The Political Economy of the Metro Bailout
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7 responses to “The Political Economy of the Metro Bailout”
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We’re still doing a double standard in my view. Contrast the focus on METRO – fully justified but how about VDOT and congestion levels in METRO Washington.
Can you , should you , throw similar accusations at them for the “horrendous amount of money they have spent and still are spending and we still have congestion and functionally obsolete bridges and stuff – and even accidents that are attributable to lapses of judgement in design.. operations, maintenance, etc?
How much money SHOULD IT COST to run a safe and effective METRO?
How do we know we are spending near enough to get that result?
Similarly you could ask VDOT why they don’t have enough money to provide a better functioning transportation grid in NoVA…
I’m not excusing METRO – but I doubt seriously we even know how much it SHOULD cost to run METRO… and our complaints seem to be that it’s costing a lot more than we thought it would or should..
How do we do a FAIR and OBJECTIVE evaluation of METRO ?
I think you could easily find equally bad and ugly aspects of VDOT ‘s very costly expenditures for NoVa Roads and we STILL GET THIS:
Worst Traffic Spot in US Found on I-95 in Northern Virginia
and WORSE – even this!
Five plead guilty to VDOT snow removal bribes worth $10.3M
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Look, Larry, when the McDonnell administration was throwing money at road and highway mega-projects, I called them out on it. As I recall, you were just fine with the criticism. Now I’m calling out Metro for being the managerial black hole it is, and you suddenly have cold feet.
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“Adams also pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute cocaine after law enforcement recovered approximately 129 grams of cocaine and related drug paraphernalia at Adams’ residence during the execution of a search warrant. Stueve said Adams also admitted to previously distributing cocaine to others, including several of his colleagues at VDOT, and to obtaining cocaine from a relative of one of his VDOT co-workers.”
So, the relative of a VDOT employee gets cocaine to a VDOT supervisor who then deals the coke to various people including other VDOT employees. Apparently the cash required to finance the coke ring came from bribes solicited and provided by snow removal contractors.
Gosh, I wonder why people have lost faith in the Imperial Clown Show in Richmond and all the little clowns they manage.
I ran three or four different internet searches looking for any member of Virginia’s General Assembly making any public comment on the combined bribery / drug dealing happening right under their noses at VDOT.
For any Virginia politicians who may read this, here is a possible sound bite:
“I am shocked and disappointed to read about the convictions of two VDOT supervisors for bribery. The fact that there are allegations of cocaine distribution involving VDOT employees and relatives of VDOT employees only serves to make this incident a worse indictment of VDOT’s operations. I am calling for a full scale review and audit of the processes and controls used by VDOT to prevent this kind of malfeasance. I have to wonder whether this is an isolated incident or emblematic of a broader problem within VDOT.”
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From the 1987 John Sayles movie “Matewan.”
The Prince of Darkness is upon the land. Now in the Bible his name is Beelzebub, Lord
of the Flies. Right now on Earth today his name is Bolshevist! Socialist! Communist!
Union man! Lord of untruth, sower of evil seed, enemy of all that is good and pure and
this creature walks among us. (Union man.) What are we going to do about it?” -
Dear Peter,
I read a view of what really happened because I liked John Sayles’ _Matewan_, only to find out that Sheriff Sid Hatfield was a scoundrel. There were other inaccuracies, too, as I remember. But as art, and propaganda, it is quite good!
Sincerely,
Andrew
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Dear Jim,
I ride the “rough beast” everyday and am glad it is there. Though you are doubtless right that it has been very poorly run. I sure hope it does not collapse, but if it does, we’ll have to work around that collapse. I ain’t goin’ anywhere! ;-))< Well, at least voluntarily or for extraordinary reasons.
Sincerely,
Andrew
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It’s a lost cause. Look at the characteristics of the fundamental technology, steel wheels on steel rails. That paradigm requires ginormous capital / fixed-cost outlays to be built. So to make sense to run it, it means you have to have more than ginormous volumes.
Metro’s been around for what now? 40 years? As we’ve seen, it’s best of days, it was near where near covering half of it’s costs. And now it’s gotten so bad, that’s it’s sucking money from other projects for itself. Even then it’s still profusely bleeding! It’s time to put that dinosaur out to pasture.
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