Los Angeles is the land of anarcho-tyranny. Want to open a normal bar, restaurant, or store? You’ll need to build out and lease a whole commercial space and wait years for a liquor license, paying taxes and complying with thousands of health and labor regulations. Full time security to keep our “unhoused neighbors” — most of whom aren’t even from here — from trashing the place because LAPD won’t do anything. Want to sling food and liquor on the street for cash? You’re a protected class, set up anywhere you please, no taxes no problem, and dump your waste on the sidewalk. Want to build housing? Years of permitting and getting shaken down by every city department for parks fees, affordable housing fees, you name it. You finally get your home built but you wait months just for LADWP to actually turn on the lights and let you get your certificate of occupancy, just because. But if a squatter comes and occupies your home and presents a fake lease, the police won’t do anything about it, because that’s a “civil” matter. The homeless can party in and burn down your property and there’s nothing you can do about it. You try to sell and get out of this mess, you pay a 5%+ transfer tax to fund eviction defense for deadbeats and “professional” tenants. Either way, you lose.