by Jack Lee
We’re still in the grip of the great recession and everywhere across the country, both large and small public agencies are still feeling the pinch of having less tax revenue to budget with. This often translates to fewer police officers, fewer fireman, layoffs in public works, etc. Even a number of CA State Parks were forced into temporary closure for a lack of revenue. And just when you think, surely every bureaucrat in the whole dang country must understand what a financial crisis means, we have this:
In Lincoln, Neb., they are spending $800,565 to reconstruct almost new handicap curb ramps. This money is coming from pile of $800 billion in stimulus money for various work projects and temporary construction jobs.
Why?
The story starts with ramps that were designed according to specifications and approved by the Federal Highway Administration. But when the federal inspector came along to make the final check, the work was rejected. Turns out the interpretation of the federal rule changed from the time the first designs were approved in early 2010 and when the curbs and ramps were inspected later that year nullified the ramps.
The slope of some of the ramps was a tad too steep according to the new specs. The difference was so subtle that a person on foot would not be able to detect the difference, although a person in a wheelchair might….key word might. And for that the feds ponied up $800,565 of your tax money, tore out the new ramps and replaced them all.
Moving over to the left coast, in San Francisco the Board of Supervisors is set to move back into its historic City Hall legislative chambers after spending $567,735 to make the president’s dais and clerk’s desk accessible for wheelchair users.
The project involved lowering the president’s dais to two steps from five so it now sits 12 inches above floor level, and building a ramp 10 feet long to the dais. In addition, the clerk’s podium was lowered one step to floor level and moved 14 inches closer toward the center of the room. This project included $40,000 for a consultancy fee required by the historical preservation review board. $40k for wha..?
The government wackos that approved these silly boondoggles are still employed, still drawing hefty salaries and there will be no consequences for their wasteful spending. They were just playing by the rules, and rules are rules, right?
A councilman out in Lincoln quipped, “At some point, there has to be a reasonableness standard.” Good luck with that one Mr. Councilman.
And this dovetails right into my next tidbit. The latest Gallup polling shows 87% of us blame Washington more than Wall Street for our economic woes. Which brings up, where’s this 99% that the Occupy Wall Street movement say they represent?
The 99% refers to the fact that 1% of Americans are controlling the wealth. It is not a claim that 99% of Americans agree on something.
Occupy Wall Street wants the same thing the Tea Party supposedly wanted when they started. Of course the Tea Party also wanted the government to keep its hands off their Medicare and they wanted their country back. Who they wanted it back from after a democratic election was a little unclear since they claimed they were not racist and that the signs depicting the President of the United States as Hitler or The Joker were not really representative of their movement.
It is not the job of Occupy Wall Street to tell the government what to do, the government is supposed to be doing that already. We elect these people to work for us, not sit in Washington collecting a fat salary, pension and health care then waste time talking about nonsense.
RG, thank you for your comment. For what it’s worth I agree with a lot of what you said. However, here’s a little feedback for your consideration about the stuff we didn’t agree on:
There is no evidence that 1% of Americans CONTROL the wealth. It may appear that way and 1% is convenient attention getting number, but thats all I see.
The Tea Party by no means a unified front on Medicare, you will find many opinions on that, however I will agree that for those who paid for it and expect to get it, they probably want it.
The country they wanted back is the kind of country, in spirit and in deed, that the signers of the Declaration of Independence wanted as reflected in our Constitution. That’s what they wanted back, a small, limited federal government that does not block those things that lead us to prosperity and preserve our freedom. They are not about taking anything RG and that is the point that is so important to keep in mind now, the Tea Party is about restoring your Constitutional rights and returning your freedom that is inevitably eroded by the encroachment of a socialist form of big government. If the TP wins, we all win.
A 10′ wheelchair ramp more expensive to build than most mansions cost to build!
Was that ramp in the Supervisor’s chambers in San Francisco?
Last February San Francisco Supervisors approved to borrow $500,000 to erect a 10 foot long wheelchair ramp to the unused “President’s Dias” in their historic chambers. The projected costs were brought down to about $200,000 since, as Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi claimed, “due diligence” had been done.
Imagine that! Constructing a 10 foot wheelchair ramp to a place no one uses which costs more to build than a nice 3-4 bedroom home with a garage is “due diligence”!
In August 2011 San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross reported that the wheelchair ramp (now under construction) is expected to top out at nearly $700,000.
WOW! Now that is some “due dilligence”!
Are the S.F. Supervisors part of the 99%?
Pie, we’re probably talking about the same project. I got mine from the radio. But later on when I “Googled” for the details on the net I couldn’t find the original news story. All I had to use for my article was my rather p- poor memory of what was said. So thanks for filling in the blanks and keeping this story straight.
Correction: In the above it should have read “projected costs were brought down to about $250,000”
1% of USA citizens “control” the wealth? Utter nonsense. Total, brain-dead, half-baked, warmed over Marxist hooey. No wonder the “Occupy Whatever, Dude” movement is packed with left-wing radicals.
By the way, if you thought Obama throwing away one half of a billion dollars on Solyndra was a wasteful boondoggle, how about the 1.2 billion being tossed away on SunPower?
“It is a fair question to ask how a company with such serious charges lodged against its management team could receive a $1.2 billion loan guarantee from the taxpayers, so it could built a new manufacturing plant in Mexico to build the solar panels it will install at a photovoltaic ranch that will create a total of 15 permanent jobs.”
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46761
Oh yeah, GREEN JOBS GALORE! Where are the “Occupy Whatever, Dude” on this boondoggle?
RG: “The 99% refers to the fact that 1% of Americans are controlling the wealth.”
Or, to put it another way, it represents the small precentage of the 99% that are covetous jerks who are more willing to spend time whining and complaining, like muling babies, than being productive, contributing citizens.
America affords them a basic education and freedom; the opportunity to achieve whatever they want through hard work, savings and investment.
I say get off it and get to work.
Jack re Medicare: “however I will agree that for those who paid for it and expect to get it, they probably want it.”
Not only have the Boomers paid into the system all their working lives, they paid a hell of a lot more than the seniors they supported who lived longer than expected and benefitted from incredible innovations in medicine.
The American people should be responsible to all age groups when reforming Medicare so that the Boomers will not be ripped off.
Means testing is one idea that many Tea Partiers and conservatives have agreed should be part of reform so that the wealthier retiree pays more for his healthcare than those who have little or nothing.
Absolutely! Nice follow up, thanks Tina
-Jack
HEYYYY!!!