11,391 More “Bridges to Nowhere”

Robert Poole, director of transportation at the Reason Foundation, had an excellent piece in the Wall Street Journal on December 10.

In short, this country’s mayors have gotten together and asked Congress for money.  Surprised?  Probably not.  In all, 427 cities offered up a total of 11,391 “infrastructure” projects for the low price of $73,163,299,303, which would create 847,641 jobs.

Some of the projects include:

• Euless, Texas, wants $15 million for the Midway Park Family Life Center, which, you’ll be glad to note, includes both a senior center and aquatic facility.
• Natchez, Miss., “needs” a new $9.5 million sports complex “which would allow our city to host major regional and national sports tournaments.”
• Hercules, Calif., wants $2.5 million in hard-earned taxpayer money for a “Waterfront Duck Pond Park,” and another $200,000 for a dog park.

Poole points out that our nation’s roads and bridges are in terrible shape.  Every few months a bridge seems to collapse.  But collapsing bridges surely aren’t as important as dog parks and tennis courts, right?