Those frugal Republicans: $1.5M for a bus stop in Alaska

By MARY PEMBERTON
Associated Press Writer


ANCHORAGE — Tom Wilson is faced with a problem many city administrators would envy. How to spend $1.5 million on a bus stop?

When done, the bus stop next to the Anchorage Museum of History and Art will be like no other in the city, said Anchorage's director of public transportation. "It is going to be a showpiece stop," Wilson said.

Wilson has $1.5 million to spend on the bus stop thanks to Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens — commonly referred to by Alaskans as "Uncle Ted" for his ability to secure federal money for his home state.

The money for the bus stop was contained in funding for intermodal transportation facilities in the huge $388 billion government spending bill passed by Congress last November. Stevens was head of the Senate Appropriations Committee at the time.

http://www.djc.com/news/ae/11168009.html?cgi=yes

The senator's spinning in his grave as we speak.

oh, right, then people could actually get around without flling up at Bush**ExxonTexaco (a subsidiary of Halliburton ,Ltd.).

excerpt:

Despite the increase in homelessness, the public today does not seem to view it as a compelling social problem. In the 1980s and early 1990s, when fighting homelessness had become a popular cause, many cities built emergency shelters and supportive housing projects with on-site services for the jobless, the ill, and the addicted. But after Congress cut the budget for homeless services in the late 1990s, cities were not able to keep up with the requests for assistance, and the homeless again poured out onto the streets. Irritated with federal unresponsiveness to the homeless problem, the public at large demanded that the streets be “cleaned up.” Many locales then focused on discouraging transience and keeping homeless people away from downtown areas. Orlando, Florida, for example, passed an ordinance that made it illegal to lie down on the sidewalk. An ad campaign in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, asked people to stop giving money to panhandlers. And Santa Monica, California, adopted a law preventing transients from sleeping in shop doors or receiving food from unlicensed providers.

Another factor bearing on the perception of homelessness, according to some analysts, is the basic lack of national leadership and discussion on poverty issues. In the opinion of researcher and author Jack Newfield, “the increasing gap between rich and poor . . . are not hot-button talk-show issues because so few politicians with a national following agitate about them with continuing conviction.” Moreover, Newfield points out, “ growing concentration of wealth has given the superrich domination over politics through extravagant campaign contributions and media ownership.” He believes that the control of politics and media by the affluent makes it exceedingly difficult for the poor to be heard. Unwilling to alienate the wealthy individuals and corporations that donate to their campaigns, most major politicians avoid discussing the unequal distribution of wealth and the growth of poverty and homelessness, claims Newfield.

...more...

http://www.enotes.com/poverty-homeless/

but :wow: a bus stop!

Yeah, I'll say. It better be FUCKING IMPRESSIVE.

I hope they make this thing more than two floors, and use the upper ones for low-income housing.

on education or housing or medical care or food?

of some Federal law that required the water leaving a treatment plant to have removed 80% of the effluent from the water coming in.
Alaska had very pure water at the time and therefore could not comply since there literally was NOTHING to remove.
But the law is the law.
So they took to dumping crap into the rives just before the sewage plant and then they had something that they could actually remove.

Alaska is a little different from the rest of the US.
But they are NEVER going to hear the end of the story of that bus stop.

As if the stop sign is enough.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1455703&mesg_id=1457402