3 ms·
Thats purely corruption. I always explain to my argentinian friends, used to the petty corruption of putting friends and family in public positions, that the us
by conanbatt 8y ago
Thats purely corruption. I always explain to my argentinian friends, used to the petty corruption of putting friends and family in public positions, that the us does corruption at a much bigger scale: at the legal one.
The transbay terminal is one of the biggest rip-offs ever. It cost the revenue of sales taxes of the city for years. And it doesn't even work, while the "transient" station that must have cost almost nothing works perfectly fine.
- Camillo 8y ago> Thats purely corruption. I always explain to my argentinian friends, used to the petty corruption of putting friends and family in public positions, that the us does corruption at a much bigger scale: at the legal one. Oh, Willie Brown did that too. He appointed his lover to two state commissions (he was the speaker of the California Assembly at the time), then helped her become district attorney in San Francisco.
- jessaustin 8y agoShe's quite talented.
- magissima 8y agoWell surely she didn't get any higher than that at least, right? /s
- shereadsthenews 8y agoTransbay was financed via the TJPA by auctioning off the rights to build very tall buildings near it. It wasn’t financed by sales taxes.
- conanbatt 8y agoThe fungibility of money pulls yet another trick. Every single tax dollar can be raised to relieve poor sick children of their ailments.
- icebraining 8y agoIt's not fungible if people are bidding up that land because they expect it to be worth more thanks to the station you'll be building there. Unless of course you are advocating scamming people by claiming you'll build it while already having privately decided not to do so.
- conanbatt 8y agoIts pure trickery: the value of the land is not of the public officials, but by constructing a failed transit center they get to spend billions, while also spending billions raised on sales taxes. In both situations, the person on the street is stuck with a broken station and paying an extra dollar for coffee everyday.
- purplezooey 8y agoSorry that temporary one worked like ass. Rainy and wet, cold, hard to navigate around, just a big parking lot and some tents.
- conanbatt 8y agoworked? You mean works. At not 2 billion +