G.R. COMMISSIONER WANTS CITIZEN WORK GANGS TO REPAIR POTHOLES

Yesterday the Grand Rapids City Politburo -- I mean, Commission -- met and discussed the potholes that are reducing our streets to rubble and our cars to wrecks.  There was the usual griping that city apparatchiks haven't confiscated enough of the bourgeoise's wealth to pay for capitalistic excesses like pothole repairs.  So, Second Ward Commissar David LaGrand proposed a corvee!  Yes, a corvee, labor exacted in lieu of taxes to build or repair highways.

I kid you not, folks.  WOOD TV-8 News reported that LaGrand recommended giving local residents a shovel and a bucket of tar to repair our potholed streets.  Nothing like a bit of old school workers' paradise to fix a problem that the government is too incompetent to remedy.  Heck, if the Soviets managed to bring in the harvest by hustling people out of their offices and factories into the countryside to do what the state collectives couldn't get done, why not give it a try in River City?

No doubt LaGrand would object that he was calling for volunteers.  Well, I'll go along with that so long as payment of city taxes is also voluntary.

Comments

[Nick]

Thank goodness that guy lost his bid for the State Senate last year. Think he can do damage on the City Commission? Imagine if he had the whole State to play with.

--Nick
www.RightMichigan.com

[Jack]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this. Unfortunately, when I look at the bills they introduce and pass in the Senate right now it gives me little comfort that this guy did not win. (At least Hardiman is doing some good work on foster care privatization, but he's still supporting all the destructive economic central planning, water withdrawal regulation and alternative energy nonsense that his Senate Republican colleagues keep urping up.)

I'll wager it won't be long before a bill is introduced in the legislature . . .

[Leonard Wood Grotenrath Jr.]

La Grand needs to read - or have read to him - Hilaire Belloc's "The Servile State". Corruptio optimi pessima!

[Paul Lee]

The idea may be strange but let's put a twist to it.
Commissioners FIRST, since they are the 'leaders' of the River City they could give expert instruction to the procedure of pot hole repair. Mayor Hartwell could use his city supplied SUV to tow the tar wagon around.
If this happens I will wear my Sunday best and come out and help, I assume my Sunday best are safe.

Just one great idea after another, when will they run out of these brain storms?

[Evan]

As a matter of fact, Commissioner LaGrand was out today with one of the road crews filling potholes. And I think his point was about taking some direct, if unorthodox, action to fix a problem, rather than just repeating the same old excuses about why we have so many potholes. Actually, that's pretty refreshing come to think of it.

[The Executive Director]

Hi, Evan.

If LaGrand wants to marshal those who are already on the city's payroll, such as himself, to fill in potholes, that's fine. But the idea that taxpayers should also pony up their labor to do what they are paying the city to do is a non-starter.

Regards, Bill

[Craig]

Whatever happened to work crews from the county jail? Let's make those guys earn their dinner tonight!

Holland and grand Haven use them for cemetery lawn care and maintenance. Does GR use them?

"What we got he-ah....is failure to communicate!"

[Dee W.]

It appears the GR City Commission decided to cough up a few more taxpayer bucks from the city coffers to repair additional local streets after all. Seems they okayed something like 100 grand this week to fix downtown roads and main service streets in the area.

Guess the radical idea of further city council members shoveling hot tar along with LaGrand wasn't so appealing after all (Bliss wouldn't want to mess up that sassy hair-do of hers you know!).

Looks like the catalyst was city vehicles getting damaged as they drove around town and the impact our poor roads would have to visitors and convention attendees. Too bad they didn't realize sooner what all the citizens have already been experiencing - flat tires, messed up front alignments, roughed up tire wells and more.