A.J. Cordi: Are Lehigh Valley Bridges Deficient, Too?
A.J. Cordi has mentioned in passing that he majored in journalism. He just convinced me, with a very detailed report about the tragic bridge collapse in Minnesota, and what that means locally. It's worth a read.
if anyone bothered to noticed that most of the worst bridges are in on district the 183rd and represented by Julie harhart and the especially bad ones are in areas were Julie doesn't have the infamous Lisa Boscola to bail her out.
Long version: when Don Cunningham ran for County Exec, bridges were on the top of his agenda, pointing out that wasting money on a Taj Trump Resort for county courthouse meant diverting funds from much needed bridge repairs. In his early battles with the GOP county commissioners, Cunningham was told that the courthouse was too important and had to fight to cut costs on the monster project. Then Percy Doughtery had the audacity to say that if the county repairs the bridges, that they should be turned over to the municipalities to control after the repairs. In other words, pass the buck and make it a local problem.
Let's face it, we have allowed transportation needs to be overlooked for too long. But all of that requires tax dollars and the moment somebody says "tax increase" elected officials shut down for fear of being labeled wasteful spenders.
If we want communities that work, then we have to spend money to maintain our infrastructure. The communities that put resources into infrastructure are the communities where people most want to live.
I'm glad to hear Cunningham took that approach. I looked at his ten point plan for LC to see if you were bullshitting us with some political spin. "Point 2 - Coordinate road, bridge and transportation planning to promote growth, revitalize cities, enhance downtowns and preserve greenfields and open space." A little further down, he says the following: "Capital Spending to focus first on bridges, roads, prisons, and nursing homes and not on government office buildings and zoos."
Clearly, his priorities are in order.
Unfortunately, in his 8 years as county exec, Glenn Reibman had an opposite approach. He ignored spending on bridges while throwing money at the judges' new palace and on building a prison expansion that is overcorwded in less than a year.
I know you and many others detest Angle, but I can pull out copy after copy of the council minutes in which Angle persistently complained we need to address our bridges.
American Heroes Grant? County bridges? Angle and Cunningham on the same page? Who'd have thunk it???
To be honest Bernie, I was throwing you some crap. I just didn't expect it to be true. Who woulda thunk it? (I'm kidding of course)
As far as Angle and Don being on the same page, I think these might be the only two pages to find. After that, the diverge quite a bit. But, as you point out, if he can find common ground with even the hard righties like Ron, Don Cunningham can probably win some of them over when he runs for governor.
If Cunningham follows the fine lead set by the Emperor, he'll have no problem. Actually, I think Cunningham must have stolen Angle's playbook. On county issues, they're very close. That's why party politics doesn't mean much at this level.
Lehigh county's bridges are in worse condition than Northampton county's bridges. Northampton county's bridge are more of a capacity issue rather than a structural issue.
Greendog, that's an interesting comment. Do you have evidence to support that or is that your general observation? I'm interested in this from a policy standpoint?
The avg rating of the 6 deficient bridges in Northampton county is 58 anything over 55 which means a larger portion of the number is probably based on traffic than structure
The avg rating of the 22 functionally obsolete 69
in Lehigh county the rating avg 20 Deficient bridge is 33 5 of which rank below 20
The avg rating of the 47 functionally obsolete is 64
Which means that the Northampton problems are probably caused by more resent problems of bridges that went from being functionally obsolete to deficient based on the short term abuse.
Where as the extreme disparity between the Lehigh county obsolete numbers and Deficient number is a sign of long term neglect
16 comments:
of course they are don't be rediculous
http://greendogdem.blogspot.com/2007/08/53-lehigh-valley-still-in-use-briges.html
if anyone bothered to noticed that most of the worst bridges are in on district the 183rd and represented by Julie harhart and the especially bad ones are in areas were Julie doesn't have the infamous Lisa Boscola to bail her out.
One word answer: yes!
Long version: when Don Cunningham ran for County Exec, bridges were on the top of his agenda, pointing out that wasting money on a Taj Trump Resort for county courthouse meant diverting funds from much needed bridge repairs. In his early battles with the GOP county commissioners, Cunningham was told that the courthouse was too important and had to fight to cut costs on the monster project. Then Percy Doughtery had the audacity to say that if the county repairs the bridges, that they should be turned over to the municipalities to control after the repairs. In other words, pass the buck and make it a local problem.
Let's face it, we have allowed transportation needs to be overlooked for too long. But all of that requires tax dollars and the moment somebody says "tax increase" elected officials shut down for fear of being labeled wasteful spenders.
If we want communities that work, then we have to spend money to maintain our infrastructure. The communities that put resources into infrastructure are the communities where people most want to live.
LVDem,
I'm glad to hear Cunningham took that approach. I looked at his ten point plan for LC to see if you were bullshitting us with some political spin. "Point 2 - Coordinate road, bridge and transportation planning to promote growth, revitalize cities, enhance downtowns and preserve greenfields and open space." A little further down, he says the following: "Capital Spending to focus first on bridges, roads, prisons, and nursing homes and not on government office buildings and zoos."
Clearly, his priorities are in order.
Unfortunately, in his 8 years as county exec, Glenn Reibman had an opposite approach. He ignored spending on bridges while throwing money at the judges' new palace and on building a prison expansion that is overcorwded in less than a year.
I know you and many others detest Angle, but I can pull out copy after copy of the council minutes in which Angle persistently complained we need to address our bridges.
American Heroes Grant? County bridges? Angle and Cunningham on the same page? Who'd have thunk it???
To be honest Bernie, I was throwing you some crap. I just didn't expect it to be true. Who woulda thunk it? (I'm kidding of course)
As far as Angle and Don being on the same page, I think these might be the only two pages to find. After that, the diverge quite a bit. But, as you point out, if he can find common ground with even the hard righties like Ron, Don Cunningham can probably win some of them over when he runs for governor.
If Cunningham follows the fine lead set by the Emperor, he'll have no problem. Actually, I think Cunningham must have stolen Angle's playbook. On county issues, they're very close. That's why party politics doesn't mean much at this level.
I just had to tweak your nose a bit. Sorry.
Lehigh county's bridges are in worse condition than Northampton county's bridges. Northampton county's bridge are more of a capacity issue rather than a structural issue.
Greendog, that's an interesting comment. Do you have evidence to support that or is that your general observation? I'm interested in this from a policy standpoint?
The avg rating of the 6 deficient bridges in Northampton county is 58 anything over 55 which means a larger portion of the number is probably based on traffic than structure
The avg rating of the 22 functionally obsolete 69
in Lehigh county the rating avg 20 Deficient bridge is 33 5 of which rank below 20
The avg rating of the 47 functionally obsolete is 64
Which means that the Northampton problems are probably caused by more resent problems of bridges that went from being functionally obsolete to deficient based on the short term abuse.
Where as the extreme disparity between the Lehigh county obsolete numbers and Deficient number is a sign of long term neglect
Annon 8:59
You guys are already shilling for Shade? Harhart kicked his butt once she will do it again. Don't confuse luck with Divine intervention.
Divine intervention? God's on Julie's side? Yeah, but is she on His?
didn't realize shade was running again
This should be news to Russ.
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