Stimulus Money

Hooplehead said:
I just heard that there really IS money in the stimulation package for a Mag-Lev system. Boston-NY? No. NY-Chicago? No. San Francisco-LA? No. Drum-roll, please....Anaheim to Las Vegas. $8 billion. Put in by Harry Reid himself.
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Yeah, that really pissed me off. For God's sake, put it where people will use it/want it.
 
ablarc said:
This does NOT look good.

Btw, is the Blue Line extension to Charles shovel-ready?
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No because the state periodically spends money on 'studies' which only generate typed reports and spreadsheets without actually committing to drawing actual plans or conducting physical surveys.

The Green Line extension to Somerville and Medford is also off the table for the same reason.
 
^
Sitting on a porch next to his wife in Texas, drinking a beer while entertaining the dogs, happy he doesn't have the weight of the world and the blame for everything one could imagine on his shoulders.

Obama broke every campaign promise of thrift, transparency, and due process with this bill. If he had exercised some leadership, and reigned in Reid and Pelosi's porkfest, rather than flying around campaigning to those whom don't even get to vote on the damn bill, it would have been much better written.

A freshmen NJ Democratic member of the House wrote an alternative version of the bill for under 200 billion which had all the infrastructural funding and badly needed business tax cuts/credits without any of the deep fried bacon. His idea went nowhere with the party leadership.
 
Hooplehead said:
I just heard that there really IS money in the stimulation package for a Mag-Lev system. Boston-NY? No. NY-Chicago? No. San Francisco-LA? No. Drum-roll, please....Anaheim to Las Vegas. $8 billion. Put in by Harry Reid himself.
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There is no money in the stimulus package set-aside specifically for mag-lev between Las Vegas and Anaheim. There is $8 billion for new high-speed rail, with no specification on which routes it would be spent on.

Boston-NYC per se (see para below though) will not be a candidate because it already is high-speed, with slow speed being on state-owned and state-maintained tracks between New Haven and New Rochelle.

NY-Chicago is not a feasible high-speed corridor.

San Francisco-Los Angeles likely the big recipient. Voters in California already approved spending $10 billion for this project.

Las Vegas - Anaheim mag-lev? Doubtful this will ever get built. Congress last year authorized $45 million to study the route. More likely will be a traditional high-speed rail between LA and Las Vegas.

The other best candidate states for high-speed rail corridors would be Florida (if the state ever re-authorizes such a corridor) and Texas.

There is a possibility that some of the $8 billion could be spent on the Northeast Corridor between New York City and Washington to get speeds on that route up to those achieved between Westerly and Boston. This would go to replacing the catenary which was installed during the Great Depression, and possibly a new tunnel for Baltimore.

Of the $1.3 billion in stimulus funding for AMTRAK, $450 million is set-aside for life-safety related projects. I suspect much of this is to improve the tunnels under the Hudson and East Rivers. Of the other $850 million, no more than 60 percent can be spent on the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington.
 
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Stellar, how did you get this detailed information, when even our distinguished Congressional delegation admits having absolutely no idea what is in the package?
 
http://www.readthestimulus.org/

Has had the different iterations of the bill, however given that last minute changes were literally being handwritten into the bill, it's hard to know what the final version is.
 
Or if you'd like a less right leaning site, look for the final version of the legislation at recovery.gov once it has been signed. This will also have updates on specifics of how the money is being spent.

For now, try the WhiteHouse.gov page.
 
Lurker said:
^
Sitting on a porch next to his wife in Texas, drinking a beer while entertaining the dogs, happy he doesn't have the weight of the world and the blame for everything one could imagine on his shoulders.
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No doubt, the blame for everything one could imagine on his shoulders, which is rightfully his, doesn't bother him one damn bit.
 
CC is rolled into a category which contains several developments. No idea which one.
 
No sign of mass transit, either.

Most of these are pretty lame.
 
Lurker said:
Obama broke every campaign promise of thrift, transparency, and due process with this bill. If he had exercised some leadership, and reigned in Reid and Pelosi's porkfest, rather than flying around campaigning to those whom don't even get to vote on the damn bill, it would have been much better written.
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First, he is not going to please everyone. Second, he hardly had any choice; he inherited a disgusting mess. Do you think he wants to have to create an $800b stimulus bill? How has he broken his promise of transparency? He's been in office for less than a month.
 
ablarc said:
Btw, is the Blue Line extension to Charles shovel-ready?
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None of the proposed transit projects could be started within 180 days. The MBTA has dragged its feet on planning everything. Even the Silver Line can't be hurried along. (which is a characteristic of the Silver Line)
 
politicaljokepicoq5.jpg


Nuff said.
 
That would have to be in the state's share. Boston doesn't do mass transit.
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Ach, you're right. And this right after discussing state-controlled public corporations in Local Gov't Law.

Still, look at Buffalo's shovel ready projects and get ready to be ashamed.
 
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