$595,000 spent in Michigan on……..roadside sculptures

Stuff like this right here, is why the rest of America happens to think that the Detroit, Michigan area is being ran by complete idiots.  Please note: For you “out-of-town” folks; this is not happening in Detroit proper; but rather in the suburbs of Detroit.  Still this points to the obvious fact that these people simply do not understand, that we here in Michigan, as well as the rest of the Country — are in a fiscal mess. Furthermore, it points to the recklessness of Federal spending by the Obama Administration.

The story with photos via The Detroit Free Press:

At a cost of $150,000 each, two more pillars of artwork are being constructed along Woodward as a means of threading a link between the communities along the avenue and their histories.

Urban planners call the sculptures tributes. One is going up this week in Royal Oak and another in Highland Park, joining the two in Ferndale and Pontiac.

The tiny nonprofit group behind these sculptures recently received another federal grant for $595,000, allowing it to plan for even more tributes — at least three more — along Woodward in Detroit and its suburbs, although no decision has been made on locations.

According to Woodward Avenue Action Association’s Executive Director Heather Carmona, the mural-covered pillars, which illuminate at night, will boost economic development and more than pay for themselves.

What happens when someone suggests that these things might just actually be a waste of money?  Quote:

“I don’t think this is a waste of tax dollars,” Highland Park Mayor DeAndre Windom said. “Things like this are necessary to spark the revitalization of a city such as Highland Park. We have job retraining here, people being placed in jobs, other ways we’re using tax dollars for revitalization. But this is different. This will be up forever in Highland Park.”

BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAW!!!!!! *wipes eyes* An overgrown lighted totem pole is what is needed to revitalize a city. Yes, you just read that correctly. Never mind police, never mind fire, never mind city services, never mind maybe actually paving the roads; never mind actually requiring owners to fix up and keep up their property. Yes, what we need to “revitalize” (Whatever that means!) the city is a bunch of overgrown lighted totem poles.

Here is another million dollar question: Who is going to pay for the upkeep of the totem poles? Who is going to change the lights in those things, when they finally do burn out? Who is going to replace the glass in the things, when some kids come by with baseball bats and bust it up? Who is on the chain to pay for the electric bill for lighting that totem pole? You have two guesses and the first one does not count! You guessed it; the residents of those cities, in the form of higher taxes.  It is, in effect, a double robbery of the American people; first it is a waste of your federal dollars going to build a lighted totem pole, then it is the robbery of the citizens of the cities, where these hideous things will be located —- for upkeep.

In closing: This is what happens, when you elect Democrats to run a Country, a State and a City. Because quite frankly, they really do not give a damn where your hard earned tax dollars are spent or how they are spent at all. Furthermore, this is why the State of Michigan, and the city of Detroit and the surrounding suburbs are on the decline; because of complete and utter idiocy like this right here.