July 8, 2009--Under Stimulated
To get here to Midcoast Maine we drove from Virginia where we were visiting relatives. It was a great weekend. Especially to find them doing so well.
Our drive took us through a series of Blue States. Virginia, of course, and then Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and finally Maine. About 625 miles in all, mainly on interstate highways.
Among other things we thought it would be interesting to see President Obama’s economic stimulus plans at work—all those shovel-ready infrastructure projects we’ve been hearing about. We were particularly interested in witnessing what’s going on in Delaware, Vice President Joe Biden’s home state. Considering that he is nominally in charge of overseeing the implementation of stimulus projects and how poorly Delaware’s economy is faring, we expected to find lots of projects underway.
As much of a supporter of Barack Obama as I am, it pains me to say that from out my car window I’m not sure I saw any stimulus projects at all being implemented. None.
Yes here and there there is evidence of bridge and highway construction. Mainly what appears to be a major effort near Baltimore where a number of interstates come together just north of the Harbor Tunnel. I-95, I-97, I-695, I-895. A mess that clearly needs to be untangled; but passing by it twice, first on our way south from New York to visit relatives and then looping back to get to Maine, though I didn’t count the number working on the new roads and overpasses, it would not have been difficult to do so if I had tried. At most of the sites no one at all was working. Yes, there was lots of heavy equipment nearby but none of it was being operated. And where there were workers they amounted to a handful. Most, frankly, standing around.
Where, we wondered were all the others who should have been on the stimulus payroll? Isn’t it all about jobs, jobs, jobs? And where were the lights indicating that the work would proceed 24 hours a day? Very few were in sight.
We drove about 100 miles first down and then another 100 up the New Jersey Turnpike. After that interstate bridge collapsed a few years ago in Minneapolis. New Jersey governor Jon Corzine announced that to avoid similar things happening in his state he would carry out a massive infrastructure initiative to rebuild faltering highways and bridges. It would cost hundreds of billions but, to save lives and keep the state moving, it would get done. As since he had been CEO of Goldman Sachs before running for governor who better to get this massive job done? Well, after driving 200 miles back and forth in New Jersey I can only report that we saw almost nothing underway.
Before leaving for Virginia and then Maine we had dinner with friends in Manhattan who live in the area where the legendary Second Avenue Subway is supposed to be under construction. To get home we took the Second Avenue bus from uptown where they live to our apartment downtown. We traversed about half the route that the 8 ½ mile subway is to cover; and though it was about 10:00 PM, a time when we expected to see lots of activity since surface traffic is light, again we did not see one person working.
This was upsetting considering that this subway project has received almost $1.4 billion in federal funding, including $79 million recently in stimulus money plus billions more in New York State and City bond money. And we have a mayor, Michael Bloomberg who comes from the business and not the political world where he has been so successful that he is the eighth-richest American worth $18-20 billion. If two businessmen billionaires, Corzine and Bloomberg can’t get the job done—using taxpayer money to get construction projects underway and completed—who can we count on to do so?
The Second Avenue subway project is just one more example of how we have lost our way. It is projected to be completed in 2020--though I’ll believe that when I see it. And at a little more than 8 miles in length, since ground was broken 2 years ago, it will take about two years to build one mile of underground track. The rest of the NYC subway system runs 656 miles. At a two-year-a-mile rate it should have taken the previous generation more than 1,200 years to complete it! Yet somehow they managed to get almost all of it done in about 25 years.
To make matters worse, somehow in France, which also passed a large economic stimulus package, much of it is already being spent. (See linked New York Times article for the details.) Many here thrive on making fun of the French so I suppose turnabout is fair. Patrick Devedjian, the minister in charge of the relance, the French version of “stimulus,” took obvious pleasure in tweaking American efforts: “America is six months behind,” he is quoted as saying, “it has wasted a lot of time.” By the time Washington manages to dole out its stimulus money, he continued, “the crisis could be over.”
Note his use of “could” rather than “will.”
Our drive took us through a series of Blue States. Virginia, of course, and then Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and finally Maine. About 625 miles in all, mainly on interstate highways.
Among other things we thought it would be interesting to see President Obama’s economic stimulus plans at work—all those shovel-ready infrastructure projects we’ve been hearing about. We were particularly interested in witnessing what’s going on in Delaware, Vice President Joe Biden’s home state. Considering that he is nominally in charge of overseeing the implementation of stimulus projects and how poorly Delaware’s economy is faring, we expected to find lots of projects underway.
As much of a supporter of Barack Obama as I am, it pains me to say that from out my car window I’m not sure I saw any stimulus projects at all being implemented. None.
Yes here and there there is evidence of bridge and highway construction. Mainly what appears to be a major effort near Baltimore where a number of interstates come together just north of the Harbor Tunnel. I-95, I-97, I-695, I-895. A mess that clearly needs to be untangled; but passing by it twice, first on our way south from New York to visit relatives and then looping back to get to Maine, though I didn’t count the number working on the new roads and overpasses, it would not have been difficult to do so if I had tried. At most of the sites no one at all was working. Yes, there was lots of heavy equipment nearby but none of it was being operated. And where there were workers they amounted to a handful. Most, frankly, standing around.
Where, we wondered were all the others who should have been on the stimulus payroll? Isn’t it all about jobs, jobs, jobs? And where were the lights indicating that the work would proceed 24 hours a day? Very few were in sight.
We drove about 100 miles first down and then another 100 up the New Jersey Turnpike. After that interstate bridge collapsed a few years ago in Minneapolis. New Jersey governor Jon Corzine announced that to avoid similar things happening in his state he would carry out a massive infrastructure initiative to rebuild faltering highways and bridges. It would cost hundreds of billions but, to save lives and keep the state moving, it would get done. As since he had been CEO of Goldman Sachs before running for governor who better to get this massive job done? Well, after driving 200 miles back and forth in New Jersey I can only report that we saw almost nothing underway.
Before leaving for Virginia and then Maine we had dinner with friends in Manhattan who live in the area where the legendary Second Avenue Subway is supposed to be under construction. To get home we took the Second Avenue bus from uptown where they live to our apartment downtown. We traversed about half the route that the 8 ½ mile subway is to cover; and though it was about 10:00 PM, a time when we expected to see lots of activity since surface traffic is light, again we did not see one person working.
This was upsetting considering that this subway project has received almost $1.4 billion in federal funding, including $79 million recently in stimulus money plus billions more in New York State and City bond money. And we have a mayor, Michael Bloomberg who comes from the business and not the political world where he has been so successful that he is the eighth-richest American worth $18-20 billion. If two businessmen billionaires, Corzine and Bloomberg can’t get the job done—using taxpayer money to get construction projects underway and completed—who can we count on to do so?
The Second Avenue subway project is just one more example of how we have lost our way. It is projected to be completed in 2020--though I’ll believe that when I see it. And at a little more than 8 miles in length, since ground was broken 2 years ago, it will take about two years to build one mile of underground track. The rest of the NYC subway system runs 656 miles. At a two-year-a-mile rate it should have taken the previous generation more than 1,200 years to complete it! Yet somehow they managed to get almost all of it done in about 25 years.
To make matters worse, somehow in France, which also passed a large economic stimulus package, much of it is already being spent. (See linked New York Times article for the details.) Many here thrive on making fun of the French so I suppose turnabout is fair. Patrick Devedjian, the minister in charge of the relance, the French version of “stimulus,” took obvious pleasure in tweaking American efforts: “America is six months behind,” he is quoted as saying, “it has wasted a lot of time.” By the time Washington manages to dole out its stimulus money, he continued, “the crisis could be over.”
Note his use of “could” rather than “will.”
posted by Steven Zwerling at
7:46 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home