I read a
story on the AP ( registration required ) about a bus stop that I'm paying for in Anchorage Alaska. I live on Long Island. I don't mind paying for a bus stop in Anchorage Alaska, lord knows we have our share of boondoggles and white elephants right here east of New York City, but this particular bus stop in Anchorage has been allocated one and a half million dollars. I could build a really nice mansion for one and a half million dollars.
That reminded me of something else being built in Alaska. A two hundred million dollar bridge that connects an island with an airport that gets six flights a day to Ketchikan, a city that has 14,500 people. The airport is currently served by a ferry that takes people directly from Ketchikan to the airport in about 5 minutes. The proposed bridge would allow people to drive over half an hour to get to the same place.
If you put it all in perspective though, the bridge is quite the bargain at just under the cost of 134 bus stops.