company and was told the phone lines had been cut. They didn't even send a car out, they just sent me forms I needed to submit to my insurance company to get reimbursed for my tires.

Now I live in Laguna Beach and someone broke into my car. They didn't take anything, they just went through all my papers and stuff. They didn't take my Coach briefcase or my CDs or anything. It was really wierd. But Laguna Beach sent out a car and took fingerprints and everything.
Go figure.

[daviddennis]

What does a similar chart look like for Houston?

And if I wanted to live in an artsy, creative community, what zip code of Houston would I select? I'm curious about trying to compare like community with like. I have at least two musicians living within a block of me (obviously successful ones in view of home prices here).

I do love living in the hills, which I believe is unfortunately not an option in Houston :-(.

D

[Tacis]

Hey, gringo! Are you blind? Didn't you pay attention when you went to the school? Go to the public hospital; check out the speech patterns of the patients. You are paying for the free ride of millions of illegal criminal Mexican aliens, in this country because they broke our laws. Now, W has a plan where, by breaking more of our laws, they can profit even more. By switching fake SSA numbers, having several names/identities, a semi-legal status will allow them to work under one name (federal taxes/benefits) but claim Workers' Comp (state) or Unemployment Comp (state) at the same time. As we speak, there are criminal aliens reading the fine print and, because they understand the workings of the state government and understand the blithering incompetency of unionized state workers, calculatiing how to confiscate more of your tax payments and send them back home.

The interesting part of your grump about taxes is that you haven't yet recognized how low your property taxes really are. Prop 13 limited the states right to tax your property. When the legislature (dems) realize how very low your taxes are, there will be a blitz to raise them so as to "fairly tax wealthy property owners so that they pay their fair share in supporting the less fortunate among us."