That's one of reasons I was sorry to see Goleta made a city a few years back. There are a number of factions around here that don't agree, so to get city hood passed the people behind the ballot measure only put areas that had voted yes before in & the others were out. That made it a smaller city of which I'm barely in the city limits.
They also left the small community around the college (UCSB) out or there was no way city hood would have passed. 
Most people around here don't want college students having too much power.
On the last city council there was only one who had any common sense. The rest of them were more interested in creating a city in the image that they thought a city should be even at the risk of law suits & the state rejecting the city general plan
or what many in the city thought. Fortunately at the last election people had had enough of them & throw all those up for election out. 
Seems like there are too many politicians who say whatever to get elected and afterward just do as they please.
Brick, at least in CA a vehicle can for a small fee to DMV be registered as non operational. Then it just can't be parked on the street. That's just ridiculous to have to have full tags & insurance on cars that aren't running.
