Tuesday, September 16, 2014

The concise, conclusive case against ANY new auto infrastructure, anywhere

The Bridgasaurus Boondogglus ("Salem River Crossing" or "Third Bridge" to use the more anodyne, less accurate terms) is indeed a dinosaur relic of mid-20th Century style.

The article at the link does a terrific job laying out why, no matter how many empty, content-free, mind-deadening, blather buzzwords the Chamber of the 1% slings around, the age of highway projects is done, and how no amount of hyped up buzz about shale oil will do anything but separate a few suckers from a last few dollars.

The key is not just that the bridge is like a time capsule from the past, or one of those giant mammoths found frozen in the Siberian tundra -- it's not merely a relic.  It's also an active agent of decay and disorder inSalem because it diverts scarce money from the kinds of projects that would actually make life better for people in Salem.  

That's why this blog keeps championing this one key truth:


There are at least "A Billion Better Ways to Budget A Billion Bucks" than on this mindless project that, even according to its boosters, will do exactly nothing to solve any of the problems it ostensibly was aimed at. That's because it's really nothing but a corporate welfare project with a real estate speculation garnish.

Besides, as the graph and article show, any so called "congestion" in Salem is going to resolve itself quite soon, along with parking issues. Instead of blowing hundreds of millions on this waste of money, the city pooh-bahs only need to delay action and then proudly declare victory, as our brief moments of congestion become even more rare and we begin to wish we had too many drivers seeking parking.



"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."
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