Los Angeles infrastructure collapsing? (uncollected trash, ruined streets, leaks, broken freeways-- depressed ex-LA'er) (Orange: rental car, apartments)

[Corascant]

I spent part of my childhood in LA and did some of my studies there, whatever its flaws I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Los Angeles, still have connections, accounts and friends there. I hadn't been back in a while but just returned for the first time in a long spell-- and I've never been so depressed about a city's apparent decline and downfall before. I've been back several times since moving to Texas years ago and there have been unpleasant scenes, but overall the city still seemed together and retaining its charm. But this past week, not even Detroit seems to have fallen so far at least in some areas. What is going on there? Noting here, the infrastructure falling apart wasn't in the supposedly run down parts of LA and LA County like Compton, East LA or Inglewood, more and more it was in the "nice areas" around West LA, near Santa Monica, UCLA, Brentwood, even not far from Beverly Hills! Sorry for all the text here but wanted to really lay it out.

1. Uncollected trash was everywhere in LA, in horrible amounts, rotting and putrefying in open view of the public streets and apartments. Again, this was in the "nicer" parts of the city like around west Los Angeles! The garbage buildup was so bad that in more than one place there were maggots crawling all over the ground near the sidewalk and edge of the streets, and the smell was unbearable. Utterly disgusting. It was worse than many underdeveloped places I'd traveled overseas!

2. The streets were in such horrible shape they made some regions in Calcutta look more passable. LA's never had perfect streets, even when I was studying there decades ago there were issues, but overall the city kept things running. This last visit? Thankfully I wasn't driving myself, b/c whether I was in an Uber pool or just carpooling with friends, it seemed like every other neighborhood street would kill the car's transmission with a single drive! We're talking massive divots, big fissures in the middle of the road like there'd been an earthquake. It was especially bad around UCLA and Brentwood for some reason, but it seems like the contagion of broken streets is now spreading to Culver City, Santa Monica, all over downtown-- don't even get me started on the area east of Crenshaw, from Washington all the way up to Wilshire and even Sunset my friends might as well have been driving through a bombed out battlefield!

3. Seemed like every other home, office building, and city street I visited was having massive plumbing problems. Not little leaks here and there, but water mains spilling out gallons of water, foundations getting saturated, apartments flooding due to shoddy pipes. Worse than what I saw in Detroit. In more than one place, the water turned brown and dirty when you turned on the hot-water faucet.

4. Traffic's always been bad in LA, but it's now become practically a prison for cars. There's never a break from rush hour now. I was there to both visit friends and do business, but even leaving our hotel at 3:30 a.m. to head down Imperial Highway, we got snarled in traffic. And forget about anytime around lunchtime. Leaving at 2:00 to head down to Orange CountY? Forget about it, a 3-4 hour drive now! Turns out that apparently many freeway lanes have been so badly worn down that they have to close them off all the time, but then when they attempt to fix them, inevitably there's some cost overrun or turf battle between contractors, the project gets half-finished, the roads are still impossible, and now there's construction on top of undriveable lanes to make the traffic even worse! Plus an accident, always an accident seemingly every single damn day!

5. And here's the most depressing part, supposedly the city has decent revenue. From what the locals there tell me, there's an $800 tax just for doing a tiny business in LA-- even if there's no profit, even if it's just barely starting up and losing money its first few years, there's still an $000 tax, on top of state and federal business and income taxes! Oh, and from what my friends tell me, the one thing LA really is efficient at is writing parking tickets, a lot of them BS. One of the favorite tricks of the parking cops apparently is to chalk a tire in a 2-hour parking zone, but when the driver moves the car, enough of the chalk stays on that they can still book them for a violation with now way to prove they'd moved the car. Plus, some of the parking meters apparently have a way of "conveniently" breaking down, and somehow in LA, the driver of the parked car is responsible. WTF?? Like I said thankfully I wasn't driving myself, but visitors from out of state and rental car drivers seem to be particularly juicy targets for the parking police, and those fines are nasty-- if that chalk doesn't come off your tires you're looking at an $80+ ticket AFAIK at least in some parts of the city. Bottom line is, LA supposedly is awash in revenue, so where the hell is all that money going if they can't get basic infrastructure right? Is it just sheer corruption now?

Very depressing because I still return back to the LA I knew growing up, flawed and imperfect and crowded but still generally running smoothly with all its charm. Something seems to have happened in the past couple years though with much of it in worse shape than Detroit or even parts of Newark. Can the locals explain this? Some failure in the city government? Corruption? Loss of community spirit? Simply too many people for the infrastructure? I still hope the city can be saved somehow, but damn what a terrible decline. In the current shape I sure as hell won't be going back there.

[V8 Vega]

10 zillion in unfunded public employees unions pensions and healthcare. All tax money go's to pay them.

[payutenyodagimas]

Originally Posted by Corascant

there's an $800 tax just for doing a tiny business in LA-- even if there's no profit,

I think that's the minimum CA Franchise Tax every business entity has to pay every year in CA. business tax is computed differently based on gross

[ryanms3030]

How can they afford to maintain infrastructure when we need to spend $10 million to help illegal aliens avoid deportation?

[Finper]

You forgot to mention the homeless. I agree it's bad in LA. One thing I always wonder when I'm sitting on the cesspool called the 5 fwy is our car registration is usually between 100.00 and 200.00 a year and there are 7.5 million cars in LA alone according to google. Where is all that money going???? Our fwys should be in pristine condition. I'm a LA native now living in OC and I avoid going to LA at all costs.

[Mr_Geek]

At least our great great grandkids will be able to take a train to vegas.

[Mike121]

I know right. And you didn't even mention the feral dogs everywhere. All my neighbors have been bitten by rabid dogs. Several of the have died.

And the gangs. Don't even get me started on the gangs. Most days, I get shot on the way to work. I don't even bother going to the hospital any more. I just carry pliers and rags and do the operation myself right on the freeway.

And the ocean is so filthy. Every time I go surfing, I come out of the water with disposed needles stuck to the bottom of my surfboard.

Then there're the Muslims praying everywhere. I'm just trying to get to lunch during my lunch hour and there prayer carpets everywhere. Do they have to do that on the sidewalk!! Can't they do it at home like normal people.

I remember back in the 1990s. No homeless. No crime. No gangs. LA was a paradise. Just so sad to see what has become of it.

[highlanderfil]

Originally Posted by V8 Vega

10 zillion in unfunded public employees unions pensions and healthcare. All tax money go's to pay them.

"Go's". Wait, wait...can't be...but it can, because there it is. "Go's"...

I just want to make sure that you are aware you wrote that yourself, under your own volition.

[nightlysparrow]

Originally Posted by Mike121

All my neighbors have been bitten by rabid dogs. Several of the have died.

Complete BS. "The last domestic animal with rabies was a cat which came from Mexico in 1987."

LA County Department of Public Health

[adr3naline]

Originally Posted by nightlysparrow

Complete BS. "The last domestic animal with rabies was a cat which came from Mexico in 1987."

LA County Department of Public Health

/sarcasmfail