How do you like the American Repaving and Redistribution Act so far? Pretty, isn’t it?
These first two pictures are of the freshly laid blacktop sloppily poured along the off-ramp entering Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, where I grew up. Who is going to be walking here, nearly a mile out of town? The only destination here is the highway. Not the place for a stroll to be sure. Talk about a “sidewalk to nowhere.”
The third image here is a picture of a repaved road in Newport, Rhode Island. The road was just fine the way it was and actually had some character, having aged nicely over the years. Now, thanks to a new slick surface, it’s NASCAR in the neighborhood. We’ll see how long it lasts once the snow plows rip it up after the first storm this winter.
So this is what our part of the $862 billion is getting us—all this work made up by Uncle Sam to get the economy going. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate hasn’t budged in the18 months after the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was signed, and Washington wants to spend more of your dollars to “stimulate” the economy.
Email feedback@richardcyoung.com photos of Recovery Act projects in your area. Don’t forget to include the name of your city in the email. We’ll post the good ones next week.
