Easy Money For Roads, But Hard Row For Trains

Legislative Republicans are balking at building a job-producing maintenance facility in Milwaukee for the successful Hiawatha Amtrak line to Chicago - - and the relatively small sum required had been included in the $810 million for the Amtrak extension that Walker forfeited a year ago - - but here's the big picture line in Larry Sandler's excellent summation of the GOP's off-the-rails, road builder-obeisant priorities:

Spending on trains is dwarfed by road expenditures. In the fiscal year ended June 30, the state spent less than $50 million on passenger and freight rail programs, compared with more than $2 billion - more than 40 times as much - on building and maintaining state highways and local roads.

 And local rail is a target for the Right, too.

But a highway boondoggle nearing completion in Western Waukesha County - - the Interchange to Nowhere - - gets a pass. Where's Walker's Task Force on Waste when you need it?

I like the bike path (r). But that sign? Better slow down to interpret that.

Lovely pillars

Roundabouts - - four in all - - all about. The brickwork and landscaping are lovely.

Where's the holiday shopping traffic last Saturday afternoon? Oh, I forgot. The mall never got built.

Houses on Pabst Farms' former farmland