California Catatonia

Water bottles at SFO: get 'em now (WSJ photo)

California imposes rules on all sorts of formerly innocuous behaviors and products. On the other hand it now permits actions--smoking marijuana (while driving!), service animals in restaurants--that at one time were frowned upon by the patriarchy. Of course, the bureaucracy ignores rules, e.g., vagrancy laws, it finds inconvenient.

As someone who's lost track of these developments, I found Andy Kessler's summary to be useful and amusing, in a I'm-laughing-or-I'd-be-crying sort of way: [Bold added]

First they came for our plastic grocery bags. Then they came for our plastic straws. Now they’ve come for our plastic water bottles at SFO. Yes, you read that right. Starting Tuesday, the sale of plastic water bottles will be banned at San Francisco International Airport, one of the few places they actually make sense. California has many dumb laws and statutes and bans, but this one is especially brainless—spurred by futile self-righteousness.

After running late for your flight after a 30-minute security line only to have TSA confiscate your Fiji water bottle, you’ll now have to stop at a crowded water fountain to fill your own metal flask. Or buy an overpriced glass or aluminum bottle at the concession stand, paying another 10 cents for a bag. And your teeth will chatter if you drink through a paper straw. Of course you could risk dehydration instead: Men lose up to a half-gallon of water during a 10-hour flight. Oddly, you can still buy sugary drinks in plastic bottles at SFO; only healthy, calorie-free water is banned in plastic. You can’t make this stuff up.

Other fields are even worse. Starting next year, the California Building Standards Commission will require every new home to have solar panels. This will add $8,400 to the average cost of the state’s already expensive homes. With a shortage of about 1.4 million housing units, according to the California Housing Partnership, that’s a $12 billion unfunded mandate.

But maybe the housing shortage can be solved with yet another legislative “fix.” Last December state Sen. Scott Wiener introduced Senate Bill 50, which would allow developers to ignore certain local zoning laws within half a mile of train or subway stations and some bus stops. The bill would allow five-story buildings, high density and massive parking structures. Although the bill was tabled in May, many of its growing group of supporters argued it didn’t do enough to create incentives for affordable housing. That tells me another version of this bill will pass eventually. So here’s what may happen: Many towns will preserve local zoning pre-emptively by closing their train stations. Lose-lose situation.

So what? you might ask: Just take an Uber or Lyft. Not so fast. Also winding its way through Sacramento is Assembly Bill 5, which would reclassify “gig economy” workers as employees, entitled to full benefits and a $12 minimum wage. This means the cost of rides, deliveries and even manicures would go up, up, up. The bill is an overreach because most drivers truly are temporary workers. According to the delivery company Postmates, half of delivery workers quit after 80 days and about 45% work less than nine hours a week. Once again California legislators are trying for a trifecta: Fix a problem that may not exist, kill a very Californian innovation, and damage the employment prospects of the same workers they are trying to protect.

There’s more. Proposition 64, passed in 2016, allows Californians to grow six pot plants at home. Why not seven? And there is still no measurable legal limit for driving while stoned. When hungry, you can bring your dog to restaurants. Since 2015 no one can stop you. My son worked at a nice restaurant and was told that the only thing he was allowed to ask was “Can I do anything for your service dog?” Keep your poodles away from my noodles. Meanwhile, Starbucks is rolling out sippy lids, like toddlers’ sippy cups, to replace plastic straws. Iced coffee dribbled down your shirt can certainly be humiliating.

Progressive taxes with top marginal rates of more than 50%, plus San Francisco’s proposed tax on initial public offerings, will keep housing prices high—in Incline Village, Nev. California’s electricity prices are also progressive, increasing to more than 50 cents a kilowatt-hour after users exceed a meager baseline. Of course residents can offset this by picking up an electric car, which the state deems worth an almost 30% discount.

But don’t expect auto manufacturers to make out well. The California Air Resources Board didn’t like the Trump administration’s freeze on emissions standards at 2020 levels, so it waived the waiver, requiring the tougher rules and 54 miles per gallon. Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW have already cut a deal with California to meet the higher standards, but with many loopholes. Auto makers like to manufacture one car for all states, so they comply with California laws, dumb or not.

In some places, the right laws are in place but no one cares. San Francisco, like Los Angeles, has a nasty homeless problem. Fed up, voters in 2010 passed a “sit-lie” ordinance that outlaws loitering between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. “Outlaws” in this case mean perpetrators are supposed to get a ticket. But the police don’t bother with that anymore, so Karl Malden’s famed Streets of San Francisco are filled with needles and human feces, which the city spends $30 million a year to clean up—ineffectively. But heaven forbid you want to buy cold water in a disposable bottle at the airport.

Thanks to passing laws against things they don't like, Californians don't have guns being acquired by felons or the mentally ill, don't have human trafficking, and don't have people addicted to illegal painkillers. Despite its success, it's puzzling why the rest of the country doesn't want to be more like California.