This is going way off topic, but I guess I'm not aware of why, if the people in charge were of a different political colour, the situation would be different?
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It's a problem seen in CA, TX, FL and NY quite extensively so it's not unique to politics and just not as well known in places like Hawaii for instance that deal with this as well.
The solutions for dealing with the problem aren't simple as you're seeing in parts of Canada I'm sure as well. I simply posted two articles that seemed to capture the essence of the problem just one more time.