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Guest Post: 30 Blocks Of Squalor - Government Built It, But They Didn't Come
Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform blog,
I haven’t provided a 30 Blocks of Squalor update in quite a while. I generally don’t like to repeat myself, so I wait until I see something particularly disturbing, stupid, or outrageous. The well is now filled on all accounts and I’m ready to unload. The joys of West Philly are multi-faceted. I’ve been getting off at the Girard Avenue exit of the Schulkill Expressway for six years on my way to work.
The Philadelphia Zoo parking lots are located directly in front of the exit ramp. I then proceed to 34th street and take my little shortcut through the hood. About one year ago, a construction project began on the existing parking lot at 35th and Girard Avenue. I had no idea what they were building and why. Before long it became evident they were building a big ass parking garage. I was stumped. The zoo had multiple existing parking lots that were NEVER filled. As the months went on I realized they were building the Shangri La of parking garages with a majestic glass tower in front. This is the final result.
I began to wonder who came up with the money for this monstrosity, because the Phila zoo is a money losing non-profit that depends on donations for its continued existence. As I was driving down 36th Street a couple weeks ago I noticed a brand new sign telling me I was entering the Centennial District. That’s funny because I thought I was entering the slums of West Philly where no one works and everyone has a iPhone. This would be a more appropriate sign.
It all began to make sense when they installed the enormous signage naming this parking garage the CENTENNIAL INTERMODAL TRANSPORTATION CENTER. Orwell must be so proud. Liberal Democratic politicians now give grand flowing names to parking garages.
Now that I had a name for this unnecessary albatross I was able to do a google search to find out how much this 683 space, union constructed parking palace amidst squalor actually cost. I was flabbergasted to find out it cost $24 million. You can be sure it could have been built for $16 million if it had been built non-union. For some perspective, IKEA builds 300,000 square foot retail stores for $18 million. Now for the best part. YOU paid for 30% of this porkulus project. Your Federal tax dollars funded a major portion of this project. Here is the breakdown:
- Federal Transit Agency/Federal Highway Administration: $7.18 million
- Pennsylvania state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program: $8.25 million
- Philadelphia city capital program: $0.7 million
- PNC Bank loan: $8.25 million
Pennsylvania taxpayers got a double dose of pork fever. Their Federal taxes paid for 30% and their state taxes paid for another 34% of this project. Of course, the rest of the cost was covered by debt. Think about this craziness for just a minute. The zoo had sufficient parking. The Federal government is running deficits in excess of $1 trillion per year. The State of PA is being bankrupted by government employee pension obligations. The City of Phila is a fiscal disaster. Three bankrupt government entities join forces to spend taxpayer money they haven’t collected on a project that isn’t needed. This is Keynesian idiocy at its finest. They should have named it the Krugman/Obama/Nutter Ultra-Liberal Phallic Center for Union Workers. You’ll also be happy to know they have plans to paint a huge mural of black people doing great things on the side of this waste of taxpayer dollars.
Now for the funny part. I stumbled across the architectural rendering of what this albatross would look like. Please note the beautiful foliage, as if this parking garage was in the middle of Valley Forge National Park. Also note the dozens of white people strolling along Girard Avenue. You also see the a portion of a modern trolley in the shot. Having passed this location every morning and evening for the last six years, I can assure you there is no beautiful foliage. There are scraggly diseased trees amidst garbage, debris, needles, and dead bodies.
The picture doesn’t do justice to this West Philly oasis of poverty, squalor and crime. The picture is missing the crazy black dude begging at the off-ramp. The actual trolley smells of urine and was built in 1963. The streets are crumbling. Water mains explode frequently. Every building is covered in graffiti. And 90% of the people on the streets are black, and the other 10% are walking really fast.
The Trayvon hoody wearing populace of West Philly aren’t interested in new parking garages or getting a job at the Phila zoo. They prefer EBT cards, armed robbery and drug dealing.
This is the reality of Girard Avenue. Gorgeous architectural renderings and gleaming glass encased parking garages paid for by taxpayers will do absolutely nothing to change the dynamic of West Philly. This is just another mal-investment by liberal do-gooders whose policies have created this shithole over decades.
Speaking of mal-investment, this brings me to an update of Mantua Square. It is located two blocks from the zoo parking garage. I’ve written two previous articles about this monument to government pork, false promises, Keynesian idiocy, and your tax dollars:
http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=27516
http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=18696
Mantua Square continues the legacy of the welfare state begun in the 1960s by LBJ and his Great Society programs. There were thousands of low income high rises built in the 1960s and 1970s to provide subsidized housing for poor people. Mantua Hall was an 18 story taxpayer gift to Philadelphia’s poor.
As with most of these tenements, it quickly became a rat infested, crime ridden, drug paradise where even the Philly police would not approach. It became a dangerous crumbling disgrace. It proved that giving ignorant, lazy scumbags free housing with no strings attached and no requirements to work or keep their homes in any semblance of order leads to really bad consequences. So what did the liberal Democrats that run Philly do? They imploded the 18 story drug house in 2008 and started over.
Obama’s 2009 $800 billion porkulus plan spread your money far and wide to his minions in urban shitholes across the land. The Democrats in Philly were rewarded with millions for Keynesian make work projects for their union brethren. Mayor Nutter and West Philly Congressman Chaka Fattah commandeered $10 million of “stimulus” and another $18 million from HUD to replace Mantua Hall with a 101 luxury townhouse low income housing gated community in the heart of the West Philly slums. These corrupt government politicians never learn, or they don’t want to learn – is more like it. The Feds pay them off and they pay their union cronies off , assuring their re-election. Mantua Square opened in 2011 with balloons, ribbon cutting and promises of community redevelopment and a retail renaissance. I have to admit that it is a beautiful oasis amidst the squalor. Of course, at a cost of over $250,000 per unit to the U.S. taxpayer, it should be beautiful. How many hard working married American couples can’t afford a $250,000 townhome? I’ll go out on a limb and say, most. Why would a resident of a taxpayer funded $250,000 townhouse have any incentive to get educated and obtain a job that would make them ineligible to live in that townhouse?
This gated oasis was built with 8 retail stores totaling 7,400 square feet. The government drones were sure that if they built it they would come. It is now two years after opening and I’m sorry to say – NO ONE CAME. All 8 storefronts are empty. Not one West Philly entrepreneur has stepped forward with a fantastic retail idea. Shocking!!!! Maybe someone should have realized that with a median household income of less than $20,000, Mantua will NEVER sustain a single retail store, let alone 8 stores. You have less chance of opening a successful store in Mantua than finding a female with a wedding ring or a male with a school book in West Philly.
Maybe someone should have checked out the available facts before building these 8 retail stores:
http://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/Mantua-Philadelphia-PA.html
Some interesting tidbits:
- There are 7,854 people living in the area and 90% of them are black
- The median household income is $19,765 versus $50,000 in the U.S. (this means 50% of the households make less than $19,765)
- Only 14% of the households are occupied by married couples versus 48% in the U.S.
- 30% of the households are occupied by single mothers.
- 36% of the residents did not graduate high school, with another 35% not going further than high school.
- The average value of the decaying row houses in the neighborhood is less than $40,000.
- Over 43% of the population is living below the poverty line.
- The crime rate is three times the national average.
- The true unemployment rate is above 60%.
The statistics confirm my observations of squalor. I’ve driven past Mantua Square virtually every day since it opened. I can honestly tell you that the neighborhood has not been redeveloped or revitalized. Mantua Square is still surrounded by dilapidated, boarded up, rat infested hovels. There is no new retail. There is no community revival. A row house one block away simply collapsed during Hurricane Sandy. There are brand new union built wheel chair ramps on every corner of West Philly, paid for with the Obama stimulus funds. Of course, the sidewalks between the wheelchair ramps are crumbling, so someone in a wheelchair could never utilize them. But that’s OK. Wheel chairs are old school. I see many West Philly residents tooling around in the streets in their Hoverounds. Their practically free, don’t you know.
The local bar, next to the middle school, seems to be doing good business as there are usually 10 or 15 twenty something black men milling around outside when I pass by at 5:15 pm on my way home from work. They must accept EBT cards. Do you throw trash, garbage and beer bottles on your front lawn? The people in this neighborhood seem to think this is acceptable behavior. Monday is trash day in West Philly. This week I saw a leather couch that was nicer than my living room couch out by the curb. Last week I saw a big screen TV in the trash. I must really be doing something wrong. The amount of trash outside these low income townhouses is two to three times the amount we generate in a week.
It does appear that Obama’s subprime solution is working its magic in West Philly. How else can you explain the 20 something black man driving an $80,000 BMW 750 I saw yesterday in West Philly? I have seen the power gates of Mantua Square open and BMWs, Jaguars, and Cadillac Escalades departing. How can low income occupants afford such vehicles? The neighborhood around Mantua Square is filled with new model Lexuses, Cadillacs, and a particular favorite – Chrysler 300s. The hovels all have satellite dishes. The unemployed peeps all have cell phones.
Everything I’ve noted could not have been accomplished without the easy money policies of the Federal Reserve. The money printing of the Federal Reserve with no anchor to gold has allowed the welfare state to grow to immense proportions. It has allowed politicians to buy votes by spending taxpayer dollars on multi-million dollar Keynesian zero return albatrosses. It has allowed politicians to enslave black people on a welfare plantation of entitlements. Bernanke and his cronies reward mal-investment through their policies. They reward bad behavior (borrowing & spending), while punishing good behavior (saving and investing). West Philly is a testament to failed economic policies, government waste, lack of personal responsibility, corrupt politicians, excessive union costs, and the delusional belief that government can create economic growth. The 30 Blocks of Squalor is descending further into squalor and it will accelerate as Bernanke’s policies further destroy what remains of capitalism in this country.
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I also grew up that the only thing people like you understand when get down to it is having their face smashed in. It's a hell of a way to go through life to have to get to that point to settle things but you clearly are one of those people.
That's not very "tolerant"
IF it was just about the money it would be a completely different issue. The real problem is one of fewer and fewer people willing or educationally able to work and produce. Most economies have been able to implement their socialist wet dreams durring periods of relative economic growth. When the effects of those policies come home ot roost, the productivity well drys up. Then we find less and less money for anything, yet those policies demand to be fulfilled. We have cut the shit out of military spending, which by the way is one of the few constitutionally mandated expenditures, yet welfare and entitlement spending has continued in growth. This is a simple trend that has nothing more to do with race than which groups specific policies are designed to impact. How is it possible that in a world where progressive policies implemented since FDR have grown to such immense proportions all while those who it was supposed to help have found themselves in even worse circumstances, and yet still blame those who want to stop it? INDOCTRINATION
Did your parents have any kids that lived?
The problems of chronic poverty and the values that accompany it are serious. As are the faults of the welfare state.
Nonetheless, this is an article full of hate and, yes, racism and deliberately so...
Shame.
It's like giving a child your watch to play with. It works until they are capable of throwing it hard enough to break it.
Moar
http://www.myvisajobs.com/Blog/post/US-employers-filed-124000-h1b-visa-p...
Might be enslaving some brown and white people, too.
This still pales in comparison with Bush's $1 trillion off-budget wars. We didn't even get an f*ing parking lot for that! The F*er should be tried for treason.
That was a gatorade shower of deliciously brutal honesty. Of course, this EBT-squalor that is now the cultural icon of our once great republic has all been made possible by the fallacy of municipal bonds that are backed up by Bernanke's T-bond bonanza. It will take mayors and governors with the balls to refuse the state and Federal monopoly money and discontinue issuing debt based on their future ability to raise taxes, (HA!) and to stop covering their asses with yet another round of bonds to kick that can a little further down the road - just long enough to retire on a fat public pension - at which point somebody else can come in and....do the same fucking thing! - which is exactly what's going to happen. Suburban and rural communities could get the ball rolling - they merely need to announce the sunsetting of local government housing and transfer payments. People will either get their ass in line for a job, riot and get thrown in jail, or the more likely outcome of moving to the next county over that still pays people to sit on the couch, get inebriated, play xbox and make babies. But no one in office has the balls to even CONSIDER the refusal of government 'investment' money, and they sure as hell don't have the testicular fortitude to stand on the floor of their state house and threaten to discontinue making common cause with this disunion.
I mean, it's bad enough in the lower 48. Hawaii and Alaska? What the fuck are you people waiting for?? And Puerto Rico WANTS to become a state? Jesus. Do you really like being ruled by a King and his minions several thousand miles away? SECEDE already so the rest of us have somewhere to go when West Philly types in all the urban shitholes start rioting the first time their EBT accounts don't receive the requisite stagflation adjustment in order to continue affording surf & turf. Even if secession isn't your particular flavor of moonshine, what about economic separation with mutual defense treaties? It's either that, or we're going to have violence and bread lines. See you in the woods.
The only thing I would add to that article is that government enslaving via welfare is completely colorblind, so when we debate this fiscal insanity let's not give all the white, brown and who-cares-what-color people a pass on the lazy teet suckling. All corporate welfare is wrong, same for individuals.
Jim Quinn: Most Likely to Commit a Hate Crime. Class of 2013!
Really burns your ass your favorite slur "anti-semite" does not apply, no?
Do you think spiritually and in the physical world the average black partaking in this wealth transfer is actually better off?? If so, your're wrong.
You seem very familiar with me and my ass. But yes, Ive been applying prep h since reading this post. I also think it was brilliant. Just feel that west philly should be on high alert for Mr. Quinn.
Look, I hate all politicians. Do you think the so called conservatives and tea party members (the tea party that has been thoroughly infiltrated by Republicans, not the original concept) don't like pork and wasteful spending? They just want to waste money on their favorite programs, subsidies, and client groups, all of which are different than those supported by liberals, thats all.
I'd have to give a very slight edge in honesty, however, to the liberals. They want to spend but admit to wanting to tax the hell out of people to pay for the spending. The other side wants to spend money the government does not have and at the same time reduce taxes on essentially everyone with income. I like lower taxes but...
Hey Jim - Have you started a white power chapter in Delco to keep the blacks out who are increasingly moving in? What shity 1st generation surburb do you live in ?
Shouldn't you change your alias to MeAsshole?
You really only have one bullet in that pea shooter of yours.
One trick ponies screaming the racist card are boring and tiring.
All the facts and reality on the ground back up my article. It drives liberal assholes crazy when I obliterate their storylines and gibberish.
Isn't it time for you to turn on Chris Matthews and get a tingle up your leg over Obama's gun control agenda?
Where do you live libtard?
Yeah have some facts in there about the hi-rise develoment and parking garbage that are worth reading but tons of generalities that fit the old and tired 'welfare queen' cliche. If you want to talk about why the construction rates in the city suck and there is no reason why they are on par with NYC? Fine.
Just come and say 'all blacks in West Philly are all good-for-nothing, on the dole, n!ggers' and I will respect you because at least you are being honest with how you feel about things.
There are plenty of issues with black urban culture in Philly and racial politics in Philly but your racist attitude is as bad as the idiots like Chaka on the City Council who play the race card at every chance they get. You just reinforce the stereotype that all of the whites in the Philly surburbs think all of the blacks in Philly are n~ggers.
You must be a real treat to live/work with in your self-righteousness. How many times have you been divorced? My over/under is at least 1.5.
Looks like I hit a nerve you fucking douchebag.
Let's hear your life story dickhead. What white suburban enclave do you live in? I know the Philly area inside and out. Give me the town and I'll tell everyone what kind of hypocrite you are.
Self righteous is right. Do you live in West Philly amongst your brothers?
Your analytical abilites about me and my life are as accurate as your portrayal of West Philly.
How many times have you been kicked in the balls on this thread and made to look like the asshole that you are? My over is six.
Hit a nerve? No. I live out in West Chester so my kids could take advantage of the school system there. I don't disagree with some of your general points but why do you have include the racist shit/baiting in there? You think will take your message as seriously? Then again, you probably don't 'give a f@ck about those faggot liberal dickheads'or anyone else who would question what is in your post. I would be fascinated to see if you share these beliefs and thoughts with your co-workers at Wharton.
How did I know you'd be googling to find out about me?
You people are so predictable.
How many black people in your suburban enclave? I should have known you lived in a lily white liberal bastion.
I love when people like you start posting in a frenzy abusing me with your ideological bullshit and then get their panties in a twist when I crush your weak storylines. You people hate dealing with reality because it doesn't match your storyline.
It happens every time. You anonymous assholes think I won't respond. Give me your name and I'll do some research on you.
I'd be fascinated to know what company would employ an idiot like you.
I do some work in West Philly with Habitat occasionally. Yeah it sucks at times. We have had our places broken into and I have had my car broken into & shit stolen out of it including some expensive tools. Doesn't mean I would paint then every person in West Philly in an overly generalizing broadstroke or any person wearing a hoodie as you did. Have you ever talked to those guys or gone into that place? Have you run the DMV records in West Philly to see what is the composition of the mark/model to addresses to owners in those zip codes?
Why is anyone who disagrees with you or makes an alternative point automatically 'an asshole?'
You arrived on the scene insulting me and calling me a racist asshole.
If you disagreed with me in a civil manner, you would have received a civil response. You picked the fight, so don't act like you are an innocent victim.
You did not provide an alternative point. You came out firing. I do not back down. If you want to debate in that manner, I can fight as dirty as anyone.
I did not paint every person in West Philly as criminals. The statistics I listed tell the story. My visual observations of the neighborhoods that I have driven through for the last six years are entirely accurate.
I stand by everything I've written. You might not like my style, but I don't care. Political correctness is a disease.
Alright then I should have taken a civil tone but your post did strike me as painting a pretty broad brush and some of the language was something often hear when whites talk about blacks in West Philly in a vieled racist manner. I didn't say you needed to be politicially correct either. Racism card is used by both black and whites in Philly way too often. Why it makes having an open and honest conversation about race so damn near impossible. Hell, just look at all the fury over the Philadelphia Magazine. I did think that article generally made some valid points even if it was the wrong way to go about it including a bunch of one-off anonymous observations.
I just don't understand you need to distract from your points with some of the racial stuff. That's all. It just distracts from the point you are trying to make about the garage largesse and ridiculously bloated cost overruns and the Mantua public housing issue.
I posted that Phila Magazine article on my site, including Nutter's ridiculous attempt to squelch free speech.
I understand that many people don't like my in your face style. I use the same language when I describe Wall Street scumbags, Bernanke, Bush, Cheney, Romney and anyone else I think deserves scorn.
The squalor of West Philly is due to bankers, politicians and the people who live there. I don't know what proportion of blame goes to each, but I don't let anyone off the hook.
This type of dialogue is preferable to our previous commentary.
Truth butt hurts, no?
Follow these instructions:
1. Find big, rusty nail.
2. Hammer with face soon and often.
3. Repeat regardless of other indicators.
Does your mom have any kids that lived?
Stealing it is only half the power, the other half is pissing it away.
"...they have plans to paint a huge mural of black people doing great things on the side of this waste of taxpayer dollars." That's funny. I'd like to see what that looks like when it's done. hujel
The solutions for West Philly are adequate education for the children and decent jobs for adults; unfortunately, you would have better luck finding a unicorn that shits American Gold Eagles....
You could throw 400 Quadrillion dollars at the problem...And you'd still have a big pile of shit
They need to bulldoze some of these cities...
what makes quinn so fucking stupid is jealousy. urban blacks and latinos figured out they were being screwed a long time ago and have opted out. they use the system to get their dicks sucked. the people like quinn get their ass destroyed by the huge .gov dick and all they do is complain about it like the sissy bois they are.
they system sucks. you can make it suck your dick or you can can suck .gov dick. it is your choice. in the meantime, shut the fuck up and do something. if you follow the rules you are fucking stupid if you think something will change. if you don't follow the rules you have to be prepared to suffer the consequences.
most people here talk a lot of bull shit with their molon labe crap, prepper crap, big bad .gov crap, and revolution crap. in history, the people who survived were the ones who became refugees before they were called refugees. the ones who stayed behind had a fair chance of being slaughtered. it is a fair chance because there have been successful revolutions with little bloodshed but that was an unknown in the beginning. all revolutions have been fought with a critical mass of people willing to die for the cause. urban blacks and latinos and the aryan brotherhood have what most of you losers lack, big fucking balls. chris dorner should be your hero but you are too stupid to see what it takes to get real change out of a system that is so corrupt only a criminal mind can negotiate it successfully.
watch the europeans, from britain and ireland to spain, greece and portugal. they will likely show you how it is done. learn your lesson and stop talking crap.
Just for that bad attitude, I'm not going to invite you to join my doomer/prepper group! We aren't really quite into that cocksucker mindset.
Fuck being politically correct....
Anti-Racism has been shoved down our throats so long, we don't dare speak of any problems....
Where the fuck to begin...
First, if you want to make this an underclass banner piece, then fine. It can certainly look like that through this guy's filter.
Born in West Philly, moved 5 miles into what then was the 'burbs. Now on the far side of Valley Forge Park. And Whiter than table salt.
Watched it all take place.
Let me try it with a lot less a' Negra Hatin'.
The parking thing...
Well, if you drive past the Zoo to go to work, of course the lots aren't full. It's a weekday shithead. Go near the Montgomery/Girard exits on a summer weekend. It takes 15-30 minutes just to get off the Expressway. Even with the Parking thing, there still isn't enough parking for the peak days.
That's nothing rare.
If our pal turns right and goes back across the Schuylkill.. voila.. The Philadelphia Museum of Art. half a mile from the Zoo. Last time I went to the Museum, we had to walk 16 zigzag blocks and up the Parkway to get to the Museum. Guess who also uses that Parking Lot, with a shuttle.
More bad news..
The Franklin Institute Science Museum doesn't make a profit on tickets/entrance-fees.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art doesn't even come vaguely close to making a profit on tickets/entrance-fees.. They are really fucking stupid because they have two peak days a month where ya "pay what ya want".
The Philadelphia Zoo doesn't make a profit on tickets/entrance-fees.
How do they make their money? Small membership dues, which historically don't buy the member much and Big Fucking Donors. Ever diminishing Fedral,State,City largess.
This may seem like some Keyenesian, Hippie, Beggar, Commie approach to running a "business".
But a couple of the named have been doing it that way for over 100 years.
Why?
So the tickets/entrance fees aren't a minor organ donation and high colonic for us Common Folk. Yeah, people in 15-20 year old cars can go to the Zoo, Museum, and Franklin Institute.
As sick as it may sound in this day and age, it's a "Community" type thing.
Nothin' I hate more than all them there Colored folk getting into my Zoo at the same cheap rates I'm payin'.
How do I know it's cheap?
That is easier than reading a monkey-dick article.
All I have to do is look at my original seat license price and the price of my Season Tickets at the biggest Private Equity bonanza in the history of Pennsylvania - the Sport Complex in South Phila.
The entire cost of the Niggah-located Parking Lot and Mantua would fit in the 200 Section of the football stadium. That leaves the baseball stadium, and hockey/basketball Center. You're talking tens of Billion$.
Where'd the money come from? Most of it out everybody's asses who may or may not have even visited Phila. Add in private equity essentially borrowing at Municipal rates.
Then taking an asset which is a "Trust" of Phila, and milking the living shit out of the paying fan.
A three hour game on a Sunday afternoon is $400+ for a family of 4, not counting the seat licenses ($1200/st). That's if you can get these cheap seats, because the stadium was built for Corporate pandering boxes and Premium sections. Pop that in the calculator for 10 (same cost for pre-season) games plus double for playoffs and you have a whole nother round of heathcare costs for the family
Great business, the stadium doubled the value of the team, not to mention the incremental to value from an obscene cash flow.
There was so much pork in the deals everybody had to stop keeping track. Then two years after the fact the Eagles and the City were still arears for 10s of MM. They had found that the numbers were so big, it was cheaper to let the sub-contractors fight for their money. The private companies who live in Villanova, Gladwynne and the rest of the Main Line may not like to mingle with the po', but they sure didn't mind making robust walkaway margins on the scumy, highly of colors, druggy folk of Philadelphia. They sure might hate the City Democrats, but they seemed to really love them for those 10 years.
If you want to see something really sick, pull the city records for the buildings in the Financial District on Market Street.
In the end I have no clear cut solution for impoverished Communities. All I know is we have made historic numbers of it in the past 30 years, with particular beefless outcomes in the past 15 years while the Neo-Classical, NeoLiberal, Economic/Financial Religious has been in charge.
And most of them are Rich, White, Old Men who basically hate anybody who isn't them.
I hope your daughter marries a Black guy with a big dick.
I drive by on summer weekdays shithead when kids are out of school. The parking garage was put on top of the exiting parking lot. The traffic jam at the exit is not due to lack of parking. It is due to too many people all trying to get into the zoo at 10:00 am. The traffic jam will exist on the weekends, just as before.
There is no fucking stampede to go to the Phila Art Museum that is three miles away from the zoo. This parking garage adds nothing to the Art Museum.
Using the ridiculous taxpayer waste for the stadiums as a reason why this tax payer waste is OK is the usual misdirect used by asshole liberals. Nice try. Bullshit.
They were my clients at one time or another, or today.
The zoo has been trying to get parking for peaks for 30 years.
If you have been to the Art Museum in the past year, the north lots and underground have been under construction to recent. They use what is available. They also have shuttles to parking lots as far away as the other side of the City Prison.
My point was that an agenda laced post over ten$ of MM, doesn't deserve such tenor above the stuff which is Too Big To Believe.
It all deserves to be addressed because there are thousands of $25 million projects all over the country that add up to billions in mal-investment.
Why no comment on Mantua Square? Not big enough to bother with?
I've written dozens of articles about the Wall Street scumbags and the Military Industrial complex.
I rip Republicans and Democrats. Narrow minded ideologues are the ones who get their panties in a twist whenever I write an article that crosses their ideology.
None of this crap could happen without the Federal Reserve money printing and political corruption at all levels of government.
My agenda is to tell the truth. Yours seems to be to disregard the truth if it doesn't fit your agenda.
Enjoy those bigger traffic jams at the Girard Ave exit as cars attempt to get into that mammoth parking lot.
I have read quite a few of your posts re Dems /Reps, Rich/po' all walks, they are always thoughtful. I agreed more than not, but was more interested that there was robust thinking going on.
This piece was undeserving of that effort.
If the Phila zoo had built this parking garage with donated funds or operating profits, I wouldn't give a fuck. If Mantua Square had been built with private funds by someone trying to make a profit, I wouldn't give a fuck.
But you and many others think it is just fine to have the taxpayer foot the bill for spectacular parking garages and gated low income townhouse communities as if the money actually existed.
This attitude of relativity over decades is why we have a National debt of $16.5 trillion, unfunded liabilities of $222 trillion, and a State and City that are effectively insolvent.
Your comments are undeserving of my effort.
I didn't follow up on the Parking thing and I'm wiling to check. This initiative was in play during Rendell (I can't speak for what ugly shit Street's bunch might have warped it into). His and Cohn's rules were always that a partnership of private and public went into a project. The end game was that the private would get a viable asset at the end. The city and zoo gets a shared utility, which no private investor would have been willing to risk in the first place without the public boost.
You're going 0 or 1 on this. It's a 1/2. for the Zoo it was that or nothing. That was the intangible which makes it semi-sane. If only semi.
I'm willing to FYI on this, and send you a note at Platform. IIRC this was not supposed to fall into the City and Parking Aurthority's hands under any condition. Somebody should own it now.
Mantua was a bad idea but I'm not an Urban Developer.
This attitude of relativity over decades is why we have a National debt of $16.5 trillion, unfunded liabilities of $222 trillion, and a State and City that are effectively insolvent.
Well, eeverybody seemed damned sure it was a good idea to cut taxes and throw some wars, make capital cheap and write ninja loans, then re-sell them and make up for it by printing. I can't wait to see what religious uni-lateral precept is used to dig us in worse.
Right now we have the supply side loaded out the ass and still wondering if real Demand is ever going to show up.
I hope your wife's next husband actually has a dick.
How much in alimony are you paying to the first wife yet Jim?
I feel sorry for your kids. With a father as dimwitted as yourself, they don't have a chance in life.
But maybe they inherited the genes of the mailman, since you are clearly a dickless wonder that certainly couldn't satisfy a woman.
Your right they don't. Maybe I stop by when I am at Leonard Davis next time.
Are you going to stop by and smash my face Bizarro?
Tough guys really scare me.
Will you be wearing a hoodie?
No hoodie unless it is a hooded sweat shirt and that would only be on the weekends occasionally playing a pickup game at the gym at Penn.
You should park on the street at 34th and Mantua between an Escalade and a Mercedes and walk to the gym. That would be an excellent form of exercise.
I have parked on 34th before and walked down through Powleton Village. What you see are alot of mid-tier passenger cars that are usually on the older side and certainly not a ton of late model Escalades or high-end Mercedes.
You are right. There are not a ton of these high end cars. But, there are more Cadillacs, BMWs and Mercedes in the two square blocks around Mantua Square than there are in my upper middle class white suburban neighborhood. That is a huge disconnect when the median household income in that neighborhood is less than $20,000.
My vitriol is directed at Ally Financial (owned by the Treasury) and the other Wall Street banks that are doling out 7 year subprime auto loans to encourage people to buy cars they can't afford.
Maybach's are apparently the new car of choice in the hood around here.(Atlanta) Check out the "Blessed" tag on the front of the one that someone got shot up (and killed) in today:
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/person-shot-on-i-20/nXKL7/
It's not bad enough as they then build subway lines (more corrupt based gov't waste) out of the sewer center and export crime to suburbs.
Regardless of being correct about the denizens of West Philadelphia, your facts are racist. I mean, it's not as if a political machine like the DNC would shroud a plot to secure an unwaivering loyal and totally dependent voting bloc for decades by destroying the independent core economic unit (family), stepping in to be the primary subsistence provider (welfare), controlling any options to reduce dependence through generations of poor education and providing the "ideal" employment outlets (i.e., low-level government jobs or higher-paying academic positions used to further indoctrination), and stoking cultural fears of enslavement and violence to sharpen resistance to any policies that may allow them to break free from their dependent state. I mean, that's just ridiculous you racist bastard.
"It has allowed politicians to enslave black people on a welfare plantation of entitlements."
Actually, we have made some progress. Once in this country black people had to work hard all day to eat; now they don't have to work at all.
Obama-fuckin-omiks.
Well done, Jim.
There was a civil war in this country from 1965 to 1975. It was stoked by liberal politicians and the media. Non-state actors using violence were employed to forward a political agenda. The war has since wound down as the perpetrators of violence were largely bought off. Now the cash for bribes seem likely to disappear as American's economy declines. To distract America from the truth, expect the media to point a finger of blame and renew their calls for this particular brand of violence.
Drink the kool aid. Stay in denial. It increases your chances of being punished for being stupid. A good outcome.
I THINK YOUR JUST JEALOUS OF THEIR NICE CARS, YOU WISH YOU COULD HAVE WHAT THEY HAD GET ON THEY LEVEL HO!!!!! LOL IM JK IM DONATING 20 BUCKS EVERY MONTH CUZ IM A G
I got tired of having my techs replace bullet ridden servers at Pep Boys on Allegheny Avenue! Are they still there?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZPNK57NyPU
They prefer free meals provided by taxpayers, using force to extract wealth, and pushing drugs... Sounds to me like they are just mirroring their elitist masters. But, it's so much easier to pick on poor black people than the rich white people in positions of power... I get it. No, this article is not racist or biased at all...
I'm sure that the position of these people has nothing to do with the racist whites at the levers of power... nothing at all.
Hey everyone, This guy figured out the problems plaguing america!! It's poor black people... they dun fucked everything up... if they weren't the ones implementing all the policies of wasteful government spending, dollar debasement, massive debt, never ending wars, TBTF/J, police state implementation, and bubbles, all us white folks would be way better off!!
We all know Philly is a shitehole- too bad there is no scratch n sniff on the internets yet. The better entertainment value is in watching that Parking Wars show. You can see the high intellect of Americans there.
if you're white and you apply for a grant to open a small internet based sales company, it will be promptly denied
if you live in west philly, and you're a brutha, its ok to deal chemicals and buy expensive rims for your jag ?
wtf happened to America?
if you're white and you apply for a grant to open a small internet based sales company, it will be promptly denied
if you live in west philly, and you're a brutha, its ok to deal chemicals and buy expensive rims for your jag ?
wtf happened to America?
What JR said. The onbly way his, or my POV can be argued with is a blanket banning and
censorship of the facts on the basis of "racism", "hate", etc. Of course, it's always fine and
dandy, on any forum, to say anything at all about those of the Caucasian persuasion.Just
don't hold non-Whites, or, God forbid, Jews accountable for their actions, as a race.
But, withgout fail, the facts support one side of this argument, 100%.
Non-White racial groups, including Jews, act more or less in concert in an effort to gain more
territory, real property, jobs, privilege, anything and everything that once belonged to Whites.
Turnabout is fair play, I say. The rules on almost any forum are not against hate or racism, they enforce a
monopoly of the "right" of non-Whites to say racist things and hateful things, as long as they are directed
against Whites.
JR is the man. He can see, just as well as Jewbacca can.