/rant: As a relatively newer resident of California, I find extraordinary levels of incompetence in pretty much every aspect of public-government interactions compared to other states in the US. This place has the most dysfunctional municipal (I am in Alameda county) and state departments. Just yesterday I wanted to file for self-proprietorship DBA record in the state commerce registry, was sent to 3 different offices in Oakland, incomplete list of form requirements and completely fucked up online forms download page CalGold - https://www.calgold.ca.gov/ that lists a billion forms but no central guidance as to what is needed.

This is the state that built the Golden Gate bridge in 3 years in 1930's but took 8 years to build a little access road recently and more than the cost of the bridge adjusting for inflation. Worse - it is considered a positive thing to have dysfunctional government here. Usually, the response from people in places like Berkeley and SF is that "Why do you need to do all this so quickly? Relax. Life is more than that. Consider gov jobs as a form of UBI. We need to cut down on progress." and crime? "Oh come on, it's not that bad. Car theft is fine, just make sure you have good insurance and get the catalytic convertor shield so it is not easy to use an angle grinder to remove it". Jeez.

Something drastic needs to happen. What a beautiful state occupied by overpaid Government employees.