What am I missing?

Here we go for another post on my new Blog.

Needless to say something is bugging me and it is this crazy bridge debate we are having here in Minneapolis.

When I say what am I missing what I mean is "why are we rebuilding this bridge in the first place?"I am assuming everyone reading this knows I live in Minneapolis a few blocks from the I35W bridge that fell in the river at the beginning of last month.

At first with the increased traffic here in the neighborhood after that bridge fell, I wanted that bridge rebuilt Immediately. Now I am not sure about that. From what I have been reading there are several examples of bridges or freeways around the country that have been torn down or fallen down and never rebuilt. The resulting construction and development boom have proven, that rebuilding this bridge is a mistake. San Francisco had a bridge or double decker freeway that fell during the last big shaker in 1991 I think and it was not rebuilt. San Fran is not economically depressed and as a result the area where that freeway was has been redeveloped and is now a vibrant community. We could certainly use another vibrant community in NE Minneapolis.

My questions are; has anyone making these decisions ever been to Europe? What European City has freeways running through the middle of them? We are told to save downtown Minneapolis we need these freeways, I just wonder what the European cities did to save their cities? I would say European cities have fared much much (how many times can I say much without the buzzers going off) better than US cities, I wonder why this is? Is it because they have better mass transit and using transit is considered a viable option to owning two or three cars? Is it the chicken and egg thing then? Granted transit in the US and Minnesota leaves a lot to be desired, but with Republicans in control, how can anyone expect anything else. Marie said "let them eat cake" the Republicans say "let them drive an SUV."

The cost for this bridge is now approaching $400,000,000.00 and you can bet by the time it is built that number will be $500,000,000.00

Are you ready for the best part of this. The department that is going to be in charge of rebuilding this bridge is housed in a state building that is literally, and I am not kidding or exaggerating here, falling down. There has been scaffolding around the entrance of the Minnesota Department of Transportation building in St. Paul for over a year so pieces of the building will not fall off on people who are entering the building. An no, they are not working on it now, it is just sitting there because they have no money to fix it. Now let me remind you, this is not Tirana Albania in 1980, this is St. Paul Minnesota USA in 2007. Shocking, well maybe not considering who is running things here. Carol Molneau (I am not sure if I spelled her name correctly but frankly she does not deserve the respect of the time it takes to look it up), with absolutely no experience at managing a transportation department if anything else but she is the Lt. Governor. We also have the wonderful Tax Payers League here that of course wants absolutely no money spent on anything for anyone at anytime for any reason what so ever. They loved that fact that Gov. Pawlenty decided to save money in state salaries by having his Lt. Governor be head of MNDOT rather than sitting around twiddling her thumbs which of course is what she did anyway. Brilliant plan as you can all see, we have bridges falling down, buildings that are unsafe to enter for fear of pieces of it falling on you and a department that is now BROKE. WOW, brilliant move Gov. Pooolenty. When Gov. Ventura left office there was a big surplus of money and a trust fund that is now all GONE.

So the question is, have we all totally lost our minds, have we lost the ability to see things clearly, can we not see the forest for the trees, how many more cliches can I think of that do NOT work here?

I would love comments...

I am told I should save this post before I publish, but I say what the hay, here it is.