Editorial: Austin's slice of stimulus is a flippin' waste of money

Austin's slice of stimulus is a flippin' waste of money

This is an editorial about the frivolity of the items on a list by the U.S. Conference of Mayors of shovel-ready projects that would benefit from the economic stimulus. Namely, a proposal for a Frisbee golf course in Austin.

My main issue with this editorial is while at one point in the article the author does correctly define the list as being a list of what could be done right now if the money was there, but for the most part the author is talking about the items on the list as if Austin is requesting the money for these projects.

It's definitely arguable that a Frisbee golf course would be a tremendous waste of money, $886, 000 according to the Austin parks and recreation department, but Austin isn't requesting money so they can do this.

There was a multiple page list of things that COULD be done with stimulus money right away, so I don't like that this editorial was written as if this request was the most important possible project to Austin -- like given some money they would rush right out and start building this thing.

I think the Frisbee golf course project is one thing on a list of many that has been taken out of context and turned into something it's not. I think the author of this editorial took the easy way out by simply finding silly things on Austin's list as well as the lists from other cities and dwelling on them.

There are many points that could be made from these different lists.

There were over 18,000 different individual, shovel-ready, projects on these lists. I think by going through and finding projects that could be considered a waste of money and then harping on them is going to dramatically affect the way the public is looking at a stimulus package and the projects different cities have in mind. The reality is there are probably more worth-while projects than not, but editorials like this one are giving people a very narrow view of what is actually going on.