Stimulus Boondoggle in Dayton

I've written a lot about the wasteful construction projects in Dayton, so the least I could do is document them. Today, Sat. August 29, I took pictures of the major construction projects going on within a two mile radius of my house.

First is the Dayton View Bridge. I call this Dayton's bridge to nowhere. They tore down the old, one-way bridge from downtown about a year and half ago, and the new bridge still isn't finished. Neither the nice Main St. bridge upstream nor the nice Salem St. bridge downstream ever have traffic backed up, even during this construction. I'm sure the bridge will save a handful of commuters a couple of minutes of driving time each day, but that's not worth building a new bridge for. Note that nobody is working on the bridge and the heavy equipment, much of it not pictured, is idle.



Next is the Riverview Bridge. I'm no bridge expert, but I drove over the old bridge numerous times and walked under it even more, and I saw no problems with it. It was much newer than the Dayton View Bridge, which was still in operation when they tore it down. The area around the Riverview Bridge was ugly, and they're making it better looking, but that's no reason to destroy a working bridge. Note that nobody is working on the bridge and the heavy equipment, much of it not pictured, is idle.



This sign shows you when construction started and when it's projected to be completed.



Next is construction on the corner of 2nd and Wilkinson. Note that nobody is working on the project and the heavy equipment is idle.



Because of new buildings that went up at Monument and Main and across the street at 1st and Main, that one block of Main St. has been blocked by construction off and on for a year and a half too. But as soon as those buildings were done, the city starting tearing up five blocks of Main St. from Monument to 5th St. Main St. is the main drag in Dayton, and it's been under construction now for four months or so, and completely blocked to traffic for about two months.

This picture shows Main St. looking from 2nd toward Monument. Note that nobody is working on the project and the heavy equipment is idle.



This is Main St. looking from 2nd toward 5th. Note that nobody is working.



This is the view of 1st and Main from 1st showing how much trouble the construction causes motorists.



Here's the new bus terminal that runs from Main to Jefferson in the alley between 3rd and 4th. If somebody had asked me to invest in this project, I would have done so voluntarily.



There's tons of little construction projects on downtown corners. This is one of the bigger ones that had no equipment by it on the corner of 2nd and Patterson.



Here's a few other small projects with idle equipment.







Here's the Riverscape Park construction project with no workers and eight idle pieces of heavy equipment.



Like the Dayton View Bridge, the I-75 construction began before Obama's stimulus boondoggle was passed. Here's the I-75 Bridge construction with no workers and idle equipment.



The I-75 Bridge over N. Main St. No workers.



The I-75 Sound Wall next to McKinley Park. No workers.


I'm sure proponents of stimulus boondoggles would claim I cheated by taking these photos on a Saturday. Nobody works on Saturday. Leaving aside the fact that I was working on Saturday (I have an anti-government agenda, so I don't count), other people do work on Saturday. Here's a couple pictures of construction workers working at two downtown banks on Ludlow between Monument and 1st.





Here's a picture of some bricklayers fixing a private brick walkway along the river by Main St.



Note that none of these government construction projects have lights for night work either. I see some of these projects every day and most of them several times a week during the day and evening. In general, nobody works on them. Occasionally I'll see one or two guys doing some work on one or two of them. All the heavy equipment sits idle most days and most hours on the days it does get used.

It seems to me this is an example of government stimulus preventing the efficient reallocation of capital and labor (though maybe not much labor) to profitable business ventures that keeps us mired in recession. Not only that, government stimulus was intended to provide full employment, but despite all these projects, Dayton's unemployment rate is steady at 13.7 percent. Montgomery County's unemployment rate is slightly up at 12.5 percent. This illustrates to me that arbitrary government make-work projects can't create full employment because locales don't have the right mix of idle workers with the proper skills for the projects. And if for the sake of argument we accept that every one of the projects is worth the money being spent on them, because they're being planned and run by the government, they're inefficient and wasteful of resources anyway. I imagine that Dayton would look very similar if it had been the target of an air raid that targeted downtown bridges and streets. The city keeps tearing up more stuff without finishing anything it starts. It's more likely this is another example of the broken window fallacy.