The new Marquette Interchange could replace motherhood and apple pie as American ideals, according to the big kiss-kiss the JS gave to Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi’s fanny yesterday.
Golly, the new interchange even looks better than the rest of the aging, poorly-maintained system. What a surprise!
It is good news that the interchange came in under budget and on time. I don’t remember, though, the paper ever examining the project budget, the insurance pay-outs, the construction dust readings, the actual minority employment numbers or even if the design is a good one. I know the paper never questioned why the design contracts were amended dozens of times, rising in value from $9,999,999 in late 2001 to $20.7 million. Busalacchi says the odd contracting method of grotesquely low-balling a cost, then allowing the politically influential and generous corporations HNTB and CH2M Hill to methodically ask for contract amendments to increase their take-home pay saved the state money. He also says, though, that he cannot prove this.
The paper is baring its watchdog fangs when it comes to MPS’ $100 million Neighborhood Schools Initiative, but is just a fawning lapdog when it comes to the $800 million Marquette Interchange. Why is that?
And when the governor comes to the ribbon-cutting ceremony this week, let’s hope he brings a couple of cans of paint and a brush. The cheap-ass paint on the $800 million Interchange is already starting to peel. It’s not aesthetically pleasing.
“The paper is baring its watchdog fangs when it comes to MPS’ $100 million Neighborhood Schools Initiative, but is just a fawning lapdog when it comes to the $800 million Marquette Interchange. Why is that?”
G-
Did you really have to ask that question? It’s part of their diminishing quality assurance program.
Gee, Gretchen, tell us how you really feel!
Seriously, I think the fact that the paper put it in the Metro section might reflect a little queasiness on the part of the paper’s editors. OTOH, they had to get their MPS trashing onto the front page. (I can only remember hearing approving words during the time the Neighborhood Schools Initiative was being discussed. They obviously underestimated parent’s desire to get their kids out of their own dangerous neighborhoods to, hopefully, safer ones.
The Neighborhood Schools Initiative was a great idea and still has a chance to succeed if parents are encouraged to explore the benefits of having a school within walking distance. Neighborhood schools strengthen communities. A neighborhood school gives power to the parents and increases accountability in the schools. In many communities outside of Milwaukee parents do not have a choice as to which school their child will attends. Perhaps incentives should have been given for parents to move their children into neighborhood schools. Perhaps a busing transition program to their neighborhood school should have been considered. The current system decimates a neighborhood by extracting the students and displacing them throughout the city where unity among parents is impossible. This will work if we continue to encourage parents to give it a chance. I must say it is easier to build a $800 million “freeway exhange” than it is to build a neighborhood school. Unlike the “freeway” where if you build it they will come and fill it to capacity, the new neighborhood schools will require hard persistent work and incentives for parents to believe. Oh and now that the “freeway interchange” is now open why is the interchange still congested at 3:30 p.m. ? Oh that’s right – build it better and bigger and more traffic will come. What possessed the DOT to put in those black gate like fences that destroy our views of the city. They remind me of gates for a livestock pen. The “freeway exchange” sure is pretty but it is ironic that the inspiring murals on the Fond du Lac corridor are perhaps in an indirect manner depictions of the continuing struggles seen in our inner city. It is estimated that 60,000 automobiles will pass these murals. Will these drivers give these murals a thought or will they make a left and get out of the city as quickly as the the new ” freeway interchange” will allow?