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> IMHO often the purpose of these projects isn’t to deliver transportation, it’s to keep people employed in the project. Bingo! Another element of this is to

> IMHO often the purpose of these projects isn’t to deliver transportation, it’s to keep people employed in the project. Bingo! Another element of this is to use such projects to buy the votes of the large unions. Just a couple of months ago these crews came through our street. They ripped-up the PERFECTLY GOOD sidewalks and rebuilt them. This street is 24 years old. In other words, it's new. Oh, yes, they repaved it once about a year ago. The guys ripping-up the sidewalk told me they are going to rip-up the street and repave it next year. This is criminal.

jimt1234 4y ago
Can you please tell them to come re-pave my street? It's pothole heaven.
- robomartin 4y ago
  That's the irony/tragedy of this, isn't it. The misallocation of funds is staggering. I'll give you another example. There's a stop sign not far from my home that gets knocked down with such alarming frequency that the neighborhood knows it at "Kenny" (the South Park character that always got killed). I would say it lasts two to six weeks. I would not be surprised if, in the last ten years, Kenny was replaced 100 to 200 times. I lost count. The reason this happens is that semi trucks exiting the freeway at night can't see it, make a tighter than usual turn and run it over. There really isn't anything wrong with the turn, they have plenty of room. The sign is simply in the wrong place. Guess what they do? Every time the sign is taken down they return and install a new sign in exactly the same spot. Brand new sign. I would not be surprised if the aggregate cost of replacing this sign, between hardware, labor and organizational costs is in the order of $10K to $20K. Which means we have likely spent between a million and four million dollars, if not more, replacing this sign. It's Einstein's definition of madness: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And we pay for the madness.
  - jimt1234 4y ago
    I think Einstein's definition assumes people give a shit about the results. LOL
    - robomartin 4y ago
      That's hilarious.
pencilguin 4y ago
The hell of it is, it isn't criminal. It has been made wholly legal!
dsfyu404ed 4y ago
The part that irks me more than the self-serving "not technically graft" you are describing is the jerks who will find some reason to defend the actions as "necessary" as if there aren't plenty of 100yo original sidewalks in places. Literally any other "big faceless organization" would not be cut slack to this extent.
user3939382 4y ago
> They ripped-up the PERFECTLY GOOD sidewalks and rebuilt them. If you haven't already, watch a movie called Falling Down. There's a scene about this.

jimt1234 4y ago

Can you please tell them to come re-pave my street? It's pothole heaven.

robomartin 4y ago
That's the irony/tragedy of this, isn't it. The misallocation of funds is staggering. I'll give you another example. There's a stop sign not far from my home that gets knocked down with such alarming frequency that the neighborhood knows it at "Kenny" (the South Park character that always got killed). I would say it lasts two to six weeks. I would not be surprised if, in the last ten years, Kenny was replaced 100 to 200 times. I lost count. The reason this happens is that semi trucks exiting the freeway at night can't see it, make a tighter than usual turn and run it over. There really isn't anything wrong with the turn, they have plenty of room. The sign is simply in the wrong place. Guess what they do? Every time the sign is taken down they return and install a new sign in exactly the same spot. Brand new sign. I would not be surprised if the aggregate cost of replacing this sign, between hardware, labor and organizational costs is in the order of $10K to $20K. Which means we have likely spent between a million and four million dollars, if not more, replacing this sign. It's Einstein's definition of madness: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And we pay for the madness.
- jimt1234 4y ago
  I think Einstein's definition assumes people give a shit about the results. LOL
  - robomartin 4y ago
    That's hilarious.

pencilguin 4y ago

The hell of it is, it isn't criminal. It has been made wholly legal!

dsfyu404ed 4y ago

The part that irks me more than the self-serving "not technically graft" you are describing is the jerks who will find some reason to defend the actions as "necessary" as if there aren't plenty of 100yo original sidewalks in places. Literally any other "big faceless organization" would not be cut slack to this extent.

user3939382 4y ago

> They ripped-up the PERFECTLY GOOD sidewalks and rebuilt them. If you haven't already, watch a movie called Falling Down. There's a scene about this.