> Erika wrote: > Great point. I assume it's the largest piece of land around convenient and > flat enough to build?
It's really a question of investment vs. pork. For example, the tax payers of Atlanta might want to pay for a second airport because the first is overbooked and a second would bring in major revenues due to an ability to attract a whole new decade of business developement in, say, a northern suburb. If the facts support the proposal, such as, say, Audi and Honda are proposing major assembly plants north of Atlanta, then the federal gov't might want to kick in too. The question is all about "adding value". For example, Atlanta could create 1000 jobs to hand dig up a pile of dirt from the south side and move it to the north side. Let's say that costs tax payers $5 million and the project lasts 2 years. What value has that $5M investment created? None. Just a pile of dirt and a big hole. If, on the other hand, that $5 is used to build an airport to attract, say, an Audi assembly plant, now you've created value because your investment has sparked a whole new round of wealth creation. Putting it all together, if the bridge-to-nowhere created value by enabling business development that otherwise wouldn't have happened - i.e., it has a positive ROI - then it's a great idea. If, on the other hand, it's just shortening the commute that people would've made anyway then it's not adding anything and actually eliminating long-term ferry jobs. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:268748 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
