Red County, California

This is the face of California seen from the rest of the country, indeed the world: slouching towards insolvency while threatening political opponents and sniping at those trying to get real things done:

Wheelchair Only Sign Buy From Art.com

Under a California law enabling people to sue for violations of the disabilities act, here’s a wheelchair-bound cripple who makes “in the low six figures” by suing companies for, say, having an outside towel dispenser too high off the ground. Each suit is for a few thousand dollars – to small to make it worthwhile defending against, to expensive to pay and stay in business.

(Link in original.)

No doubt the lawsuit artist believes himself a martyr to protecting the rights of the disabled, grinding out those lawsuits, always on the lookout for the next low stair or high towel dispenser. After all, who’s hurt? No individual company pays so much as to be driven out of business, and the ADA violation is fixed for the next person.

No, the lawsuit artist and the law that enables his artistry by themselves and in isolation do not create an unfriendly and unfavorable business climate.

But they aren’t by themselves, nor in isolation.

For just one more instance, there is SB 375, a hugely intrusive planning law that aims to reduce greenhouse gases by forcing the redesign of cities and towns. SB 375 builds on AB 32, the Global Warming Act of 2006, in damping economic activity in favor of disputed environmental theories.

An excerpt from the California State Association of Cities fact sheet on SB 375:

Further, the bill aligns three critical policy areas of importance to local government: (1) regional long-range transportation plans and investments; (2) regional allocation of the obligation for cities and counties to zone for housing; and (3) a process to achieve greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets for the transportation sector.

Translated, that sentence means that local zoning control has been taken over by the state of California, which has shown its management ability in the adroit handling of its own finances.

(Hat tip: Instapundit via Twitter.)