Spin those wheels

Most who know me have, at one time or a hundred, heard me run on at the mouth about my general distaste for government and those who promote its growth. Miles leans libertarian.

I ran across this document while searching the San Francisco city website for something unrelated. This document discusses a voter-approved ballot proposition that passed in 2002 banning all new billboard construction in the city and a 2001 statute passed to tighten enforcement of "scofflaw" billboards.

This is how things seem to go in government in my experience:

1) People are annoyed, frightened, or offended by something
2) Some of those people organize to whine publicly about whatever it is, encouraging the government (aka Mommy) to eradicate the irritant. "Waaa!"
3) Mommy, who's main job is to respond to whining, springs into action and puts its wheels in motion to accommodate the irritated.

-- then one of two things generally happens --

4a) The irritant is removed at a substantial financial cost and/or loss of liberty to everyone.
4b) The irritant is not removed at a substantial financial cost and/or loss of liberty to everyone.

You see.. Many times the irritant is not removable, but the wheels must still spin to show people that Mommy cares. Unfortunately, wheel spinning isn't free and sometimes comes in the form of things like the Patriot Act.

In this case of the billboards, I searched around and wasn't able to find any action past this report from back in 2002. It's jam packed with all kinds of real-world complications and budget realities that tend to grind efforts to a halt. This one seemed especially gloomy.

It's not clear to me whether the voters have gotten any satisfaction other than the fact that their voices were heard and votes counted. But at least hundreds of man hours and untold dollars were spent. If anyone knows better, I'd like to know.