Minnesota: Anger Will Follow Our Sorrow

[northernsoul]

http://www.startribune.com/10204/story/1339911.html

The people in charge of this know what they are doing. They make sure that the bridges stay standing. And if there were a problem, they would tell us. Wouldn't they?

What if they didn't?

The death bridge was "structurally deficient," we now learn, and had a rating of just 50 percent, the threshold for replacement. But no one appears to have erred on the side of public safety. The errors were all the other way.

Would you drive your kids or let your spouse drive over a bridge that had a sign saying, "CAUTION: Fifty-Percent Bridge Ahead"?

No, you wouldn't. But there wasn't any warning on the Half Chance Bridge. There was nothing that told you that you might be sitting in your over-heated car, bumper to bumper, on a hot summer day, thinking of dinner with your wife or of going to see the Twins game or taking your kids for a walk to Dairy Queen later when, in a rumble and a roar, the world you knew would pancake into the river.

There isn't any bigger metaphor for a society in trouble then a bridge falling, its concrete lanes pointing brokenly at the sky, its crumpled cars pointing down at the deep waters where people disappeared.

Only this isn't a metaphor.

[_testify_]

1. First thing I said to my gf this morning

They should have to put a sign on each end of the bridge:

"Warning! This bridge was rated structurally deficient by the DOT. Proceed at your own risk!"

Doesn't that seem like the LEAST they could do?

[Renew Deal]

3. And from what I read, we need 70,000 of those signs.

[northernsoul]

4. I wonder if this is how it felt to live in Rome

right before the Visigoths decided to roll into town.

[Buzz Clik]

7. Actually the number is well past 100,000 in the U.S.

Approximately 25% of all bridges in this country need serious attention. Not impossible or even difficult repairs. But they will cost money, and we'll be asked to pay for them.

Is everyone on board for a big spike in taxes, or shall we take our chances?

[hatrack]

17. RAISE TAXES?!?!?!? Why do you hate 'Murca??????

:toast:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. If a bridge is structurally unsound...

You shut it down. Immediately. You call the police. You detour traffic around. You keep doing that for months, years if you have to.

That's the least they should have done.

Somebody's got blood on their hands.

[Renew Deal]

9. We all knew

This is one of those things that we all knew was going to happen. It was a matter of time. We've had one structural disaster after another. Katrina (levies), Blackout, Steam Pipe, Bridge Collapse, and much more that I am forgetting.

This government isn't paying any attention to what it takes to run this country (here in the "homeland"). Infrastructure is a mess. The borders are still unprotected. Health-care is a catastrophe. And so much more.

[babylonsister]

16. Yep. And I don't think it's a question of the gov't not paying attention; they just

think they have better uses for any funds that are around, and that would be illegal occupations.

[_testify_]

12. Oh, I agree

No one should have been on this bridge yesterday, that's clear. I just felt like, 'damn, if you're not going to fix it, at least tell us it's dangerous!' when I heard about it.

The interesting thing is that this bridge has a potentially flawed design - no pilings! It was one giant steel arch stretching from one side to the other, suspending the causeway beneath it. I'm no engineer but I'm surprised it lasted 30 years. The architect(s) chose the design because they felt like pilings would interfere with shipping traffic on the river. Essentially and unsurprisingly they chose to protect commerce and not citizens.

[Cha]

24. Is this going to be a on the governor

of Minnesota's head?

[Renew Deal]

2. So true

"There isn't any bigger metaphor for a society in trouble then a bridge falling, its concrete lanes pointing brokenly at the sky, its crumpled cars pointing down at the deep waters where people disappeared."

[slackmaster]

5. Kind of like a restaurant with a B rating from the Health Department?

:argh:

Maybe there should be signs that say "Drive at your own risk"?

[acmavm]

6. More

<snip>

Both political parties have tried to govern on the cheap, and both have dithered and dallied and spent public wealth on stadiums while scrimping on the basics.

How ironic is it that tonight's scheduled groundbreaking for a new Twins ballpark has been postponed? Even the stadium barkers realize it is in poor taste to celebrate the spending of half a billion on ballparks when your bridges are falling down. Perhaps this is a sign of shame. If so, it is welcome. Shame is overdue.

At the federal level, the parsimony is worse, and so is the negligence. A trillion spent in Iraq, while schools crumble, there aren't enough cops on the street and bridges decay while our leaders cross their fingers and ignore the rising chances of disaster.

And now, one has fallen, to our great sorrow, and people died losing a gamble they didn't even know they had taken. They believed someone was guarding the bridge.

[Ian David]

10. Why do people from Minnesota hate The Minnesota Twins?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2938786&mesg_id=2938837

[enki23]

11. er... we don't.

.

[dflprincess]

13. I love the Twins

I hate having my tax money go to building a new stadium - especially the half assed way it's being done. No retractable roof and on a space that's too small for a really good stadium - they'll be crying for another stadium after the first 30 degree night game.

Besides, the family that owns the Twins - and wouldn't cough up all the money for this have managed to spend millions of late buying other companies.

[Ian David]

15. Hey,if you REALLY loved The Twins, you wouldn't complain about dying in a fiery wreck.

I mean, really...

Is it really too much to ask?

Where's your Team Spirit?

[dflprincess]

18. You are going to explain to my boss why I need a new keyboard!

:rofl:

[northernsoul]

26. yeah, what she said

I love the team, hate their miserly ownership.

[ClayZ]

14. Build Bridges, not Bombs!

K and R

[DU9598]

19. South of downtown Des Moines

As I traveled south from downtown Des Moines to the airport to pick up a family member I traveled over a large bridge and on it there is a giant Ron Paul billboard that with his smiling face says, "I will abolish the IRS".

While the idea of abolishing the IRS sounds absurd, it is even more absurd when one thinks how the infrastructure of our country would crumble if all we had was a consumption tax - where the poor would obviously pay the same as the rich for necessities. Think our bridges are unsafe, just imagine if these no tax freaks get their way.

[mzmolly]

20. "This death and destruction was the result of incompetence or indifference."

Still physically ill about the whole thing.

More:

For half a dozen years, the motto of state government and particularly that of Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been No New Taxes. It's been popular with a lot of voters and it has mostly prevailed. So much so that Pawlenty vetoed a 5-cent gas tax increase - the first in 20 years - last spring and millions were lost that might have gone to road repair. And yes, it would have fallen even if the gas tax had gone through, because we are years behind a dangerous curve when it comes to the replacement of infrastructure that everyone but wingnuts in coonskin caps agree is one of the basic duties of government.

[myrna minx]

21. Oh molly,

I just can't wrap my head around it. :-(

http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_214123713.html

Family, Friends Search For Loved Ones
(AP) A handful of people are gathered at a Minneapolis hotel this morning as they search for missing family members after last night's bridge collapse.

[mzmolly]

22. I can't either myrna. Watching testimony from people on the news .. they are so characteristic of

Minneapolis. It feels so surreal. I can't believe that I'm just 20 minutes from people pinned under the wreckage.

I ache for the families of those missing as well as those who have suffered in other ways. And to think no one was aware that there was any "concern" about the bridge. And, to think that we were spending money and time on cosmetics instead of the structure. Amazing.

[tomreedtoon]

23. Then deinal, bargaining and acceptance.

DENIAL: "This bridge was really the fault of terrorists. President Bush is right. Let's keep fighting in Iraq."

BARGAINING: "Tell you what. We won't rebuild the bridge but you'll get a new Air Force base built in the city which will give you...oh, fifty jobs for a few months."

ACCEPTANCE: "Remember that bridge? Yeah, you can still see pieces of it there. They never rebuilt it. We're just filling up the bypass roads every day. But look on the bright side. Bush is still President in 2010."

If the Democrats can't pin the war indelibly on Bush, what makes you think this bridge will smear Smirk?

[mzmolly]

25. It's more of a local issue.

The Governor has been criticized for his "infrastructure" program for a while now.

[Tatiana]

27. My G-d.

There isn't any bigger metaphor for a society in trouble then a bridge falling, its concrete lanes pointing brokenly at the sky, its crumpled cars pointing down at the deep waters where people disappeared.

I only have tears... This is so damn awful. And so true.