The mother of all food fights - coming soon!

"Maybe the progressives can build an alter to government in one of the deserted park and ride lots. Might as well - nothing else happening there. Just miles and miles of empty concrete."   

I need to start off with a moment of confession. My wife and I were invited to ride the North Star on its inaugural trip downtown to the Target Center. It was a big deal, as this was going to be the crown jewel of the train system which would fix the traffic on Highway 10. From the get-go, it never had the projected ridership. It was expensive to run. And then Covid hit. Then the Floyd riots happened. Then the lack of law and order in downtown Minneapolis became the norm, so nobody wanted to work downtown anymore. Now the North Star is a ghost train, going nowhere.

But - during the glory days of the choo-choo trains, many bought the snake oil the Met Council was selling. So much so, gigantic park and ride lots were built by North Star stations. High density housing was built. Some shopping amenities went up. Collectively, the northern burbs stuck a zillion or so dollars into this dream. BNSF, who owns the tracks was also involved. So was the federal government. Money flowed like water in the streets after a Minnesota thunderstorm. And then yesterday, in the local paper, it was announced that the Met Council was soon to pull the plug on this failed train.

Now the fun starts. Everybody wants their money back - and there is a lot of money that went into this lemon. Think the fed is going to take a laissez faire attitude on the money they put into this thing? Not with DOGE running around! Who do we sue? Where do we go to get our money back? The Met Council, who were the villains behind this train? The unelected, unaccountable Met Council, who so many citizens and patriots despise? Good luck suing them! They get their money from - us. It would be suing ourselves.

Most companies, if they had a horrible investment like the North Star go south - they would have learned from it. They would have fired people and then moved on. Not the State of Minnesota. What did the state learn from this debacle? Nada. Zip. They could or would do it again. Why? Our money is like Monopoly money to them. Whereas these days, every dollar is make or break to many families, the state does not care. Their pet agency, the Met Council certainly does not care. Thus, the citizens are stuck squeezing this lemon, right next to the empty North Star park and ride lots.

This is a great civics lesson. Who pays when everything turns up crap instead of roses? Do we all take a financial bath? What about all that infrastructure, which now looks like a ghost town? Here is the lesson most of us citizens and patriots already know. Government sucks at most things. And yet, many progressives worship government.

Maybe the progressives can build an alter to government in one of the deserted park and ride lots. Might as well - nothing else happening there. Just miles and miles of empty concrete.