Posted on 03/17/2006 7:29:09 AM PST by george76
A $59 million jail featuring art and flat screen TVs in Portland, Ore., has been sitting unused for more than a year as the city can't afford to open it.
The Wapato Facility took two years to construct and can house 525 inmates at a cost of $20 million per year, ....
The county spent more than $600,000 on art for the jail, including a sculpture out front by the circular driveway.
There are 30-foot vaulted ceilings and private showers.
"I love coming to an empty $59-million jail," Giusto told the Los Angeles Times. "I get tired of telling people how dumb we are."
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
Austin, Texas does the same thing. When they built our new fire station, we were able to get them to simply make the fencing more decorative and have custom lights put up. I suggested a really kick-*ss flag pole, but they wouldn't go for that.
'git 'er done.
And a large sports bar.
House the corrupt officials that built the place.
Idiots.
Great idea. That is the same bunch of idiots that tried to force homosexual "Marraiges" on the public a while ago...
They keep getting re-elected though...
No, not dumb, criminal. The "people" who keep these officials in office are the dumb ones.
"Don't you know? Without $600,000 worth of art, it's considered cruel and unusual punishment."
Some politician/bureaucrat's boyfriend/girlfriend is an "artiste" so arrangements were made.
That jail sounds more lavish than my house. What do inmates need with art and flat screen tvs? A cot and a toilet is all they need.
THE FUTURE IS NOW!!!!
Maybe that was their intention all along (hey, if we don't get away with this, this is where we'll end up, might as well make it livable for us)...now the officials are laughing all the way to the bank.
The artwork is a rule the government types operate on around here. If they build a public building, a certain percentage of the cost has to be invested in really bad public art. It is a subsidy for lazy and untalented artist, and it makes leftist feel like they are doing something to improve the culture they are actually killing.
As is with most 'art' today, it would be hard to tell it from the trash in the dump.
A tent city in the desert with no art, no flat screen tv's, no private showers...is my vote for the felons.
Turn it into a Hippie hotel.
Portland has a 1% for ART rule (I used to live there and was on a public Board....we HAD to include "art" in our budget.)
You should see the "art" in Mannheim, Germany, coming in from the A656 autobahn. It looks like someone dumped a bunch of big, rusted metal slabs out the back of a C-130 while flying above the median. But I have to admit, it gets across the broken-down, rusted industrial aspect of Mannheim.
If I understand correctly, it seems that you don't get to choose all the art, it being chosen by the hippie arts council. So probably no patriotic art or big flagpoles on beautifully engraved bases, right? Not a chance for an artistic memorial to those soldiers who have died fighting against terror?
Lock up stupid politicians who waste money on things like...expensive jails.
As for what passes for art nowadays, the "art" itself may be criel and unusual punishment.
Just checked hotel rates for Portland, well over half have single rooms for $110.00 or less per day.
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