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I know it's a Republican cliché, but there is a lot of bullshit regulation. For example, "CARB certification" requires that an aftermarket part manufacturer give CARB a car of each model and model year that they would like to certify the part for, as well as $10,000 for each model and model year. It has no benefit over simply measuring emissions at the tailpipe other than making money.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 05:32 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 03:19 |
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Mayor Dave posted:
Geeze, who was the biggest contributor on that? I think my residential property taxes change yearly, definitely goes to show that corporate interests are above all else.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 05:35 |
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You know, if there's one thing I've learned from this thread, it's that California is nowhere near as good as all you bastards in California say it is. So I guess I'll just keep living in the real best state in the union. Suck it, west coast.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 05:45 |
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Sinestro posted:I know it's a Republican cliché, but there is a lot of bullshit regulation. For example, "CARB certification" requires that an aftermarket part manufacturer give CARB a car of each model and model year that they would like to certify the part for, as well as $10,000 for each model and model year. It has no benefit over simply measuring emissions at the tailpipe other than making money. It would be nice if the visual part was dumped, possibly even an exempt status for "under x miles annually." Instead we have police harassing drivers for what kind of car they drive and forcing their hood to be popped on thin probable cause. I wish more effort was put into proper traffic education, might do wonders on pollution if people knew how to get up to highway speed when merging, moving right if nobody is in front of you while everyone is behind you, congestion due to lovely driving is quite a bitch on pollution levels. Hasn't most of our clean air come from regulation at the manufacture, and not the smog check itself? I've been having a hard time finding data on it since they both happened at the same time. I might be rambling though, I'm terrible. Aeka 2.0 fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Jun 29, 2013 |
# ? Jun 29, 2013 05:49 |
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Mayor Dave posted:
People keep talking about "growing crops in the desert" or whatever but only a small part of the Central Valley is even vaguely arid. It is where much of the water being piped south comes from, in fact. Where do you all think the water comes from? Much of the northern Central Valley was originally marshland and wetlands that were deliberately drained to make way for agriculture. edit: also, rice takes about 1/10th of the water to grow per acre than corn. It is a surprisingly less water intensive crop than one would expect. Best Friends fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Jun 29, 2013 |
# ? Jun 29, 2013 05:54 |
States with impending UHC are in first place. All states with anything else are in dead last. What year is California making the upgrade, again? Kaiser Permanente, would you happen to have anything to say about that? I'd tell you what that was (if anything), but the first fifty results for "California uhc" are for a local health insurance company and negative reviews thereof.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 06:04 |
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Best Friends posted:People keep talking about "growing crops in the desert" or whatever but only a small part of the Central Valley is even vaguely arid. Chico gets 26 inches of rain a year, Sacremento gets 18, Fresno gets 11 and Bakersfield gets 6. Chico is the only one that doesn't classify as a desert and it's in the foothills of the mountains.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 06:13 |
Dusseldorf posted:Bakersfield gets 6 Aaaaand here's what they do with it.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 06:24 |
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Dusseldorf posted:Chico gets 26 inches of rain a year, Sacremento gets 18, Fresno gets 11 and Bakersfield gets 6. Chico is the only one that doesn't classify as a desert and it's in the foothills of the mountains. The definition of desert is more than just "where is there very little rainfall." All these areas except Bakersfield are lush. This whole "greedy farmers" thing is dumb as hell considering it's people using local water supplies to farm one of the most agriculturally productive areas on Earth. If they were taking water from LA that would be one thing, but quite the opposite is what occurs. agarjogger posted:Aaaaand here's what they do with it. If stupid residential water use wasn't a thing all over California, including Southern California, this might have more impact.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 06:33 |
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Best Friends posted:If stupid residential water use wasn't a thing all over California, including Southern California, this might have more impact. Hell, this isn't even a California-only thing. Look at the rest of the western states.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 06:49 |
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Ardennes posted:the traffic reminds me how much living in LA sucks. etalian posted:Yeah LA is really huge at 503 sq miles due to how the city aggressively annexed surrounding areas over the years. redscare posted:part of the reason why 70% of the budget goes to pay for police and firefighter salaries and benefits All Of The Dicks posted:Oakland Glass of Milk posted:The prison unions pretty much own the Democrats along with teacher unions, so the prison system is ridiculous.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 06:58 |
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FRINGE posted:Pretty much explains itself in a lot of circumstances. "Oakland." Best thing about Oakland: Its near Berkeley. Next best thing: its cheaper than Berkeley. Funniest thing: the Whole Foods hovering on the edge to save on rent but still get Berkeley shoppers. (Ok its not the funniest, but still.) North Oakland neighborhoods are a lot fancier than south Berkeley neighborhoods.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 07:04 |
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Industrialized police are one of the biggest long-term threats to the state for many reasons, but that's been touched on in this thread. California anecdote! I work for a biotech firm that got bought in 2010 by an oil supermajor. Their first plan was to relocate the site to Houston. They renenged on the idea when they realized noone would relocate with them. Three years later, less than one percent of the staff has moved, and every time it's been for a huge promotion.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 07:08 |
Bastard Tetris posted:California anecdote! I work for a biotech firm that got bought in 2010 by an oil supermajor. Their first plan was to relocate the site to Houston. They renenged on the idea when they realized noone would relocate with them. Three years later, less than one percent of the staff has moved, and every time it's been for a huge promotion. I'm pretty sure companies know this obvious fact deep down, but are hoping that if enough companies pretend otherwise, labor will pretend too. You can't uproot skilled labor from a nice city to a nationally-renowned poo poo one without offering to make them all multi-millionaires. For Texas to strangle California, their companies would have to pay 1.5x-2.0x wages. Since that's loving ridiculous, California is still kicking. But maybe if you can convince people that caring about anything but numerical salary is for snobs and atheists, you can make them move to Texas for a $10,000 bonus, so lets try that.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 07:15 |
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Best Friends posted:People keep talking about "growing crops in the desert" or whatever but only a small part of the Central Valley is even vaguely arid. It is where much of the water being piped south comes from, in fact. Where do you all think the water comes from? Much of the northern Central Valley was originally marshland and wetlands that were deliberately drained to make way for agriculture. Desert might be strong, after all the Central Valley was once home to Lake Tulare, the largest lake in terms of surface area west of the Great Lakes. Sadly when they diverted the rivers for agriculture the lake shrank, just like the Aral Sea and Lake Chad. Aeka 2.0 posted:Geeze, who was the biggest contributor on that? I think my residential property taxes change yearly, definitely goes to show that corporate interests are above all else. Howard Jarvis, the (Mormon) force behind Prop 13, was a businessman, but there were plenty of moneymen behind Reagan and the taxpayers' revolt. Also, I can't believe the California Megathread has gotten to 5 pages without posting We, the Spiteful, because it's all about Reagan and the time when Prop 13 became law.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 07:16 |
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One thing that isn't mention that often is about Southern influence in SoCal, LA unlike SF actually attracted far more Southerns when California became a state. There was even some pro-confederate unrest during the civil war. For most of the 19th and 20th, the upper echelons of the LAPD (including the chief) has had Southern origins and that was readily reflected in its policies and the attitudes of its street officers. Basically, for most of its early existence LA was a little slice of the south on the Pacific.
Ardennes fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Jun 29, 2013 |
# ? Jun 29, 2013 07:32 |
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Man, didn't a few hundred Southern Californians cross the New Mexico desert to enlist in the Confederate Army, and aren't we the state with the dubious distinction of being the first to have an ex-Confederate congressman?
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 07:54 |
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Also, Anaheim was literally run by the KKK in the 1920s and many places in Orange County are named after long dead Klan members.
SporkOfTruth fucked around with this message at 08:20 on Jun 29, 2013 |
# ? Jun 29, 2013 08:17 |
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Ardennes posted:One thing that isn't mention that often is about Southern influence in SoCal, LA unlike SF actually attracted far more Southerns when California became a state. There was even some pro-confederate unrest during the civil war. For most of the 19th and 20th, the upper echelons of the LAPD (including the chief) has had Southern origins and that was readily reflected in its policies and the attitudes of its street officers. Basically, for most of its early existence LA was a little slice of the south on the Pacific.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 09:27 |
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Tom Smykowski posted:This and the migrations during the Great Depression partly explain the conservatism of the central valley, too. Yeah, doesn't Basketfield especially have a lot of families with history from that migration? Anyway, a lot of the hosed up stuff in SoCal especially isn't accidental or inexplicable. That said, LA city itself has a lot of good and interesting parts do it, and is far from being "intellectual void." Once live a couple other American cities, you can start to see some of LA's (and California's) general merits. The continual shame is how many good things in California are just pissed way through racism, classism and terrible leadership. I don't think Brown is actually that good, but for the abysmal state of Californian politics he is probably the best governor in recent memory (he is only mediocre rather than laughably terrible or evil).
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 10:05 |
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Ardennes posted:The continual shame is how many good things in California are just pissed way through racism, classism and terrible leadership. I don't think Brown is actually that good, but for the abysmal state of Californian politics he is probably the best governor in recent memory (he is only mediocre rather than laughably terrible or evil). poo poo, he's pretty much the only halfway decent one since his dad. God, from Pete Wilson to Ahnuld there was 20 straight years of just absolutely awful governors.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 11:29 |
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Ardennes posted:The continual shame is how many good things in California are just pissed way through racism, classism and terrible leadership. I don't think Brown is actually that good, but for the abysmal state of Californian politics he is probably the best governor in recent memory (he is only mediocre rather than laughably terrible or evil). This. There's so much potential here. And its shameful but I have stockholm syndrome and Jerry Brown is my hero because he's only slightly abusive.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 11:35 |
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Play posted:This. There's so much potential here. And its shameful but I have stockholm syndrome and Jerry Brown is my hero because he's only slightly abusive. Jerry Brown is in open defiance of a Supreme Court ruling that the California prisons are flouting the Eighth Amendment, to the point where he has been reprimanded yet again by the federal courts. It's getting into full-on-the-South-refusing-to-desegregate territory.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 13:19 |
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The ultimate issue is three strikes and the swelling of California's prison population due the point it has become inhumane. The recent proposition ultimately didn't change that much and the damage has already been done. The state will probably go bankrupt again building prisons.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 13:53 |
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And yet there is still a huge proportion of the California population that thinks there are too *few* people in prison. I remember going to a Sunnyvale city council meeting a few years back. Among the items for discussion was a medical-marijuana dispensary. There were about three dozen people--older people, mostly Asian--who stood up to tell us how they were Very Very Scared that this would immediately turn Sunnyvale into Detroit. For all the talk about California being fruits-nuts-and-flakes, it's shockingly conservative in places that *aren't* Berkeley.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 15:57 |
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Miss-Bomarc posted:And yet there is still a huge proportion of the California population that thinks there are too *few* people in prison. What enables the prisons in California is a double-whammy of those who are on the 'right' of this issue (which includes plenty of California democrats) being all for more people being in prison, and those on the 'left' side being very closely tied to unions, and the prison union (and some related unions) is extremely powerful in California, I'd argue that the prison union needs reformation because I don't think they're looking out for the real benefits of their members, since overcrowding endangers their members, but that's for the members to decide. As it is, they're a real anti-progressive force on prison reform. In general, I am 100% pro-union dude, and I'm entirely for the prison guards having a union, but their political power grows the more members they have and they have more members the more prisons and prisoners there are. Obdicut fucked around with this message at 17:20 on Jun 29, 2013 |
# ? Jun 29, 2013 16:05 |
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Ardennes posted:Yeah, doesn't Basketfield especially have a lot of families with history from that migration? I had a roommate from Bakersfield while in college. They literally still use the word "Okie" there.As a pejorative. With no hint of irony. Hobohemian fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Jun 29, 2013 |
# ? Jun 29, 2013 16:28 |
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How is the California High-Speed Rail coming along? Have they even begun construction? This state needs one badly.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 17:09 |
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Obdicut posted:and they have pretty good relationships with other unions. Whoa whoa whoa, no the CCPOA does not. When the state put everybody on furloughs for three years the CCPOA got off scot-free and didn't even complain in solidarity. When the state laid off shitloads of people they didn't get touched, or raise one word in defense of the other unions. There's the CCPOA and then there's everybody else and nary the two groups of unions will cross.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 17:18 |
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UberJew posted:Whoa whoa whoa, no the CCPOA does not. When the state put everybody on furloughs for three years the CCPOA got off scot-free and didn't even complain in solidarity. When the state laid off shitloads of people they didn't get touched, or raise one word in defense of the other unions. Sorry! I moved out of California four years ago, and didn't know that part. My apologies for getting that wrong. It's good to know that they're a pariah among unions, but unfortunately they still swing a big political club.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 17:19 |
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I'm reading Cadillac Desert and I just got to the part where LA fast-talkers flat-out stole the Owens River in order to get hella rich from real estate in the San Fernando Valley. The utter shamelessness is amazing. Somebody ought to make the movie (and yes, I have seen Chinatown, thanks.) drat. The book is, however, casually racist toward Native Americans, with references like "picking up squaws and other staples" and "empty except for Indians and bison". e: High-speed rail is still hung up in court.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 17:22 |
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Miss-Bomarc posted:And yet there is still a huge proportion of the California population that thinks there are too *few* people in prison. Yeah, we're weird down in the Silicon Valley. Cupertino voted like 70% for Obama in 2012, but then you remember that it's really, really rich. A lot of the elderly Asians I've met seem to be really racist as well; my great-uncle is a birther, for one, and I get the hell out of the house whenever he comes because I don't feel like hearing him rant about how Obama isn't actually American and is a Muslim and horrible poo poo like that ' Anyway, it's going to be above 90 degrees here and holy hell I feel like going to Pride to escape the heat, but I don't think my dad would have it
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 17:41 |
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Arsenic Lupin posted:e: High-speed rail is still hung up in court. Sort of a predictable trainwreck given the scale of the project and all the unknowns.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 18:01 |
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Classic Twisty posted:What's so great about California Nothing. It's one of the most stratified states, especially the cities people are lauding. LA, SF, SJ. They're all pretty bad if you take a look around and see how the bulk of the people there live especially in the first two. Despite this being a very liberal state(not really), there's prop 13 still in force, and the vast inequality across the board isn't seen as an issue. SF puts on a show at least and has health care for the city, but when you compare the splendor of the rich in SF to the poor who are getting pushed out of the city, it's ridiculous. LA is worse, but less compact. Another point: despite the state being so diverse, there's a lot of self-segregation and most people won't deal with certain demographic groups if they can avoid it. Pellisworth posted:You're doing a lot of handwaving here. Most large cities have significant poor/working poor populations, and yes LAUSD is pretty terrible but what of the higher education in the area? The community colleges are incredibly good and the big universities are world-class. Aerospace might be a declining industry, but there's a growing tech industry here too. I forget the name of the project, friend of mine that's in Marketing in Silicon Valley was telling me about how there's a lot of movement toward making Santa Monica a new Silicon Valley type area. Read more and saw this. The UCs don't matter except for people who are already more or less well off. You can just look at the demographics there and you'll see very little of the state's Latino/Black population at UCs compared to Asians and Whites. If LAUSD and other districts are not improved, this cycle of an Asian/White Uni student body that gets the good jobs after is going to continue indefinitely. Community colleges aren't equal across the board(Santa Monica College and Orange Coast College will beat out ELAC) and there have been huge cuts and there's been almost a doubling in per unit cost for them in LA since 2010. If the end goal of public higher education is to subsidize the costs of the upper mid/ middle class, then it's all gravy. Most people who would benefit the most from the big universities usually end up having a lot harder of a time getting access to them because they don't have equal K-12 education. Fetal Attraction fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Jun 29, 2013 |
# ? Jun 29, 2013 18:01 |
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My cousin lives in San Diego and she just graduated with bachelors in visual arts. Her favorite book is Atlas Shrugged I guess it takes a special type of crazy to live there continually.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 18:29 |
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:Anyway, it's going to be above 90 degrees here and holy hell I feel like going to Pride to escape the heat, but I don't think my dad would have it
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 18:30 |
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Best Friends posted:The definition of desert is more than just "where is there very little rainfall." All these areas except Bakersfield are lush. To chime in on stupid residential / commercial water usage in this state that was mostly addressed with AB 2717 which lead to AB 1881 that went into full effect in 2012. It's new construction only, but all new or refurbishment of existing projects are mandated to have there maximum allowable water usage decreased by at least 20% which is actually a huge amount if you're into landscape architecture / irrigation design like I was. Now it doesn't apply to already existing single family homes, parks, golf courses (which have there own really strict rules), or cemeteries, but CA already had some of the strictest landscape water use laws in the nation before AB 1881 and it just got reduced another 20% minimum state wide. Also, if you have any questions about commercial/residential landscape irrigation feel free to ask, that was my job for 10 years until 2010 and I actually did the design on the winning pilot project for AB 2717.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 18:33 |
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I always wanted to visit San Diego, but never got a chance. I'm not rich enough to live there without being in a lovely situation. I was born up north in Paradise and lived in Oroville until 3rd grade. The land is beautiful over there but most of Butte County doesn't live up to its potential. The last time I was there, it was economically depressed and methed out. This was in 2001. My family was part of the mass exodus in the mid-90s that brought us to Idaho, but most of my extended family stayed. I have always wished they could sort their poo poo out because it could be a nice place to live. Chico is okay I suppose. I don't think there's any place worth anything on I-5 until you get to Oregon. Inequality is absolutely a major problem for the entire state. A perfect example is the stark contrast between Palo Alto and East Palo Alto.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 18:58 |
Zeitgueist posted:The bus system is overcrowded, slow, unreliable, and they're actively cutting lines. People ride the bus because they have to, not because it's convenient. Often you'll see a bus go right by because it's too full. Yeah it's definitely not perfect (not even close), and I already said as much. It's a mix of good in some areas, and completely lovely in others. And you'll sometimes see overcrowded buses skipping passengers in other cities too, including ones with much better public transit, such as SF. My point was that the stereotype of public transit being 100% useless in LA is wrong. LA's public transit is very useful if you live somewhere that's well served (and a lot of people do live in those areas), and is miles better than the public transit you'll find in a lot of other US cities, despite being partially horrible. Try taking public transit in Tulsa, for example. Public transit in LA is like NYC or London in comparison. All Of The Dicks posted:Can someone explain the purpose of San Diego? Ground beef? Only a heathen tex-mex fiend would assume such a thing. That's carne asada, son It's funny how you think authentic Mexican food is wrong. And yes they do look fantastic, but only to non-crazy people. Rah! fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Jun 29, 2013 |
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 22:03 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 03:19 |
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The Warszawa posted:Jerry Brown is in open defiance of a Supreme Court ruling that the California prisons are flouting the Eighth Amendment, to the point where he has been reprimanded yet again by the federal courts. It's getting into full-on-the-South-refusing-to-desegregate territory. The only solution at hand is to start releasing people. Hes a politician. Not likely to happen. Obdicut posted:those on the 'left' side being very closely tied to unions, and the prison union (and some related unions) is extremely powerful in California, Theres a variety of books on the prison-industrial complex that explains their power (shockingly, its money!) if youre interested. The one I linked up-thread is pretty short. Rude. posted:My cousin lives in San Diego and she just graduated with bachelors in visual arts. Her favorite book is Atlas Shrugged I guess it takes a special type of crazy to live there continually. Best Friends posted:If stupid residential water use wasn't a thing all over California, including Southern California, this might have more impact. The whole thing is highlighted by the fact that municipal water is more expensive in Seattle than LA. Something is wrong with the valuation-to-waste mechanism.
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# ? Jun 29, 2013 22:32 |