I haven't posted in awhile--been busy coaching tennis--but yesterday at 6:05pm an unimaginable tragedy occurred in my hometown. The 35W bridge that runs across the Mississippi River, just past downtown Minneapolis, collapsed killing somewhere between 4-7 people, 20 missing, and injuring scores more...At this point, no foul play is expected...they are saying it is probably a structural failure....regardless, if you have a comment you'd like to leave or at least check in and let me know you are OK....and let others know that you are OK who read this blog with hometown ties...please do so.
Take a moment today to be thankful for what you have and save positive thoughts for those who are missing loved ones.
18 comments:
Hi Mark,
Just wanted to let you know Fred & I are okay. Glad you are too. I have one friend whose friend was waiting at the ramp light to get on the bridge when it collapsed and watched the whole thing. What a horrible thing to see.
Jane
Delphia,
... *speechless still, but my family is alive and praying for the victims and their families.* ...
Stephen
Glad to here you are ok. It is simply something you don't think possible in our modern society. First you look to see the injured and dead are recovered. Then the tough questions of WHY and HOW must be asked and answered.
My heart goes out as a fellow midwesterner.
Glad to hear all are safe. I normally travel that way at that time, but took another route last night. My thoughts go out to all involved and their families.
Adam
Timely again and thanks for a chance to connect and share the pain. This should not happen in our great city. I wonder if the Gov will allow some funds now for the roads and bridges of our state! In France, that government under whos watch this kind of public safety failure happend would resign!
There she blows!!! The bodies are still warm and spouses are still awaiting dreadful news about missing loved ones…and yet it’s time to politicize for some. A client of mine (whose office is right next to that area and thus everyone uses that bridge daily) is sitting around this morning waiting for everyone to arrive, hoping for the best. …and then there’s elehat. You disgust me. By my watch it was only 9pm last night when democrats were already pointing fingers. A time will come to determine root causes; now is not that time.
elahat, there are funds. some chose to spend them on lite rail.
Regardless of politics, if I were Gov Pawlenty I would fire every single person that works for MN Dot and start over. Everybody. The responsibility lies with them and no one else.
But sadly, that won't happen because MN Dot is run by the Scandinavian version of La Cosa Nostra...all of them are a bunch of scumbags.
Hi Mark,
Just thought I'd send out a quick note letting you all know that my wife and I are okay. The bridge decided to collapse 45 minutes after I had driven over it on my way home from work and a few minutes before my brother and I were prepared to go over it southbound (I was giving him a lift to the airport). Quite a tragic and surreal experience overall. We saw the smoke coming from the bridge area as Keith and I traversed side roads, but we thought it was a car accident of some sort (until the wife called and filled us in). Hope all is well with you.
Governor Tim Pawlenty has been playing politics with the roads in Minnesota for five years. He made a "no new taxes" pledge that has hamstrung needed infrastructure improvements, and the results are now catastrophically obvious.
A couple of years ago he asked for bids to fix the I35-Crosstown spaghetti junction, on the condition that the winning bid lend the state money to start the project. No company was stupid enough to bite and the project was delayed for another few years.
It's always been obvious that something hinky is going on at MnDOT because Pawlenty put his lieutenant governor in charge of the department (apparently so she could build a freeway to her front door in Carver County -- despite all the other problems with Minnesota roads Highway 312 is a year ahead of schedule!).
The legislature (including many Republicans) recently voted to raise the gas tax to pay for road improvements but Pawlenty vetoed the bill.
And now there is news out of MnDOT that they knew about this problem and were talking about fixing it by bolting additional plates on the trusses, but were afraid that drilling holes in the metal would weaken it further. Ultimately they decided that just inspecting it would be fine. Bids were going to let out in 2008.
When you come right down to it, it was all about the money. They have been shortchanging road maintenance for years, and this is the result.
It's not playing politics to state the truth. Pawlenty was trying to protect his no-new-taxes pledge and now people are dead.
hindsight
hindsight
hindsight
All we need are more taxes. That will solve everything.
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So, what's your point sw?
Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail; Lite rail;
For what it's worth, I've been staggered by 3 things over the past few days.
First and foremost, obviously, is the bridge collapse itself. How unbelievably fickle fate is. One moment a group of people are stuck in traffic, probably griping to themselves or to those around them about how much it sucks to be stuck in that traffic. The next moment their lives are lost or irrevocably altered. Markadelphia's point about taking a moment to reflect should not be taken lightly.
Next, I was awestruck by how dynamically Minnesotans responded to the situation. From the heroics of those who happened to be on scene, to the efforts of those who traveled so far to help, to the ongoing generosity of those who donate time, money, and blood. Recently I've grown quite skeptical of the notion of "Minnesota Nice", and while I recognize that Minnesota Nice and response to a disaster are not necessarily the same trait, the recent days have buoyed my perception that, deep down, Minnesotans are generally good people.
Lastly, I was staggered by blk's posting. At a time clearly appropriate for reflection, action to help those in need, and unraveling of exactly what occurred, blk has already reached a conclusion regarding what happened and who is to blame. If ever a posting illustrates the bias with which he approaches an issue, it's this one.
The inappropriate timing of his posting notwithstanding, the truly staggering aspect of his posting is that his "logic" is just so fundamentally flawed. I don't know what compels him to offer his version of the truth...I'm not as quick to accuse somebody of being a liar as many on this blog are, blk included. But I do think it is noteworthy that, whatever the motivation, he wastes no time perpetuating the fallacy that the bridge collapsed due to the simple fact that there wasn't enough money lying around to fix it.
Let's help people get their lives back together, get some closure, and address the process that everyone agrees clearly let us down. Taking potshots at the governor that you happen to dislike is just ridiculous and, I would have thought, beneath us. Most of us, anyway.
So Pawlenty is responsible because few months ago, he vetoed a five-cent a gallon tax increase. When Pawlenty vetoed that tax increase, the state already had a $2.1 billion SURPLUS. Not to mention there was never any money in any transportation bill to replace the 35W Mississippi River Bridge because no one ever thought it was necessary. MNDOT has stated that it already had the money to do the proposed repairs, but was awaiting a study on the effects of drilling thousands of holes in the support beams in order to rivet support plates on. The study was interupted by unrelated work to the road surface of the bridge. The final kicker is that this year's budget is irrelevant to a bridge that would take years to design and build.
What I’m gathering from your writings is that you seem to think that if only taxes were higher, money for a new Mississippi River bridge would have been found somewhere. This was a relatively new bridge; replacing it would have been far down the list of any transportation priorities of any governor from any political party (I didn’t even vote for Pawlenty).
Moreover, one thing we do not lack for in Minnesota is spending. Over the past few years, we Minnesotans have spent something like a billion dollars of transportation money on a light rail system - a single line that runs from the Mall of America to downtown Minneapolis. Remember the debate from several years ago? Conservatives generally opposed light rail and wanted to spend the money on road construction instead. But the liberals prevailed, billion dollars were spent and the lefties got their train. If we hadn't spent that money on light rail, those dollars absolutely would have been available for other transportation projects – that is a fact.
Ohhh! God forbid! The governor vetoed a tax increase in one of the most highly taxed states in the country! We should all be aghast! Should we be as outraged that the Democrats forced Minnesotans to pay for a billion dollar light rail system that nobody rides, and will require subsidies in perpetuity? Could not that pet project have been foregone for the sake of our bridge infrastructure? Perhaps the subsidies required in perpetuity to keep light rail running can be diverted to bridge maintenance? Should we be as outraged that the Democrats disingenuously pushed a constitutional amendment through requiring taxes formerly used for road infrastructure to be used on more light rail projects in the future? Pshaw.
*disclaimer, I am in no way implying that if we weren't constructing a light rail that the bridge wouldn't have collapsed*
Today I filled up my gas tank. I paid $2.79 per gallon. .20 of that was state tax and .18 was federal tax. $2.79 - .38=$2.41. .38 divided by $2.41= 15.76%. Yes folks even at todays high gasoline prices 16% of a gallon of gas is tax. It’s not lack of taxes there Mr. Wizard.
TOTAL AVAILABLE RESOURCES, FY 2008-09 $35,918
Omnibus Bills:
K-12 Education $13,784
Property Tax Recog/Payment Change (4)
Higher Education 3,155
Property Tax Aids & Credits 3,108
Health & Human Services 9,695
Public Safety 1,877
Transportation 249
Environment, Energy & Natural Res 445
Agriculture & Veterans 180
Economic Development 336
State Government 656
Debt Service 906
Capital Projects & Other 21
Estimated Cancellations (21)
Subtotal-Omnibus Bills $34,387
Dedicated Expenditures 122
TOTAL ESTIMATED EXPENDITURES, FY 2008-09 $34,509
Cash Flow Account 350
Budget Reserve 686
Projected General Fund Balance 6-30-09 $373
End of 2007 Legislative Session
June 18, 2007
Department of Finance
K-12 = $13,784 billion
Higher Ed =$3,155
Health & Human Services $9,695 Billion AKA Welfare
Total = $26,634 billion of a total budget of $35,918 billion or 74.15% is spent pandering to the teachers union, tenured professors and welfare queens. Yeah lack of taxes caused the bridge to collapse.
But it's probably a waste of time to carry the argument this far. Transportation policy and infrastructure repair are legitimate subjects for debate, but blk isn't interested in those. His/her interest is in politics, pure and simple. The fact is Government is completely broken at every level. As we are building "bridges to nowhere" and bridges to Harry Reids investment property, we have current bridges falling from the skys. The answer isn’t another tax increase it’s more effective Government all around.
My point is that as long as the conversation is going to involve politics and blame, two can play the blame game.
….if this had been a murder or god forbid an act of terrorism by some inhuman member from the other side of the globe, you would be quick to support capital punishment and bombing, and surely blaming democrats for being weak. Yeah I am mad and mad as hell because Sherry Shaw was my classmate in college! I really am sick of your confused politics.
We are a better State in the United States when it comes to our values and standards; we need to attend to public services better. Transportation, lite rail or what ever is a must to make a dent in this driving crazy country.
Oi, achei teu blog pelo google tá bem interessante gostei desse post. Quando der dá uma passada pelo meu blog, é sobre camisetas personalizadas, mostra passo a passo como criar uma camiseta personalizada bem maneira.(If you speak English can see the version in English of the Camiseta Personalizada. Thanks for the attention, bye). Até mais.
Rodrigo, if you are going to continue to hawk your clothes, please stop posting here. If you want to leave comments about the topic of the post, please do so, but in English please.
Everyone else, I think there is plenty of blame to go around on both sides. MN Dot is a fundementally corrupt institution in a state that contains the worse drivers in the history of the automobile. These two things alone make for a bad combination which result in disaster--as we have seen.
It doesn't matter who is in office, the same crap happens all the time. It's not whether they are a Democrat or a Republican--it's whether they are capable. Most of the people that work in government right now (state and federal) are woefully inept, lazy, and corrupt.
Are men and women of good nature willing to serve? Will we elect them if the are? Can they even make it?
Until these questions are answered, this bridge collapse is only the tip of the iceberg.
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