Comment: A city with an almost nonfunctioning police department, too few ambulances and fire trucks to meet demand (related to the failing police department), a drug epidemic with growing violence and shootings (too bad the RG doesn't report the shootings we're now experiencing), parks and streets overrun with homeless campers, bike path underpasses that are impassable (drug-addled homeless have taken them over), a planning department that can't plan and many other serious defects in basic services a city is supposed to offer has the staff time to pursue grants that are really only going to fund a staff member taking a junket? This is why our citizens are becoming cynical. 

I'm a pro-tax, big-government kind of guy. I see taxes as the price of admission to civilization and I want the E-tickets (yes, I'm old enough to remember E-tickets at Disneyland). And yet, I'm starting to vote against all local tax measures because of the fact that I have lost trust in my local government.