Sunday, January 4, 2009

INFRASTRUCTURE

Infrastructure- How do we pay for the changes needed.

Look around the city and you will see the need for more infrastructure improvement. The roads are filled with potholes.

We are short on salt for the basic street use this winter.

Driving from the Southside of Peoria downtown you will find 3 watermain breaks.

Now the feds want the city to come up with a huge amount of money for storm water diversion.

We have all seen the requests for new and improved items. Fancy new Hotel Downtown- Great Idea!
Build the Block- Another Great Idea!
New Childrens Hospital Addition- Great Idea!
Addition on Methodist Medical Center- Great Idea!
This is just a partial list of the Great New Ideas and Opportunities.

These are great things, would like to see all come to fruition. But, (You knew it was coming) how can we fix the basic services and infrasrtucture in order to get to and enjoy these Great new ideas.

Lets come up with some plans to solve the mundane daily problems that abound. Then we can enjoy these New Opportunities.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

The Digital TV conversion

The Digital TV Conversion, is it a boondoggle of major proportion?

This is from PC Magazine website.
"Demand for digital TV converter box coupons is up, and while that signals an increased awareness of the impending DTV conversion, the surge might require an additional $330 million in government funds, according to the Commerce Department.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is housed within Commerce, projects that it will receive 6.5 million requests for DTV converter box coupons in December – a significant jump from previous months.

With this increase cost of 330 Million over the already allocated $1.34 billion to cover the cost of the coupons, plus $160 million for administrative costs that Congress has already spent. "

This is the public money. Now we have old tv's headed to the landfill or recyclers to be recycled? or at least disposed of properly.

The original idea of the change was to free up the telecommunication band that the current TV signals are on. There is a planned auction of these airwaves for increasing bandwidth for WIFI Access. With the current economy it is now predicted those auctions will be will be a bust.

The roll out of new HDTV's were not a real help to the US Economy. As we have seen many retailers deep discounting HDTV's and some Electronic chains on the throats of bankruptcy.

Do we need additional airwave space for our Blackberries and other portable computing and telecommunication devices, sure we do as we become more mobile. But what is the true cost. An additional $330 Million is chickenfeed when we do not even notice a headline unless it is is Billions and Billions of Dollars.

How could the government have been 30% wrong in their estimates of converter needs?

How has American industry benefited from this large outlay of funds. Labor for the infrastructure, some retail, and the rest is with the major telecommunication companies. The majority of the equipment is produced in foreign countries and imported. Making our Balance of trade at a bigger deficit. Why can not Congress pass legislation that will help the U.S,

Lets see what the new Administration will do as it creates stimulus projects.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

New Year

The New Year has arrived.

It should be an interesting year.
In the Early hours of the New Year we have seen action by Isreal into the Gaza Strip.

We will see a new President and Administration.

What will happen to the price of Oil and the Economy have all the prognosticators giving there best guess.

Everyone has there New Years Resolutions, many are the same year after year. Many are new. Hope all can be sucessful.

It will be an interesting year at home and abroad.

Wish you all well in the New Year.