Arlington, Va., the home of voted-in stupidity, pitched in tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollar, along with either state or federal funds, for a BUS STOP that was heated (sidewalk), ironed your shirts while you waited for a bus, and wiped your butt if you had to sit too long. Total cost was well over $250,000 and it looks like a piece of shit glass. Totally useless. Doesn’t protect the waiting riders because the glass panels are not closed at the roof, are at bad angles to protect from the wind, and are too small.
Democrats run and ruin Northern Virginia. They have done it to Arlington, Fairfax County, and parts of Alexandria (though Alexandria city is a little more sane in its urban planning/space use).
Oh, I forgot Arlington’s Art Scape Sphere, Center, park, which are not basically closed. Bad location, expensive, no real parking and not needed in the form that they designed. More money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, down the crapper.
Don’t even get me started on METRO re the Subway system with which I am somewhat intimately knowledgeable due to having worked for a law firm who was handling construction claims re overcosts, cut-out lists, etc.
Poorly designed, poorly lighted, water leaks, poor security, an entrance floor that is wet and tilted (Navy/Archives stop (and dangerous),and stupid farecard machines. They wouldn’t build covers for the open entrance subways despite the fact that dirt, snow, salt, vegetation debris and paper trash was being blown down the steps and into the movement mechanism, which knocked a lot of them out of commission on a near daily basis. Then the covers (inadequate in any situation), cost too damaged much. A guy shopping at Home Depot could have build solid, sheltering covers for about 75% less.
If Trump had had the Subway contracts years ago, they would have been finished on time, worked the way they were supposed to work, and would be lighted to the point that you wouldn’t need a flashlight to see the platform.
There is a difference between private enterprise doing a job and govt planning that makes doing it right almost impossible.
To self re previous post. Spellcheck didn’t work.
Re the ArtScape fiasco, the line should have read as “”which are NOW basically closed”.
Last paragraph should have read “cost too damned much”, not “cost too damaged much”. My fault on that one.
You forgot to mention the Silver Springs transit center connected to the Metro station. That was deemed as a construction failure and at some point, they were discussing the idea of tearing it down completely because it could not bear the weight of buses pulling in.
There’s nothing that Metro in DC, Maryland or Virginia has done since 2000...that has shown any mature planning.
Regan
My daughter lives in Springfield, VA. Last summer visiting they had impatiens flowers planted in the road medians. Planted and thriving. Impatiens require multiple watering per day and regular fertilizing to flourish. Either they were cared for that way or new ones repeatedly planted.
Apparently lots of money to throw around in Northern Virginia.
Regular Metro rider here - as we know, this bike rack fiasco is a representative example but utter small beer compared to the big ticket projects where Metro wastes BILLIONS of dollars and the projects end up years, if not decades, behind schedule. Like the current Silver Line extension fiasco. Literally billions over budget and several years behind schedule. All to extend the line over an existing above-ground right of way to Dulles Airport!! How hard could that possibly be?!
Many years ago the always-nitwit DIMs/LIBs in Fairfax County VA bought many hundreds of police cars that they allowed to rot in parking lots for years...never used. Criminals.