Good Morning from Elizabethtown, NY. This was the view from my window this morning:
We had good driving the whole way from Minneapolis to Elizabethtown. Just missed a thunderstorm that rolled through Utica after we did, but that was the only bad weather. A nice road trip so far and when the rest of the family gets here today, the coming week will be spent exploring the Adirondacks. We went through Lake Placid last night on the way here and it was quite busy. We didn't stop last night, but one of my goals this week is to see the Olympic Center there, site of the Miracle on Ice in 1980. That and about a gazillion other things to do. It should be a fun week.
On a different topic, it was tough to drive further and further away from Minneapolis as the scope of the bridge disaster was still being determined. Within an hour after it happened I knew that everyone in my family was safe as well as most of my closest friends. But it's impossible to touch base with everyone you know, especially if you are spending two days in a car, and so until recovery efforts are completed whether a more distant friend or acquaintance is a victim is impossible to know.
It was also tough to listen to some of the BS that has been thrown out there about this. People are placing all sorts of blame as if they know the reason for the disaster already. I guess it's really too difficult to just wait until we understand what went wrong before we figure out how to fix it. Nope, knees must jerk and political axes must be ground. On Wednesday night, barely four hours after the bridge collapsed, some former Minnesota Transportation Commissioner was blaming the lack of a gas tax increase years ago for the tragedy. What an asshole.
The facts as I know them today are that the bridge had a designed life of 70 years. Since 2000 various studies and inspections had shaved that down seven years to replacing the bridge by the year 2020. In addition, there were concerns that cracks might develop in the main trusses and they may need to be strengthened. There was debate about what to do if that happened, but there was no indication that the bridge was unsafe. It was becoming clear that it would have to be replaced sooner than originally expected, but replacement was not felt to be an immediate concern.
Obviously those assumptions were wrong and we have to deal with the aftermath. Attempting to place blame on people or process or policy before we know what actually happened though, is either panic or a disgustingly cynical use of this tragedy for political or even personal gain. It's prudent to respond to this with additional bridge inspections and if we want to start a debate about the general state of infrastructure in this country I think that could be a healthy discussion. If that debate is framed by unproven assumptions about the I-35W bridge collapse though, I think it will mostly lead to a lot of grandstanding and World Class dumbassery.
I guess that's already started though, as noted above. I also saw this post at Fark last night and it's probably a good indicator of how snark and stupidity will replace reason in the debate about infrastructure:
Minnesota Twins postpone groundbreaking for new $1.1 billion stadium due to I35 bridge collapse. Apparently up until this week they didn't have any more pressing construction projects on which to spend that money.
Radley Balko at the apparently ironically named Reason Hit and Run sagely adds:
Two-thirds of the stadium is publicly funded. The land was acquired through eminent domain. And Instapundit adds, in this case, his one cent: It's all about priorities.
The clear implication in all of the above is that in the debate over the funding of a new stadium we chose to build that instead of using that money for a "pressing" need to fix the I-35W bridge. People who opposed the government funding of pro sports stadiums did mention infrastructure in a generic way, just like they mentioned schools and any number of other spending priorities. But it's not like the I-35W bridge or any other infrastructure project was presented as a "pressing" problem. The bridge was not known to be dangerous, certainly not to the public, nor I think our politicians. Investigation may prove that someone within MNDOT saw it that way but there's no evidence for that as far as I know. Everything we knew pointed to that bridge being serviceable for a decade or more(For the record, I oppose government funding of pro sports stadiums, the teams and players are rich enough to do it themselves).
So no, this was not a matter of priorities. It was a sudden and unexpected collapse of a thought to be serviceable bridge. I like a little snark as much as the next person, but in this case it's snark that is wrong and intellectually lazy and downright defamatory if you think about it. As though those of us who live in the Minneapolis area would knowingly fund a stadium versus replacing a dangerous bridge that we and our loved ones drive over every day. If that's the perspective you want to have in the upcoming discussion then fine, you are a moron.
Whoever posted that at Fark is an idiot and an asshole. I'm a little surprised that Radley Balko and Instapundit are gullible enough to swallow that bullshit.
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