American government is built on the idea that government is intrinsically both malign and incompetent. That's why they have broken it up into infinite pieces - so that every section of government is constrained by every other section, and then they complain that no section of the government does anything. Why can't the city fix public transit? Well, maybe you should ask the separately funded and elected Transit Authority. Oh, they say there's no point running buses along roads with one house per mile? Well, maybe you should ask the city to upzone. Oh, they say they can't upzone because there's no infrastructure for electricity or sewer? Well, maybe you should ask the Public Utility District. And then they would need schools? That's a problem for the Local School District. But the school district can't afford to run school buses everywhere? Well, that's nothing to do with the Transit Authority! Perhaps you should burn it all down, which will be easy because the levy to fund the local Fire Department failed and they can't afford trucks.