Opus 2012-15, Tax Dollars at Work: Ramp It Down

I live in an urban area.  I am old enough to remember the days when curbs and gutters were considered a mark of progress.  At one point you could tell where the city ended and the county began because they stopped like magic.

Then the federal government got into the act and decided that we needed to make curbs and gutters handicap friendly.  There is a certain type of logic in that.  A person in a wheel chair cannot safely cross a street if there are curbs at both ends.  Somewhere in here the insanity represented by federal control stepped in.  I have seen corners where there were driveways on both sides of the corner, easily and safely accessible to wheelchairs, yet they sent out crews and equipment to tear of the curb and put in a ramp. 

Now we are going a step further.  I noticed the city workers were tearing out a ramp one day.  They had set the concrete forms to put in another ramp.  What gives?  It seems that the budget hawks in Washington have decided that the ramps need cute little yellow pads with bumps.  I am not sure if it is to warn of a street ahead with the bumps, for traction or perhaps the yellow is to warn the speeders to slow down.  I was not aware that we had enough money to waste like this or that people in wheelchairs were so stupid that they could not tell a street was right in front of them.

Then on the way to church I noticed something else.  The first thing I noticed was that there were still a lot of ramps without the yellow pad.  The next thing I noticed was that there were still a lot of corners with no ramps.  Get ready for a tax increase.  We need more ramps and more pads.  I also noticed that many corners have ramps right by driveways but other intersections with no driveways for at least a block have no ramps.  In that case I can see the need for ramps but the government does not know how to do things part way.

It is time to ramp it down, increase taxes and make the world safe for skateboarders.

Elections are coming.  Vote the incumbents out.

homo unius libri