by Travis Mateer
Electricity is an awesome, powerful force. It can give us light in the darkness, warmth in the cold, and a jolt if you’re bothering that gang with uniforms and badges. You can also power all kinds of things with electricity, even objects like fences and guitars, but did you know BRIDGES can also be electrified?
I know, I could hardly believe it myself. How could the MANY problems with bridges in Missoula now include transforming a pedestrian bridge into a giant taser? Who could be responsible for such a strange fiasco?
From the link:
A contractual oversight during the construction of the South Reserve Street pedestrian bridge has left the structure “energized” due an electrical leak, and the Missoula Redevelopment Agency will address the issue.
The board of commissioners last week approved a $47,000 agreement with Parks and Recreation to install a ground fault protection circuit to address the problem, which surfaced over the last two winters, according to city staff.
Let’s not fuss about little things, like accountability, and just appreciate how MRA is always there to save the day…unless it’s the humans being chewed up by the HIC (Homeless Industrial Complex). If we’re talking about them, it better be in the context of holding the public hostage for MORE money when the result is just more street violence from lovely people like this dude:
December must be hard for Ryan Salas, considering last December I wrote this post about his antics. It’s a good thing we have such a ROBUST system of help and support, especially when it comes to the elderly (just kidding, we’re second to last in the entire country when it comes to protecting them, according to a new report!).
What Salas is exhibiting should be familiar to Ellen Buchanan, and that’s how having no accountability makes one flippant about things other people would normally experience consequences over, like an electric bridge that was NOT supposed to be an electric bridge. Please explain to me how the following rationalization for why MRA (with public money) and NOT the contractor (with private money) is paying the $47,000 for the fix. From the original link:
Because the ground-fault protection circuit should have been included as part of the construction package, MRA agreed to cover the $47,000 cost of installing it. Parks and Rec will continue to manage and maintain the bridge.
Huh? How does this make any sense?
Using the power of electricity, which makes our technology run, I recently listened to TIP OF THE SPEAR featuring all 3 County Commissioners speaking with our MULTI-MODAL Mayor, Jordan Hess.
It was excruciatingly boring for the most part, but Hess mentioned some reading he’s been doing recently (at the 15:40 mark) by revisiting a classic by Jane Jacobs. This means Hess has been reading about the FAILURE of Town Planning. Here’s an image of the book from my library:
And here’s a timely quote from the chapter titled “The Self-Destruction of Diversity”; the following excerpt is one I hope Josh Slotnick pays attention to, since he spoke so glowingly about diversity in the brief podcast episode. Here’s Jane Jacobs from The Death And Life Of Great American Cities:
The self-destruction of diversity can happen in streets, at small nodes of vitality, in groupings of streets, or in whole districts. The last case is the most serious.
Whichever form the self-destruction takes, this, in broad strokes, is what happens. A diversified mixture of uses at some place in the city becomes outstandingly popular and successful as a whole. Because of the location’s success, which is invariably based on flourishing and magnetic diversity, ardent competition for space in this locality develops. It is taken up in what amounts to the economic equivalent of a fad.
The winners in the competition for space will represent only a narrow segment of the many uses that together created success. Whichever one or few uses have emerged as the most profitable in the locality will be repeated and repeated, crowding out and overwhelming less profitable forms of use. If tremendous numbers of people, attracted by convenience and interest, or charmed by vigour and excitement, choose to live or work in the area, again the winners of the competition will form a narrow segment of population of users. Since so many want to get in, those who get in or stay in will be self-sorted by expense.
I’m glad the power of electricity allows me to communicate this textbook definition of GENTRIFICATION to readers, and I hope electricity helps everyone stay warm as the arctic blast coming our way threatens to make the holiday break more than a little blustery.
To help me keep the electricity flowing in the TWO locations I’m currently on the hook for, please consider making a monetary donation at my about page.
Thanks for reading!