If you want a rough approximation of hell on earth, try opening a restaurant in the City of Los Angeles.

It’s not just the dozen or more government agencies that need to sign off on a project—or the lack of communication between the Building and Safety guy who says that the electrical outlets are fine and the Fire Department guy who says that they have to be replaced. It’s not even the intramural squabbling between the Planning Department and the Area Planning Commission over whether to require six or eight parking spaces. What makes L.A.’s system so horrible—often dragging out approvals for a year or longer—is an institutional disregard for anyone running a business. In this world, bureaucracy is what rules, and if you don’t like it, well, tough.

Certainly there have been reform efforts. But for the most part they’ve died on the vine.

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