The stimulus package is a joke, but nobody will laugh when we realize the true costs associated with. Sure, it will solve some short-term problems… AT THE EXPENSE OF THE TAXPAYERS. Mayor Meeker seems to be very “stimulated” with this package, but I can’t blame him when every local and state government is trying to take a slice of the pie. I wonder though: What will our city give in return? There are strings attached for the state governments, and I am sure the city governments are not the exception.

Let me state that I do agree with your evaluation in the second paragraph. Our priorities have changed dramatically and we are sinking lower and lower into the abyss. We, the people, have given up the very liberties that made us a great nation, placing our hopes and future at the hands of incompetent politicians and opportunists, who want to be part of history at the expense of others. Oh, well… We got what we deserve

I like how they’re going to work on Wade Avenue, finally:

Wade Avenue Improvements
Background:
Add curb and gutter, sidewalks and streetlights to Wade Avenue between Ridge Road and Faircloth Street.
Current Funding: $111,000
Cost: Estimated Additional Funding Needed: $864,000

So what would YOUR recommendations be? I agree, this stimulus package isn’t perfect, but I’m sick to death of people taking potshots without offering constructive ideas of their own.

I wouldn’t even know where to begin, but it is a good start to list them while also reaching out to the citizens to generate ideas and get feedback.

What will turn around our system of free enterprise will be a reconstituted and reorganized banking and financial system–unfortunately, that’s where Obama’s people seem to be dragging their feet. The stimulus money is intended to shorten and soften the recession by putting idled capacity to productive use. For the projects mentioned, the engineering firms that will draw the plans and the contractors that will due the installation have been shedding employees and have idle capacity. These proposals will create meaningful public improvements and seem reasonable to me.

I concur that the stimulus package is not perfect. But let’s look at what the previous administration did by way of stimulus – send checks out so folks could shop last spring. At least we will have something to show for it.

It is very easy to criticize, but at least the package includes things that people in the last election voted for -healthcare initiatives, green technology.

For too long we have been duped in this country by one party demonizing government, but then asking for the right to govern. And look what they did with that right in the last 8 years.

I am not a fan of big government, but I think there is a role for it. Building bridges and roads is fundamental to our long term economic success. Not to mention the fact that we finally have an administration that has woken up to the fact that other developed countries now have trains that make our trains look like the joke they are.

Although not perfect, and as a severe capitalist, something better happen. Where I work, the bottom is getting ready to drop. And it ain’t going to be pretty for anyone.

I see very high level professionals saying they have have never seen this in their long and careers. This is not today, but the future. The writing is on the wall.

Any if you think you business is slowing down now, get ready.

Yea, the gutters on Wade ave may not save the US economy, but tell that to the laborer, the designer, the concrete truck driver, the Arbys around the corner where they eat lunch, the Kroger their families shop at and on and on and on.

I will take 6% waste or misguided expense to get the other stuff done.

Projects like these are not seeds for future growth. They only keep people occupied in the very, very short run. They are exactly the metaphor of feeding a man for a day instead of teaching him to fish.