Nashville has allocated $60 million for sidewalks. Only 3.5 miles of new sidewalks!!

Writing in The Tennessean today, reporter Mike Reicher reports the city allocated $30 million a year for each of the last two years for sidewalks and the city build only 3.5 miles of new sidewalks. You can read the story here.

"At that clip," says the writer, "it would take more than a millennium to line all of Nashville’s streets." The amount of new sidewalks built in the last two years it only slightly more than build in previous years at a lot less money. The article gives the city's officials and apologist an opportunity to explain the failure to build sidewalks but there is no good way to sugarcoat such a disastrous failure.

I knew we were spending a lot on sidewalks and I knew we weren't getting much for it but I had no idea we were doing such a poor job building new sidewalks.  I have seen perfectly serviceable sidewalks with only hairline cracks, sidewalks I walk on, on a regular basis, get ripped out and replaced.  I knew something was wrong, but I had no idea it was this bad.  

It seems impossible to waste that much money.  It seems like to waste that much money one would have to do it on purpose. This should be criminal. Mayor Barry should be impeached.  There should be a through investigation. If money was misappropriated someone should go to jail. The council should hold hearings and the public should be outraged.

Thanks to the Tennessean for exposing this waste. Now, what if anything will be done about it?

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