Governor picks simpler Bay Bridge plan Stylish design to be abandoned in favor of skyway...

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 12/10/4 | Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross

[Carry_Okie]

How.

I explained that in Post 18. There are more people who derive economic from the Golden Gate Bridge or Golden Gate Park than those who immediately use it.

[WildTurkey]

You can get a "pretty" bridge for $2 million. No way is your bridge going to generate the other $20 million. You are just trying to justify a government boondoggle.

[WildTurkey]

I explained that in Post 18. There are more people who derive economic from the Golden Gate Bridge or Golden Gate Park than those who immediately use it.

I have no problem with your having a bridge. I have a problem with you trying to justify a pork project gone wild.

[WildTurkey]

Tourism does produce real jobs, even for those who never walk across.

Tell that to the workers at Turtle Bay Park that are being layed off.

[Carry_Okie]

I have no problem with your having a bridge. I have a problem with you trying to justify a pork project gone wild.

Pork is in the eye of the beneficiary (it's not my bridge; I live over 300 miles from Redding). All I am telling you is that there are more beneficiaries than the number who use the bridge. The benefits are hard to quantify but I would bet that the local hotel industry and recreation operators have benefitted from the bridge helping dispel the notion that Redding is a hot, dusty, dump overrun with farm workers and therefore not worth visiting.

[Carry_Okie]

Tell that to the workers at Turtle Bay Park that are being layed off.

Ok.

Despite the latest layoff, Turtle Bay's managers express confidence as they prepare to open Sundial Bridge and the McConnell Arboretum this summer. Of course, that's their job. It's intriguing that a slightly more objective source is endorsing the Turtle Bay vision.

Kevin Hafenstein, a Redding native who sings tenor for the Los Angeles Opera, hopes to sink $7 million to $10 million into developing an upscale hotel on the site of the Casa Blanca Motel. A onetime luxury landmark that put the miracle in Miracle Mile, the property today is a ramshackle shell on the edge of the arboretum. But with the park finally taking shape next door, Hafenstein sees a glimmering future hiding behind the Casa Blanca's crumbling walls.

As I said, the benefits are hard to quantify, but they are real and not uniformly distributed whether you believe it or not. It is not unusual with such projects that they develop slowly. Similar things were said about Golden Gate Park.

[WildTurkey]

The benefits are hard to quantify but I would bet that the local hotel industry and recreation operators have benefitted from the bridge helping dispel the notion that Redding is a hot, dusty, dump overrun with farm workers and therefore not worth visiting.

That $20+ million could have been used to double the size and facilities at the park! That would have brought more people to Redding. I seriously doubt that more than a dozen people a year will come to Redding because they have that "pretty" bridge. Most people will never see it because you have to pay admission to even see it!

[Carry_Okie]

That $20+ million could have been used to double the size and facilities at the park!

A perfectly legitimate point.

That would have brought more people to Redding.

That I doubt.

I seriously doubt that more than a dozen people a year will come to Redding because they have that "pretty" bridge.

OK, doubt away. There are people putting up serious money betting that they will.

[WildTurkey]

You doubt that doubling the size of the park would have brought more people to Redding?

[WildTurkey]

Kevin Hafenstein, a Redding native who sings tenor for the Los Angeles Opera, hopes to sink $7 million to $10 million into developing an upscale hotel on the site of the Casa Blanca Motel.

Wow! With the wasted $20 million, the park could have built two or three hotels and then had the profits to make the park free of government subsidies.

[WildTurkey]

OK, doubt away. There are people putting up serious money betting that they will.

I wonder how much of that money came from the over-run costs of the bridge?

[Carry_Okie]

I wonder how much of that money came from the over-run costs of the bridge?

Not a dime, and they plan to invest nearly one third the cost of the entire park in local construction jobs.

[Carry_Okie]

With the wasted $20 million, the park could have built two or three hotels and then had the profits to make the park free of government subsidies.

You are getting desperate. Had the park built hotels you would be bitching about the lack of customers. It's just one project and it's putting nearly a third of the cost of the park back into the community. There will be more.

[Carry_Okie]

You doubt that doubling the size of the park would have brought more people to Redding?

I do. I drive past Redding every year or two. I would never stop there to see another park. In fact, when I first saw this thing in a CSAA magazine, I planned to stop on my next trip to see it. I don't doubt that there will be more.

[WildTurkey]

The bridge that cause the layoff of half of the employees at the park.

Looks really out of place in the nice wooded setting.

[WildTurkey]

Sundial Bridge doubles as wild amusement ride!

[WildTurkey]

Wild Rides!

Sundial (left) Tacoma Narrows* (right)

* Before collapse

[WildTurkey]

Tacoma Narrows - in motion

[the_devils_advocate_666]

Not that anyone asked for it, but in my opinion that Sundial Bridge is ugly.

What's so wrong with traditional bridges like the one in Brooklyn?

[WildTurkey]

Not that anyone asked for it, but in my opinion that Sundial Bridge is ugly.

The nice thing about an open forum is nobody has to ask you before you give your opinion nor do you have to request permission. The Sundial Bridge is an out-of-place, $23 million dollar piece of pork FOOT BRIDGE project gone out of control labeled as a piece of art paid for by over $8 million in state funds and over $1.3 million in federal funds.