Friday, April 22, 2011

Fix the leaky roof

Strange set of investment priorities at La Guardia Airport.

In multiple locations throughout the airport, the roof is leaking, leading to buckets on the floor collecting water.


From Innovation Bootcamp



From Innovation Bootcamp


Meanwhile, a job that must have cost several million dollars has been installing anti-truck bomb pillars outside in the passenger drop-off area.  I understand that we want to protect airplanes, but the general check-in area at La Guardia doesn't seem to be a very attractive target to terrorists.  There are thousands of places in Manhattan where you could find people more densely concentrated.  Plus, if you've ever been dropped off at La Guardia, you know that the traffic in the two lanes of the drop-off area moves at about 2 miles per hour.  There is no way a truck bomb could ever pick up speed.

Surely the manager of the airport would rather be spending maintenance money to fix leaky roofs, but that might not be very sexy to fund.  It would be interesting to follow the money on this project - to see what construction company got the deal, and how they are connected to whatever officials approved the contract.  Or did Congress send some stimulus money to NYC, some "use-it-or-lose-it" money that had to be spent on anti-terrorism upgrades?  Surely the money spent on this could have been spent on infrastructure in the city that truly needs upkeep.


From Innovation Bootcamp

1 comment:

  1. Same idea at the multi-million dolar microwave scanners that do not detect bombs of the sort that brought them into use and work at about 1/4th the pace of a normal metal scanner. It is a big waste of money becasue the public outrage is there.. but is it really? If we really want to save lives, let's put alcohol detectors at the exit doors of bars or parking places near them.

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