Tag: Trains

Once upon a time.

Mayor Janice Daniels in December of 2011 led the opposition in the Troy City Council for an $8.5 million train depot for good reason.  Her opposition to a project that would be built with free money was framed with an understanding that nothing is truly free.  Even after the project was stripped down a month later, and re-presented for a couple million less, she held her ground, and looked at the bigger picture.  Ongoing expenses make the continuing use of the pusher-man's product not nearly as euphoric as when it was offered for free.

The Troy City Council didn't get it, and the vote for the effort was shifted. Even in the face of the citizen commentary that was recorded as 11-7 in opposition to the transit center.  As RightMichigan.com poster Rougman pointed out at the time, its $5,500/sq ft cost was stripped down to $3,100/sq ft (a travesty for its cheapness) and the gold plated accoutrements would have to be withheld.

"By shaving off 400 square feet the project's cost has been lowered significantly. That was some expensive square footage there--roughly coming in at $5,500 per square foot. The smaller and redrawn project will cost a mere $3,100 per square foot which I find absolutely alarming...what kind of slum are these bureaucrats trying to push over on us? No gold toilet seats? No granite counter tops?"

Yesterday was Michigan's birthday.

Our state has undergone a great deal of change over the last 175 years, and today can serve well as a history lesson for the country and itself.   Especially given the recent discussion with regard to government owned bridges, light rail, and other stimulus & economic development efforts funded with tax dollars, we should certainly note that some things never change.

So I am taking the night off, switching the business line to mute, and withholding my skills from the nation for a couple of hours.  I am going to see Atlas Shrugged tonight. In fact, a group of us are going to see if the story was done justice, and if the movie is perhaps a better production than presented by the lefty reviewers who panned it.

They gave it 1 star.

The attempt to take on progressives in their own medium is delicious enough to make it worth the $10 ticket.  The fact that the local theater decided to carry the film will earn them at least a bucket of overpriced popcorn sale. If it is good enough, I may even buy the John Galt bobblehead when it comes out in stores everywhere or at McDonalds along with the HamLooter. (Burglar) fanny pack.

Oh my, good conservatives, I/we have been forewarned.