I woke up this morning and all that love had gone.

Calgary received a whole lot of new black top this year, but the guys working on the roads weren't the fella's purchasing the homes I am working on. Frankly, in regards to stimulus money, the government might as well have wiped their noses with my hard earned tax dollars.

What’s the issue with the pictures?

They show me that Zimbabwe has come a long way in recent years!

I’ll put America to work!

I have a driveway and a walk path that could use a couple of American Mexican illegal immigrants!

Pays $200.00 peso’s for the job and I allow for lunch breaks (fine print - on days that begin with T).

Send em up big O – we is interested in stimulating our economy too. Got a few out of work builders in Canada at the moment that may sell you some tools on the cheap to boot (sounds like boat)!

Love them damned jobs Americans won’t do now……………., no?

Stimulus money goes into to such wonderful projects like painting lines on the road to make bicycle lanes.

The link gives a great example of administrative waste in California.Who made the decision to fix the sidewalk that wasn't broken? Beaurocracy feeds itself first.
Here at home I have seen many road projects getting done in our area that have been long passed due.The problem of 'in between' money being wasted continues with the provincial ministries getting in the way.

Made me sick, driving down the highway every single overpass was being painted with a sign nearby about government saving us.

Thanks a lot. I feel better now.

Hell, in my community there was a major road with one paved sidewalk adjacent to the road, and then one concrete sidewalk a feet further on each side.

As a result of stimulus, paved sidewalks were removed and re-done. Nothing changed, just some cash was buried in dirt.

My mind is boiling, how stealing a few $K from the taxpayers to pay the bureaucrats and road construction crews is stimulating economy? Should there be forensic audit of the municipalities use of stimulus money to prevent abuses like that? I would think so.

San Francisco is such a beautiful and well maintained city you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere that needs repair or upgrade.

Approximately 30% of my business’s revenue is government based. I see this type of waste on a daily basis. The real problem is that neither politicians nor civil servants are qualified to make evaluations of construction projects. The entire process is set up for failure and waste.

If you truly want to see your money spent wisely don’t vote based on ideology but check the resume of the candidate for construction experience. Rightards are to be blamed just as much as moonbats!

Well... I hesitated to mention it in my first comment but now I'm stirred up enough to say it:
Our 17 year old son is getting up at 5 every morning to work at one of those infrastructure jobs until he gets his apprenticeship in place.Lousy job, nice check for now.
If the leftards were running the show he would have been encouraged to move out and collect welfare.

Captain.....Here's a GREAT way to stimulate the economy......http://www.thesockobama.com/

Only problem? Baseball bat not included.

Yeah well just down the road an intersection is totally closed due to the construction of a "roundabout".
This intersection is the junction of a county road and what used to be a provincial highway before being down-loaded to the county.
The majority (75%) of the traffic flows down the former highway....
That intersection has not had any great number of crashes and no fatalities in my memory.
It appears to be an over-elaborate, expensive speed-bump.

let's play fair here shall we ?

there are three inspection plates in the replacement concrete work that weren't there before the makeover....these could be for gas water or electrical installations that might need attention without tearing up the sidewalk....

until further info i'm willing to suspend judgement...

Indirectly related to this is this story from Michigan. Barack Obama is following exactly the same path and yet ... and yet ... the Leftists sheeple keep thinking that Hope & Change is just around the corner!!!

From the picture, they installed wheelchair ramps with traction pads.

A variation on 'Fer the Chilluns', 'Fer the Gimps'

Befer ya get uppity, both my wife and I ARE gimps.

The important thing in the picture, look at the name on the no-go blocks-

http://synergy2001.com/

Those people are doomed.

Good call John!

There's also considerable seismic activity in the area. Until you read the report you don't know what's lurking below the concrete. I also noticed the checker plate safety treads where the sidewalk turns into the roadway. With all the steep hills maybe a health and safety issue was part of the reason.

Maybe the Major could provide us with the documentation and reports leading up to this apparent waste of tax $$$$

not stirred enough said:

'San Francisco is such a beautiful and well maintained city you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere that needs repair or upgrade.'

Ya right. Perhaps you should take a stroll thru the Tenderloin district. Even better, try a stroll at night and see how it goes. San Fran is rapidly becoming a giant dump of a city. Too much tax, too little money being spent on 'life-style' projects instead of real infrastructure improvements.

My bad 'too much money'

Health and safety? Sure, a rubber mat with bumps on it is a real wheelchair stopper. LOL

SF is the largest repository of left-wing nut cases in America. You honestly believe they could spend a dime conservatively.

the yanks i work with refer to cawlifornia as the 'land of fruits and nuts"

San Fran, the toilet populated with the mentally challenged, they will be happy just for the attention they recieved. They will have no concept of the waste perpetuated by this "stimulus" spending

right fist,

I just got back from San Francisco and I have to agree with you to some extent. However, a cable car operator talked loudly about his family's fondness of the Republican Party.

There also were left wing organization people all over trying to get their message out but nobody paid attention to them.

Just like the concrete sidewalk; what you see is only the surface. You have to go past the window dressing to evaluate the substance.

Some corrections are needed about were the money went. First you would need to pay surveyors to re survey the previous surveys. Then engineering plans would need to be drawn up. There would have to be environmental, cultural impact statements filed, notices in papers, bidding administration/contract writing/review of applicants and such.

I'd say way less than half of the money went to the executing contract firm and it's workers.

Progress Through The Paperocracy!

My kingdom for a fix-it crew to do their jobs on time and under budget.

wait until the $60 billion expansion of government workers and ditch digging is finished here.

At least ad-scam was limited to 7 digits, instead of 9.

That we know of.

Guessing at some point the curbs were taken out and the wheelchair ramps were put in. Then, maybe, some people fell because when the concrete ramp was wet it had a bit of a slippery finish. So the cuts were made in the concrete to try to create some traction for wet conditions. Then the whole deal was ripped out and the steel traction plates were installed.

OK any fool can see that those pictures are not of the same street corner, so whatever else these pictures are meant to show is lost. And more to the point ... on stimulus, lets stick with what's happening in Canada, or at least the "buy American" provision, and how they affect us ... last time I checked Kate still lived in Saskatchewan. That IS still in Canada ...

Shelia, any fool who read the background article would know these were ALL photos of different intersections. Sorry, but I didn't have a time-lapse camera trained on this corner.

I'd be happy, though, to take a photo of the intersection where work has not yet begun after it's completed - just for you.

@John Begley and Not Stirred Enough

Let's play fair. I provided photos of different intersections on the same day, all of which were at different stages of completion. I didn't set out to tarnish the president's image. I was just taking a walk in my neighborhood.

As a citizen, I don't have a burden to prove my government is wasting money. My government has a duty to prove it is spending it wisely. In particular, this president pushed this spending under the strenuous claim there would be no waste, every project would be necessary, and VP Joe Biden would personally ensure it.

I ask again: where is the project proposal, details, budget, and scope of work on Recovery.gov? Be a good chap and attempt a search for it, will you? Remember, this was supposed to be the most transparent administration in history.

As for the inspection plates, they don't seem to be a new addition. There was nothing but superficial digging at all the corners. It appears concrete was poured around existing inspection plates. The absence of inspection plates on one corner does not mean they were added to the other. Again, where is the scope of work and detailed budget?

Seismic retrofit for a street corner? You're kidding, right? The building next to it is more likely to slide off its foundation on top of you.

Installing traction plates requires a complete corner reconstruction? I don't buy that at all.

Concrete wins first prize for the closest answer.

After reading the helpful comments of supporters and critics alike, I visited the work sites again. After comparing the completed corners to the uncompleted corners, the mystery is solved!

The SOLE PURPOSE of this "rehabilitation" was to add the yellow strips to the ramps. Concrete referred to them as "traction" strips, ostensibly to assist wheelchair-bound citizens. A commenter on my blog referred to them as "tactile" strips to assist the blind.

It's possible the contractor also adjusted the grade of the ramps to make them easier to climb as well as improve traction and feel. The yellow strips were not metal, but some type of flexible composite material.

According to the American Federation for the Blind, 1.3 million Americans were legally blind as of 1994. According to another site, 1.8 million Americans use a wheelchair. So these six blocks of Geary Boulevard were "rehabilitated" for the benefit of about 1% of citizens.

Let me add that the unfinished corners exhibit that the ramps already exist and are significantly newer than the surrounding sidewalk; they are less than 10 years old by my novice estimation.

Clearly there are some benefits to this project. Almost all projects confer benefits. That is beside the point. In project evaluation, a decision maker must determine whether it is cost-effective to pursue a project.

The remaining questions are:

1. Do the marginal benefits of this project exceed the marginal cost?

2. How much (or little) additional labor was employed as a result of this "stimulus"? Was it stimulus or spending?

I took about a dozen more photos. If I can find any more information on Recovery.gov about the project, I'll update my findings.

Thanks for your interest. Additional comments are invited.