I am left leaning and I want the government to do more with the same amount of funding. Anyone that opposes this belief is perpetuating dysfunctional state of affairs - left, right, libertarian, whatever. It won't be too long I'll lose interest in the party if they don't fix things. I pay a lot of taxes in Alameda county and I am thinking about leaving this place precisely because of how horribly run this local government is.

A common response to your contingency plan is “oh great, another californian is going to come here and vote for politicians who will turn our state into california.”

Which is dumb because Californian problems often stem from our insane direct democracy system which is unique among states

A common response to my contingency plan here is "oh great, another Californian leaving for Fascist trumpers and Qanon loonies" :-)

I am changing. I might be voting for Republican (local) representatives for the very first time if they're not too crazy and have rational mediated approach, or centrist Democrats for that matter. Most Republicans I've talked to including my college friends reject Trumpism, but also reject toxic Berkeley's wokeness. So, I am in the same boat it feels despite of different labels. It was actually eye-opening talking to some old friends with whom I used to disagree in college, but now we're more mature and in our late 30's - and far more rational about things.

I left SF and California years ago and started voting Republican at about the same time. The trigger was me reserving judgment and simply observing how the environment around me changed for the worst, while at the same time having to bring up two young children.

Looking at how things are today, I know I made the right decision.

Why is it badly run, can you find someone who could do it better?