Federal Stimulus Spending Favors Rural Areas Over Cities: NYT

nytimes.com:

Two-thirds of the country lives in large metropolitan areas, home to the nation's worst traffic jams and some of its oldest roads and bridges. But cities and their surrounding regions are getting far less than two-thirds of federal transportation stimulus money.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[KCFreedom]

Hell will freeze over before Kansas City ever gets real inner-city rail transportation, with or without the help of the Federal government.

Even when the public voted "yes" on a starter rail transportation plan (like last year) the city council illegally overrode it.

The KC Star newspaper is in bed with the road building interests to keep it out. Just like everything else.

They have small minds here.

[themodernleader]

Obama appears to be placing the monies where the power, not the people, reside. Yet, the fate of our civilization is wrapped in the manner wherein we manage our cities. If the cities are conducive to originality, creativity, self-sufficiency, self-autonomy, unlimited opportunity, we are assured of renewal and growth. Our country is being controlled by a few for the benefit of a few. And the few are destroying ordinary Americans' bridges to the future.

[lj9283]

The states are deciding what projects get the money, not the Federal Government.

[weatherwaxx]

But it's so much easier to blame Obama...

[DontJustFollow]

funny all the federal stim money in California is going to be used to pay for the democrats over spending last year . . .

no new projects, just money to pay for the glut of state employees and entitlement programs for illegals.

hope Obama is going to give California the same amount next year - - -

[Mildmannered]

better than firing teachers, firemen, park rangers, etc. CalTrans has cut back so far that it doesn't have the manpower to adjust sprinklers along side of highways so that they operate in compliance with new drought regulations.

[baxtron]

QUICK! cut taxes for the top 2% by another 2 trillion dollars before Obama ruins this country!!!!

[PlanetKansas]

This isn't politics, it's math. Transportation dollars are allocated by a simple formula, total highway miles divided by the state population.

Kansas has a lot of highway miles and a small population, so it gets more highway fund dollars than New York. Every rural state gets more than it puts in.

Conversely, urban areas have a formul to get highway subsidies for mass transit, which Kansas gets almost nothing.

[LeRoiEstMort]

I couldn't help but think of Thomas Jefferson's remarks to James Madison that: "I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get plied upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe." Thomas Jefferson

While I maintain a healthy Jeffersonian dose of skepticism about the city life, I understand the need to build up city infrastructure, I can't help but think that their model of continuing to allow the autos of commuters to drive in them is certainly unsustainable. Rail, bus, and bike cannot be overemphasized. However, for rural communities, they need miles and miles of road to bring their agricultural products into cities.

[tokenconservative]

It makes sense that cities aren't getting that much transportation money - this may come as a shock, but cities definitionally take up less space that rural areas. You don't need as much money to fix half as many roads in cities I come from a really densely populated urban area and this makes sense to me.

[Halfwit]

In terms of miles, I wonder how many more miles of roads are in rural areas than urban areas.
I don't see why it makes any difference that more of the population is in the cites when more of the roads are not.

[frantaylor]

It's not the number of roads, it's the number of vehicles that use the roads.
Nobody cares if there are potholes in rural country roads.
Many people care when urban bridges collapse.

[gemzenith]

There are rural bridges that collapse as well.All this bickering about who "deserves"Of course wherever you reside is who "deserves"It is human nature to care more about where your at than anywhere else.Its like a dog chasing its own tail.You are all beginning to look like jerks.

[Halfwit]

Most of the unstable bridges are in rural areas. Also, it is easier for cities to raise the kind of money needed for roads. I think this makes sense.

[baxtron]

really? i'm going to disagree. two of the bridges i drove over on a regular basis have either fallen into the Mississippi River or are about to.

[Mildmannered]

easy for cities to raise money???

[weatherwaxx]

Bigger taxpayer base. If you've got a county with 100 people in it, as some rural areas do, there is no way those families will have the money to maintain all the roads.

[frantaylor]

The picture is very different if you use a measure that actually matters: how many cars cross the bridges. Then suddenly you see many very busy urban bridges on the verge of collapse, potentially killing hundreds of people, and you see "bridges to nowhere" in the country that are rarely crossed and can easily be detoured around.

[NedroidPrime]

Ok, so yesterday it was Obama supporting counties that got the most money. Now it is the rural ones.

It's sounding like MSM is desperate for something to stick to the President...

[smchp]

lol....I distinctly remember reading media manufactured drama about a month ago of how rural people were being left out.

Stay classy MSM!

[baxtron]

thanks for stoppin by.

[Poboy]

This is what Palin was referring to when she said small town, rural areas were the "real America."

These racist state governments have been denying their urban areas for their rural areas for years, at least since Reagan.

This is how they favor White people, because they associate urban with Black people.

And they are using Black people's taxes to do it.

[Viper]

Getting new road projects started in dense cities is very problematic , time consuming and expensive.

And disrupts the local economy at the same time which is not wanted at this time....

The cost is many times greater, the delays many,many times greater. See Boston's new innner city free way as an example.

Regards

[Fabini]

An important bridge near where I live is being replaced. It's been rusting apart way too long. The stimulus money is making the project move ahead. We will have a new bridge by this time next year. That's good. No if there were only jobs so people had a reason to cross the bridge.

[baxtron]

a raise in MN gas taxes is making projects go forward. Democrats over rode TPaw veto.

[sueinmn]

My state MN, Palenty (gov-R) left it up to the head of the DOT. Even the legislature had little say.
The DOT is giving road surface bids only to lowest bidders. No bridges, no infrastructure other than simple resurface. Something the state would have done regardless of stimulus. This money has proven ill spent. No new jobs, We have a number of bridges deemed unsafe! Conjestion serious in the metro (MPLS) and we get tar. millions of dollars worth of tar! Yes my street will be tarred again. It isnt in bad condition but it will be tarred again.
The bridge -the only bridge for commuters will fall before its replaced. More needless deaths will occur. I do believe it is a waste as it is not being used as the feds said it would be!

[lj9283]

Actually in your state (MN) $1,391,477,800 has been allocated to be awarded in Fiscal year 2009 through the Legislative Advisory Commission process, specific legislation passed in the 2009 Legislative Session, or existing statutory authority that allows for program expenditures.

http://www.mmb.state.mn.us/doc/citizen/status-arra.pdf

[Viper]

Then , if its need ed work and gets done... that allows the state to have funds to spend for the bigger projects...

Regards