San Francisco’s reputation as a whacky place certainly precedes itself, but this NYT article is a good nuts and bolts look at the effect the city’s burdensome regulation are having on businesses and consumers in tough economy.
Another proposed ordinance would fine office buildings that left lights on. I found city board supervisor Aaron Peskin’s comments interesting. I wonder why not just keep up the guilt trip and leave the government out of it:
“Do I really think there’s going to be some sort of light cop that’s going to go up to the 29th floor and see if someone’s working? Of course not…..But you can kind to try to guilt-trip people with this kind of thing.”
It’s also kind of like Vote Yes for Bonds….For Kids. I’ve got a bad feeling about the Guilford County bonds and sales tax on the May 6 ballot. It’s just too much to ask citizens to pay more taxes and take on more debt in a tough economy. Eastern Guilford’s the wild card, because I think people want to ensure that the school be built. By the same token, I think word’s out that any construction problems Guilford County Schools are having, whether through arson or rising prices, are of its own doing.
It’s not likely to get better, as the Rhino’s John Hammer points out:
Supervising a $457 million building project is no easy task, and the school board has no one with experience to do it. The facilities department seems to get cleared out about every year, and the only one any departmental history is Joe Hill, who sometimes runs the department as a consultant and sometimes is just a consultant.
That’s the same theme Hammer emphasizes about Greensboro City Government: lack of sound leadership handling half a billion or so dollars of taxpayers’ money.
