Why Blue States Can’t Have Nice Things: In the tangle of outsourcing, no one is actually in charge.

POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Thursday, July 31, 2025 04:35
VIEWED: 247
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6IXSTRINGJACK

Thursday, July 31, 2025 4:35 AM

OR: Sometimes, you just need someone with a nail gun.

https://www.persuasion.community/p/why-blue-states-cant-have-nice-thin
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I just got back from Salt Lake, where I took my kids to Wheeler Farm in Murray, Utah. Originally homesteaded in the late 1800’s, the 75-acre property was preserved and turned over to Salt Lake County in the 1970’s.

It was jarring, in the best way, to see a public space so well-run. Admission is free. Kids walk right up to cows, goats, sheep, and chickens. They climb on old tractors, go on wagon rides, race through open fields.

After a busy morning, we bought $2 Uncrustables and $1.50 popsicles from the gift shop and sat for lunch. At one point, my 3-year-old wandered over to a chicken coop that had been converted into a playhouse. He was inside when a mom rushed over—her son was bleeding. He’d been nicked by a loose plank that had come down in the coop.

The mostly college-aged staff ushered the kids out and surveyed the damage. Coming from Los Angeles, I expected some level of generalized freaking out: yellow tape, an incident report, something. Instead, what happened was even stranger: one of the employees wandered out to find a nail gun and returned to fix the problem plank on the spot.

Sometimes, you can just do things.

A week later, back in LA., I took my kids to the city-owned L.A. Zoo. The contrast was immediate and depressing.

The zoo, to put it gently, is a boulevard of broken dreams. Admission for a family of four costs $98. Exhibits that are supposed to be open are inexplicably closed. Every fifty feet there’s another kiosk that’s boarded up, another sign for something that’s been “coming soon” for years.

The petting goats have been off-limits since COVID. “Our flock of goats and sheep have interacted with more than 2 million guests in their twelve years at Muriel’s Ranch,” a long-winded sign informs you, in both English and Spanish. “To ensure their comfort as they enter their golden years, we have made the decision to change the experience at the Ranch to viewing only” (translation: “we no longer feel like it”).

A few confused tourists wandered outside the elephant enclosure, wondering where the animals had gone (back in May, following protests by a small but determined group of activists, Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council deported the elephants to Tulsa). It would have taken a single employee less than an hour to update the signage, but why bother when no one’s in charge?

And there’s no one in charge.

The Zoo is managed by GLAZA, a nonprofit, which has subcontracted concessions to SSA Group. The city gets a percentage of concession revenue, GLAZA gets a management fee for overseeing the contract, and SSA gets to charge visitors $16 for a burger.

At least there are adequate vegan options. Back in 2020, the City Council commissioned a detailed report to ensure the zoo’s concession stands catered to those with plant-based diets. A functional management structure, however, was beyond the scope of that or any other report—the city and GLAZA are currently suing each other while two different out-of-state conglomerates handle day-to-day operations.

After spending $75 on a couple of hot dogs and hamburgers, I was pretty sure someone was benefiting from the Los Angeles Zoo. It’s just not the zoo, or the animals, or the citizens of Los Angeles.

According to Reddit, this is how you fix a broken playground slide in Los Angeles:

Go to Valley Region Headquarters, which is to the Northeast from this picture. Ask to speak with the Valley Region District Manager/Superintendent. They will speak with the General Rec & Parks Superintendent. As one redditor mentioned, Rec&Parks (RAP) is severely underfunded as they are a non-proprietary department within the City, so money is always an issue. Get your councilmember in the conversation and voice this out with both of them.

You’ll have to insist to meet with the councilman, but try and do a bait and switch to get in the meeting. Start off sweet and polite (say whatever you want,

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