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Comment by e4e78a06 | Hacker News Reader

That's because local politics is dedicated mostly to establishing inane bureaucratic blockers for policies that would benefit everyone except the existing homeowners in the city.

My city council recently spent until 1am debating zoning regulations for California's new ADU law instead of doing the sane thing and just letting people build ADUs.

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It's sad how true this is. What makes this particularly challenging is that most people that have the resources to seriously run for office have assets like real estate, which has a major impact on the decisions that you're talking about.

It takes less money than ever to run for office. What they do not have is the network and connections, nor are most of the public engaged. The segment of the public that is engaged and votes in the primaries for local elections tend to be business, real estate, and home owners.

our city council tries to do some stuff occasionally - but usually just ends up with the state legislature (90+ other counties) deciding they know best for our city.

Austin, TX by chance? We have some pretty infamous examples of that here. One of the sillier ones was the ban on plastic grocery bags that was overturned by the state legislature.

Indianapolis - state legislature here really hates the idea of us having functional public transit or roads that aren't crumbling

What did you do to change the outcome? Talk to any of their offices? Donate to a competing candidate?

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