Welcome to Capitalism. And Politics.
A fictional dialogue, based on a true story of construction and capitalism. I live next to the true story. I am now literally surrounded by the true story.
"Mr Mayor, the major film studio is here for their appointment."
Mayor: "Show them in."
Mayor: "Hello, studio head and 6 aides! Please sit down. Welcome to my office. Our liberal city thanks you. I, the liberal mayor, thank you for your donation."
Studio: "You're welcome. We're here to tell you that we are going to build numerous new sound stages on our property, so we can make another $5 billion a year renting them out to all the online streaming companies who are making a lot of lousy tv shows and crummy movies and really stupid documentaries and need a place to shoot them. Our new sound stages."
Mayor: "OK. More sound stages for rent. More income. More profit. Sounds like a great idea. I'll make sure all the permits and paperwork gets priority."
Studio: "Thank you. The city will also have to provide more water and power infrastructure for the project. A lot more."
Mayor: "No problem. You're a major company in a major industry. A major employer. A major taxpaying organization. A major donor to my campaign. We're here to accommodate your every desire. We'll have to dig up the main thoroughfare next to your studio. Major construction. That will increase the already heavy traffic in the area a great deal. Taxpaying drivers will be upset. Very upset."
Studio: "We know. We don't care."
Mayor: "Neither does the city. Severely inconveniencing thousands of drivers each day in the name of donor profit is not a problem. We'll have to do the major construction for like 6 months. Blocking off lanes of traffic, in both directions. All day. Including during both morning and evening rush hours. Backing up traffic for miles 5-6 days a week, for more than 4 months. Like I said, no problem. Consider it done."
Studio: "OK, great. Again, thank you for serving our needs, regardless of the severe negative daily impact on thousands of people trying to get to and from work every day. You can expect another large donation to your re-election campaign."
Mayor: "Terrific. Glad to be of help. Anything else you need?"
Studio: "Well, there are some other little things we would like ...."
UPDATE:
Studio: "Hi, Mr. Mayor. It's been over 4 months. We just wanted an update on the traffic-killing construction you're doing for our sound stage income producing project."
Mayor: "Oh, right. I just heard. They're not done yet. Even though we had a flashing road sign announcing the end of the construction in 3 days, we're not even close to finishing. You know, we're the government and, on most projects we undertake, we always take at least twice as long and we spend twice as much. We updated the road sign to inform commuters that traffic will continue to be severely delayed and inconvenienced for another month. The project has now taken 4 1/2 months. We'll keep going and we'll update the "Expect Delays" road sign every month, until the project is finished. Even if it takes years."
Studio: "Well, you know, time is money. We really want to open the sound stages for rental as soon as possible and generate billions of dollars in additional revenue."
Mayor: "Oh, OK. Maybe we can double up on the construction and get it done faster. That would mean we would have to completely close the major thoroughfare and back up/detour tens of thousands of daily commuters in their cars for miles, making traffic even worse in that whole area. Oh, and we'll have to shut off the entire water supply to the area for at least a day, in order to install a new and bigger water pipe for you."
Studio: "Do what you gotta do."
Mayor: "OK, we'll do that. You're the boss! And thanks for the recent donation."
So far, the construction nightmare has continued for 6 straight months.
UPDATE:
The construction finally ended in July and the surrounding streets have returned to being their normally traffic congested thoroughfares. We await the opening of the new sound stages and the thousands of new daily workers who will be commuting to and from the sound stages daily, thereby jamming up the local streets even more.
UPDATE:
December 2022. MORE construction at the intersection. I guess they weren't done yet. I guess they never will be. Traffic is once again a 1-lane-blocked nightmare.
