You heard about the $1.7 million San Francisco toilet, right? It still hasn’t been built, and may not be built. The bike lane was built
Column: A $2-million ‘bike lane to nowhere’ symbolizes L.A.’s outrageous dysfunction
On a short stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood is a sidewalk cutout that was billed as a bike lane.
A short half-block long, it took about 18 months to complete and cost roughly $2 million, and yet it is not marked as a bike lane and does not connect to one.
“It’s a bike lane to nowhere,” said Stephen Burn, general manager of building services at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, which was required to complete and pay for the project as a condition of approval.
Burn apologized for calling it a stupid waste of time and money that delayed the opening of badly needed supportive housing and social services, but no apology was necessary. He said he honestly wanted to pull his hair out at times when dealing with various government agencies, and after he shared the details, I wanted to pull my hair out. (snip)
Burn and I paced off the supposed bike lane, which is about 150 feet long, starting mid-block and ending at McCadden Place. There’s no bikeway just east of there, outside a 7-Eleven strip mall, and no bike lane just west of there, where there’s a pawn shop and a doughnut shop.
This is what happens when Democrats are in charge. But, the Liberals in L.A. shouldn’t complain about this, or all the homeless encampments (which are mentioned in the piece), because they keep voting Democrats into office, and each one is just a bit further to the Left. And each year the unelected bureaucrats in the city government are just a bit more to the Left.
Burn told me the land for the center was purchased in 2012, with full support from local officials and the community, and yet 10 years later, the paperwork is not complete. The first snag was a zoning change requirement, and Burn said that turned into a $1-million process.
Construction didn’t begin until 2016, and that’s when the bike lane came up. Burn said that stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard is technically a state road, and he was told that Caltrans and the city wanted a bike lane there, and that the property owner would have to foot the bill.
Then they had to pay to have the electric cables buried, and get some power poles removed. But, the power poles are also running internet lines, and no one took responsibility for them, so, the poles would be right in the “bike lane.”
Months passed. Insurance costs rose. Financial juggling was required, even though Dusseault dug out some public money to help defray the cost of the project. Permits expired and applications had to be resubmitted. Aspects of the overall development of the center were delayed.
Dozens of housing units for seniors and youths, along with an array of social services, were finally in place by last year, and the LGBT Center is helping to save and rebuild lives on a daily basis. But full operation was delayed by close to a year, Burn said, and when people are shocked to hear the high cost of homeless housing units and how long it takes to put people into beds, it’s because of just what the LGBT Center has experienced.
Yay, government?
The saddest thing is that these kinds of problems are not the exception in Los Angeles; they’re the rule. I hear about them all the time from service providers and developers who say it’s not this bad in other cities. They speak in tortured tones about what Burn called a “Kafkaesque” experience in managing the often conflicting demands of multiple agencies.
Government is inherently a pain in the butt and slow. Now make it all run and staffed by Democrats, and it is worse. Then enter the People’s Republik Of California, and we are at peak Moonbattery. And then the citizens who keep voting for Democrats wonder why things are so bad and their taxes are going up.
When the RAND center in Santa Monica CA decided to build a new HQ on land that they already owned, the Santa Monica city planners would only approve the construction permits if RAND “Donated” half of their very high value, walking-distance-to-the-beach property to the city. For socialists, it’s all about the theft.
Lol
Remember Sarah Palins 100 million dollar bridge to nowhere?
Median house prices in Hollywood still going up
Raleigh NC housing market 4th biggest decrease out of 51 metro areas.
You started that comment with “LOL”. Like it’s funny and amusing that people in NC are loosing home value? Why? Why would a human being find joy in a fellow American’s misfortune? Where do animals like you come from?
It wasn’t Palin’s bridge to nowhere as it was a Congressional pork project. IOW, federal an voted for by Congress. It was proposed by Sens. Stevens and Young and discontinued in 2005, refunded in 2011 in the H.R.662 bill under Obama. Stop lying to make a point.
All liars. Mega MAGA
That’s considered “hate speech”, CarolAnn!
Somehow, I’m sure you were aware of that…
CarolAnn (aka Mega MAGAt II),
So, you’re upset that Raleigh home buyers don’t have to pay as much for a house now? You don’t support free markets?
You poor, poor snowflake. The sine qua non of nucons is delighting in the misery of “others”. So knock off your faux outrage. (If your outrage is real, you’re further gone than we thought).
You called someone an “animal” because they LOL’d at Teach for being concerned about the bike lane to nowhere while ignoring Palin’s bridge to nowhere, tRump’s stimulus bills and a trillion a year military that cons now despise.
So, you’re upset that Raleigh home buyers don’t have to pay as much for a house now? You don’t support free markets?
H was laughing at the rich getting richer under sleepy joe, not prices going down. No, I’m no longer for free markets because you’re too stupid to read what I said. Dope!
The sine qua non of nucons is delighting in the misery of “others”. So knock off your faux outrage. (If your outrage is real, you’re further gone than we thought).
I called H an animal because he LOL’d people because he’s full of hate for anyone he perceives as not on his side. You’ve seen here how he belittles and looks down on red states because they’re patriotic, American loving Christians. He fails to understand that red states aren’t all red. There are millions of leftists living in NC or is it okay for themto suffer because they’re collateral damage? Okay to bankrupt other Americans so H can smile at the “bad” Americans (the ones the criminals and perverts like you guys always hate) as they and their families get hurt by the slimy joe junta policies. Then you turn around and lie about it.
All liars.
I made no mention of “outrage”. As usual you immediately project what you think on others. Also, you are the ones who wish ill on others and wallow in their misfortune, not I and certainly not us Christians. You moral whores who disgustingly promote the genocide of little babies are the ones who “delight” in the suffering of others. And I frankly don’t care what you, a heathen dog thinks about me.
Carol,
One of Jeff’s favorite techniques is to rearrange the words in a comment or intentionally fail to get an obvious connection. Sometimes he just makes things up with your comment as a base. He loves to see you get frustrated in trying to work an explanation. He thinks he is intelligent in doing this, but obviously that is far from reality. What he hates is to ignore his little idiotic comment.
What Rimjob really hates is when you ask him about Galera.
Bwaha! Lolgf
Carbon Offset-didn’t the back of your Cherrios box inform you of California’s (that would be, uh..Dems) high speed rail nightmare, in the form of 113 billion dollars? It may never get done. 100 million is just pocket change …
Can everyone see my “Shocked!” face?
No? maybe if I turn this direction…
I live next to Berkley… (Not that one, but they seem determined to outdo the CA namesake in silliness) Anyway, they took a 4-lane street, half of the main drag, and converted the two outside lanes into bike lanes. All the times I have been down there, I have never seen a bike.
My city frequently starts projects like this a few months before the holiday periods and as a result runs the various businesses out of business. It is really sad to see the damage done by the liberal corrupt politicians.
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