Not.
I love these told-ya-so moments. Actually, I don’t. I just wish our elected leaders weren’t so easily intimidated by engineers who demand giant highways. I wish instead that they would listen to their constituents who have researched this stuff so that we can move forward to a better, less paved, place.
It’ll be interesting to see if our new crop of alders are alert to the wastefulness of creating places that suck through highway expansion. Brenda has an interesting take on it (make sure to read down through the comments as well).
The big question is, will the tough-guy engineers be able to stare down & intimidate the elected officials into compliance as they traditionally have. Judging from our last neighborhood council meeting, that ugly history will likely repeat itself. I asked my alder, Marsha Rummel point blank what questions she asked when the capital paving budget was presented to the city council a couple of weeks ago. Her reply: “We weren’t allowed to ask questions. It was an informational presentation.” We know who is boss, when city councillors are intimidated from asking questions — at a city council meeting — about the biggest item in the city budget.