[nostromo]

> The American bureaucracy is insane.

This is an California issue, not an American one.

> Americans seem to know what the problem is, but just accept that nothing can be done about it.

Again, this is a California issue. We know the bureaucracy is broken, but we vote for the same incompetent people over and over again.

[lbriner]

I think bureaucracy is broken generally. It is a fallacy that all problems can be avoided or solved by "due process" since life is infinitely more complex. How many people have been told by a Local Authority that something is 5mm too wide or 30cm too close to the road?

I think the only solution, like we have in UK Courts, is that you need people who are trusted with an amount of knowledge and wisdom (i.e. the Judges) who are permitted to, for example, visit a property and take a holistic view. "Is the drain slightly too close to the road? Yeah but realistically 90% of the other properties have a contravention that is not enforced so just get on with it".

We used to have something similar in Local Authorities in the UK where the "Borough Engineer", pretty much had the last call on roads, street lighting etc. If you wanted to make representations, you wrote to them and they decided whether they cared about what you were complaining about. No appeals.

As the article says, where this gets unfair, people think that by adding process or sign-off, you get the best of all worlds but the truth is, that only works if everybody wants the same thing, otherwise as OP says, people game the process even if they can't win as some malicious act to cost the builders money.

[lesam]

NYC taking 17 years to build 3 subway stops doesn’t sound broken?