Your tax dollars at, ahem, “work”: (h/t Larwyn’s Linx).
Should a simple bus shelter — basically a few benches covered by a roof — cost as much to build as a three-bedroom house?
That’s a question that is provoking outrage and official embarrassment in the southern Oregon city of Grants Pass, which this week signed off on a project to build five bus shelters at an estimated cost of $106,000 apiece.
There’s even a picture of one of those FAHbulous shelters which, with its “covering” and Soviet-style seating, is clearly a bargain at thrice the price!
“The price is obviously high,” said Grants Pass Mayor Mike Murphy, clearly chagrined at the negative publicity his city is getting. “It makes everyone want to hold their nose and gag a little bit here.”
But, gagging or no gagging, there is Nothing That Can Be Done™!
But he said the city has little control over the construction cost, which is dictated by a combination of federal and state spending rules. So what was supposed to be a symbol of civic progress instead has turned into an object lesson in the way government makes itself look bad.
More an object lesson in how government can’t poke a stick into a turd without breaking both. Or how there is no process so simple that government can’t fuck it up beyond all possible recognition. But remember: There is Nothing That Can Be Done™! It’s Not Their Fault™!
And the article then goes into a long, rambling apologia for government incompetence, avarice and general bull-shittery, absolving them of any and all responsibility for flushing the dollars of hard-working Americans right down the shitter.
Thatisall.