This sounds like an excellent use of stimulus funds:
When Hurricane Ike slammed into Galveston on Sept. 13 last year, the storm buried nearly 8,000 acres of oyster reefs in sediment from the Bolivar Peninsula, state wildlife officials said. Half of the oyster habitat was wiped out, destroying the livelihood of more than 100 fishing operations.
Lance Robinson, regional director for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said the state had begun to restore the reefs on the east side of the bay, where 80 percent were destroyed. State workers distributed more than 18,000 tons of river rock over 20 acres of water.
“This is to give oyster larvae, called spat, a chance to adhere to the rock and keep the life cycle going,” said Jennie Rohrer, an oyster restoration biologist for the state.
Sammy Ray, oyster pathologist and professor emeritus at Texas A&M University at Galveston, said that if the larvae did not have a clean, hard surface to attach to, they would sink to the bottom and die.
That is why the state also plans to start dredging in the spring to uncover the layer of shells beneath the sediment, which are needed for the oysters to reproduce, Mr. Robinson said. About $1.3 million has been allocated for this project, he said.
I have not been following the stimulus spending, other than to laugh at every right-winger yelling about porkulus and chanting 800 billion dollars, when a sizable portion of those funds were tax cuts. Who knew Republicans hated tax cuts so much? But isn’t this the sort of thing that stimulus funds should spent on? Aggressively pursuing projects that will in the short term create jobs but also ensure that more long-term jobs are saved?
jon
Government is bad unless it is making something that can bring the hurt to foreigners people who are suspiciously foreign-looking. All other policies are suspect, unless they are tax incentives or tax cuts. Or promote abstinence.
Svensker
But if it’s logical, it must be wrong!
/wingnut
jon
“Foreigners OR people who are suspiciously foreign-looking”, that is.
Hunter Gathers
Yes.
Although the wingnuts and the MSM would call this a 1.3 million dollar oyster farm. And only latte sipping liberals eat oysters, so they can get sexually charged up before delivering Granny to the Death Panels and defecating on a nativity scene.
Brian J
Maybe there are details to this story that I have been missing, but I’m shocked there are people claiming that it’s pretty worthless to plan big infrastructure projects. The most common complaint is that they take too long to get going because of all the different factions involved. That makes sense; I don’t expect something involving billions and billions of dollars to happen within a month. But didn’t we hear the same lines over a year ago? I hate to sound like the people who were chanting “Drill, baby, drill!” during 2008, because I believe they were wrong on the facts while we are right on target here, but if we had started to pursue these projects a year ago, we’d be that much closer to being done. Even if they aren’t expected to be complete within just a couple of years, why is that a big deal? I don’t think anybody expects unemployment to be around 5 percent within three years.
I’ve probably asked this before, but why can’t the process simply be sped up? I’m not saying that the necessary steps need to be bypassed, just that we could devote more resources to reviewing anything that needs to be looked over if possible.
Comrade Dread
Channelling my inner child – er, Randian:
“Those oyster farmers should have known better than to set up shop in an area where a hurricane could have wiped out their livelihoods. They deserve not one whit of pity, charity, or government assistance or they’ll just do it again and we’ll have to keep rebuilding.
“Also, my bailout check for driving my company and the economy into the ground is late. Please recheck your records to ensure it has been sent.”
Just Some Fuckhead
How many clams are we gonna spend to save the oysters???
geg6
Yes, John. This. This is exactly what stimulus spending looks like.
I don’t care what the teabaggers say about the stimulus. I see funds being spent and jobs created, slowly but steadily. But it always amazes me to hear the idiots around here screaming “where’s the jobs?” and “where’s the stimulus?” as just about every major roadway in Beaver County is under construction and a new bridge is being built on the Beaver River. What, do they think the PENNDOT fairies set out all those orange cones and heavy machinery to grant wishes and that none of this employs anyone or improves the infrastructure so that investment in the area looks like a good deal?
Idiots. And the hilarious thing is that most of the dimwits I hear complaining about sokalism and Islamofascistcommiesurrendermonkeyblacketyblack preznit work for municipal police departments, municipal services, and the post office. Assholes, every single one.
Napoleon
Sounds like a win, win, and win project to me.
I don’t know what it is but the idea of conservation projects and the construction of public improvement projects really appeal to me as a use of stimus money. Maybe its because growing up in Ohio our water supply came from a lake you were not permitted on, large parts of the forest surrounding it which were put in by the CCC (they are still there today protecting the water supply), and our local fair was the largest county fair in the state and the grandstand where you would watch the demolition derby and horse races from (as well as the fireworks on 7/4) was built by the WPA, and it is still there today.
Brian J
@geg6:
I am not sure if this is related to the stimulus or not, but on my way to work each morning and night, the major roads I take are being repaved or expanded or upgraded in some way. It’s kind of pain in the ass to sit in traffic when, without construction, I’d be flying home at a certain point in the night, but the fact that they are finally edging out spaces for buses to stop so I won’t have to slam on the breaks is nice.
kay
@Hunter Gathers:
The national press are going to call it “pork”, because that’s an easy way to sound appropriately cynical and sensible, without really doing any analysis.
I don’t even get the whole concept. Federal money has to go somewhere, to some specific project or locale. Once it lands, it becomes the reviled “pork”, and we’re all supposed to point at the procuring government official, and get all upset.
I’ve noticed the stimulus analysis in the local press is very different. We got money here for a train crossing and storm-sewer projects. No one calls it “pork”. The local press call it ” stimulus funding for a train crossing and storm-sewer projects”, and the storm sewer projects announcement was all but celebratory.
Brian J
@kay:
This probably leads a lot of people to think that what is happening for them is worthwhile but what is happening for others is wasteful, which is a phenomenon that supposedly happened a lot during the Great Depression. If that’s the case, it makes it hard to sustain support for projects that are valuable to specific locations but somewhat inexplicable to others. The nice thing about building up infrastructure in almost any capacity, I would imagine, is that the situation I just described doesn’t really apply, since everyone has roads and sewers and what not.
gex
@Brian J: Um, this is the phenomenon known as conservatism and libertarianism. Everything they get is earned and justified. Everything anyone else gets is welfare for lazy immoral people.
Da Bomb
Considering that only a small portion of the stimulus has been spent, who knows maybe some money will be invested in that.
The Obama Administration has invested in improving and protecting forestry, environmental affairs, and preserving natural habitats.
IndieTarheel
The oligarchy is never happy with spending unless it is in the form of cash or other incentives, payable directly to them. In other words, IGMFY.
—
I would LOVE to see a series of campaign ads come next year and 2012 showing these morons and their accomplices in the media for what they are. Truth in advertising, bitches!
kommrade reproductive vigor
Well, obviously this is different because Texas is such a ReaLAMErican state it might secede from the union. Plus, Gov. Perry was probably totally ashamed to take those funds but elitist baby eating Jesus haters made him do it. And because shut up, that’s why. Also!
adolphus
Two responses:
What? We are spending money to help illegal immigrant oysters to raise their bastard children? If they couldn’t take care of all those kids, they shouldn’t have had them.
Oyster Pathologist? I wonder if one is named Quincy? “Sam, that hurricane was no accident. Those oysters were murdered. If Dr. Asten would just get off my back and give me some time I could PROVE IT!
kay
@Brian J:
People here got the water projects because we’ve been ignoring a federal EPA order to clean it up for ten years, and the county was threatening to levy a property tax. We’re in a regionally important watershed, and it crosses three states. Local people learned a lot during the battle.
What pissed me off is they didn’t get the school-teacher funding. This, to me, is a no-brainer. Do they want a teacher standing in the classroom in the morning? I heard local wingnuts claim it was Obama-welfare to teacher’s unions.
I honestly don’t get it. We have one school district, and one teacher per class. They want less than that?
There are times where I think they should have to walk the talk. Shut the school down. Just put a sign on the door one Monday morning. Then we’ll talk.
danimal
This is the sort of thing that government should be doing during boom and bust times. We shouldn’t wait for economic emergencies to look for ways to assist economic growth.
I guess I’m a full-blown soshalist now.
Betsy
Ike did more damage to Galveston and the surrounding area than any hurricane since the 1900 Storm. According to Wikipedia, it was the third worst hurricane in American history, yet it’s gotten just a fraction of the attention that other disasters of this scale have received. It did as much damage to the infrastructure there as Katrina did to NO, although thank god the loss of life was minimal compared to Katrina. The island is rebuilding, but it’s slow and hard. Especially because the storm happened at the height of the presidential campaign and global financial meltdown, there wasn’t much media attention given to it, and therefore it received fewer resources from donations, etc., than it might otherwise have done. Furthermore, because the population of the island dropped more than 20 percent after the storm, it is in danger of losing federal funds for public transit and housing repair.
So yeah, I think an investment in helping Galveston recover is a reasonable use of stimulus money.
Evinfuilt
@Betsy:
One interesting thing of note with Ike and Galveston. Its the newer areas that got damaged the most, since they built away from the seawall.
I live only 20 miles from the Island, and go there very often. The historic parts of Galveston look better and better everyday, I think in a way this helped clean up a city that was getting shabby in the corners, very neglected. Still, Galveston has the worst beaches I’ve ever seen, it’ll never be a full tourist trap the way it is now.
IndieTarheel
@adolphus: __
BWAHAAHAAHAA!!!!
Steeplejack
@Brian J:
One possible explanation is what Frederick P. Brooks called the “mythical man-month,” which in its reductio ad absurdum is: “Hey, let’s put nine women on this pregnancy project and we’ll be done in a month!” Some things take as long as they take.
Even for things like “reviewing” and “approval,” you can’t just turn some dial somewhere to increase the flow. Those things require trained experts–civil engineers, architects, etc.–and they’re not just “resources” sitting on a shelf somewhere waiting to be used temporarily to speed things up and then put back on the shelf. They have to be hired, which usually means at least the prospect of a long-term job, and they usually need at least some training for (or acclimatization to) the job at hand.
One of the subtle, long-term problems with underfunding infrastructure maintenance is that you lose the organizational capability to ramp up for big projects when funding comes back (if ever).
Molly
@Evinfuilt: “I live only 20 miles from the Island, and go there very often. The historic parts of Galveston look better and better everyday, I think in a way this helped clean up a city that was getting shabby in the corners, very neglected.”
You in Clear Lake? We’re in Richmond, on the edge of Sugar Land.
I grew up in Galveston. I saw a lot of hurricanes come and go, and watched the coast recover. It’s very hard to describe to people what Ike did to the island and to the fishermen/shrimpers on the Gulf Coast. It’s not just Galveston as a city that suffered from the damage, it’s a whole industry.
Yes, this is an excellent place for stimulus money to be spent. It would go to an industry that is critical to the economy here. It would repair environmental damage to the ecosystem from the storm. That effort would create jobs.
As for Texas itself and stimulus money, the state is in the same bind that South Carolina was in with Sanford. We need the money, but we’ve got an ideologue in the governor’s office who flat-out doesn’t care about the needs of the poor people in his state. You’ll never see Rick Perry on the Mexican border region, visiting the shacks people live in. Easier to make them scapegoats, even the ones here legally. You won’t see him on the coast when the shrimpers come in, or out on the oil rigs. He has no concept of the people here who work back-breaking labor every day to survive.
Bill White is going to run for governor here. He’s a very popular Democratic former mayor of Houston who hit his term limit. He has a real chance to win, folks. I’m already working on his campaign, and expect to be in it for the long haul. There’s more and more of us here who have flat-out had enough. We could use your support, not the constant “Texas is full of nothing but wingnut idiots.” No, it’s not, They just make for more interesting sound bites for the bobbleheads.
That is all.
jcricket
Look, Republican opposition for Medicare, support for Medicare Part D and subsequent “opposition” to “cuts” in Medicare (really Med. Advantage, but whatever) perfectly sums up the Republican attitude towards government programs:
1) Oppose anything that will actually help people.
2) Unless it can get you some short-term votes b/c the Democrats have already built a popular program/stimulus/earmark you can expand/accept.
3) And then, absolutely refuse to pay for the expansion of said program with tax increases
4) Lie about your involvement in approving the program/stimulus/funding/earmarks.
5) Blame Democrats for the deficit created by 2 + 3.
At least the racist parties in Europe have a consistent ideology. Republicans are just screaming and yelling wherever they think they can “score” some “points”. Sadly, we’re not playing soccer.
Xecky Gilchrist
@adolphus: Oyster Pathologist? I wonder if one is named Quincy?
Heh. I was just thinking that Oyster Pathologist would be a great band name.
Sanka
The Obama A-Team in February:
And:
The economic reality:
The only obvious solution is to ramp up government spending, another round of stimulus, another $13 “tax break” for the middle class, and a new massive health-care bureaucracy, paid for by the wealthy—because their construction businesses aren’t suffering enough.
And Sarah Palin. Also.
Church Lady
Yes. Too bad that there haven’t been more projects like this.
My biggest complaint about the stimulus was that not enough dollars were directed towards infastructure repairs, which this country desparately needs.
BR
This sounds too much like Bear DNA to me, clearly not worthy funding.
Jon H
There was a stupid thing in the Boston Globe recently suggesting that it was a non-stimulative waste to spend $1.5 million to rehab a lighthouse on an island near Boston, and make it suitable for visitors.
I don’t see what they think the problem is. Do they think the $1.5 million is going to be airdropped in sandbags and left in a pile? Presumably that’ll go for materials, equipment rentals, and labor costs, and transportation of people and equipment to and from the island during the work. When done, the newly-visitable lighthouse would presumably be an attraction for the kind of people who charter boats to visit lighthouses.
Brian Griffin
as someone who is intimately familiar with the massive unemployment among architects and engineers in this country, the phrase ‘shovel ready’ really pisses me off.
no, projects in design can’t be driven past. yes they still employ a lot of people doing difficult work. buildings, bridges, and roads cannot be designed with shovels.
kay
@Sanka:
Conservatives can’t act as critics on remedial measures taken after the economic crash that happened on their watch.
They absconded. They broke the economy and then ran away.
The House Republicans could have cooperated and had input into the plan. They saw a political advantage to lock-step opposition, so abandoned any pretense of governing.
They didn’t even bother to hide it. They all but announced they saw political advantage to sitting out any solution.
They were wrong, too. The analysis that came out this week says the stimulus did exactly what it was supposed to do.
Betsy
@Molly:
I also grew up there. I don’t live there anymore, but I have lots of friends still there, so I’m fairly plugged in to what’s going on.
When I had heard about the storm before it hit, I thought, “What are they making such a big deal about? It’s category 2, for heaven’s sake!” Nobody leaves for category 2 storms! I didn’t grasp how big it was, or what the storm surge would be like.
I could not believe my eyes when I saw the aerial videos a couple of days after the storm. There was one that just killed me, of Crystal Beach, where there were just rows and rows of wooden posts that used to have houses on them. When I saw the video of the Strand, I wanted to cry, but I was too stunned.
Little Dreamer
Kind of strange to look under the protective shell and find out who your former comrades really were, eh?
Mike G
Wasn’t it senators Kyl and McCain who bitched about the stimulus being worthless and not creating any jobs?
Then someone in the White House sent a letter to Arizona saying, “Your senators disapprove of the stimulus, so if you’d like to opt out and not receive any money let us know”. They clammed up pretty quickly after that.
Repigs love living off the government teat even more than they love bitching about the taxes that pay for it. Especially military spending, which is somehow not ‘government spending’ and is funded by money dropped from heaven by St Ronald the Murkan Jesus rather than taxes.
Jon H
The Boston Globe article I mention above also mentions some stimulus funded academic research, including one project to develop “a colony of robotic bees”.
Which would be a waste of money, of course.
Because everyone knows you make robotic bees out of paper clips and pipe cleaners.
Linkmeister
@Jon H: Back when the stimulus bill was being debated there was grumbling about re-sodding the National Mall (which I think got cut out of the projects as a sop to Republicans), and I wrote:
There are a lot of military housing units being built out here on Oahu, and they’re being built by private contractors. This seems to be ignored by Republicans unless those contractors are donors to Republican campaigns.
Andy
Betsy wrote:
Some of us living on the island didn’t appreciate it at the time, either.
IndieTarheel
@Jon H:
Yeah, but will they fit inside the robotic dogs’ mouths so that when they bark, they’ll shoot bees?
Betsy
@Andy:
It’s understandable. When you go your whole life only hearing hurricanes rated by wind speed, and knowing that Cat 2 storms rarely do more than knock down some palm fronds and phone poles (and occasionally sweep away some dumbfuck tourist who wants to stand out on the seawall to watch!), it seems perplexing to hear that such a low-rated storm could do such tremendous damage.
And especially after Rita – I remember people stuck in traffic for 12 hours or more to evacuate, and it ended up being no more than a standard-issue medium strength hurricane. People are going to be doubly suspicious about being told to evacuate after that.
I hope you and your family made it through ok.
binzinerator
@jon:
It’s better without the correction. More true to wingnut.
Andy
@Betsy
We came out of it far better off than many, thanks.
And more so still, having been kept off the island and away from their homes for nearly two weeks, while any jackass with a pickup truck and calling himself a contractor got waved through the checkpoint. There are lots of stats from the storm, but the property damage number I’d like to see is how much loss could have been avoided if residents had been allowed to return promptly and open up their homes. Getting storm surge — seawater — in your house is bad enough; being forced to sit in a hotel in San Antonio or a high school gym-turned-evacuation shelter for two weeks while your home and all its contents mildew and rot in the summer heat is just infuckingexcusable.
Lex
[[only latte sipping liberals eat oysters]]
Tell it to my mother’s Republican-voting relatives who grew up on the sea islands near Charleston, fishing for oysters (among other occupations, like farming).
Anything that increases the supply of clean, edible oysters is a good use of tax dollars, from where I sit. And I’m at least half serious.
HH
The street curbs next to my house were made by the WPA. I thought that was very cool when I bought the house.
Also, I enjoyed walking on some sidewalks on the campus of the University of Oklahoma that were made by the WPA. Made me proud.
mai naem
Well, I channeled my inner republican and I found out that oysters are considered aphrodisiacs and so you really don’t want to bring back oyster beds because sex is a bad and evil thing and only to be done with your mistress.