| Got that? $1.2 million per realtor, for a total of 17 new real estate professionals. I have seen elsewhere some Zone apologists argue that some tax breaks go into equipment that somehow will later magically transform the area's economy. From what I've seen, most realtors are kitted out with a phone, a desk, a bad jacket, and a late model Lincoln or Olds.
Anyway, it gets worse. In March 2006, Huron laid off 21 workers. This translates a net loss of three jobs, or nearly $7 million per person fired.
Oh, did I mention it gets worse? In August 2006, two maintenance workers who were not properly trained or informed by Huron about the heating system they were working on got killed when the pipes they were working on exploded.
But here's some good news! Apparently the 10,000 gallons of anti-freeze that escaped through a broken pipe in a cooling system on the campus in January 2006 has degraded. Actually, about half of that was contained. It's the other half that seeped into the ground or washed down the storm sewer and into the river that degraded. So aside from anything living that may have gotten poisoned as the thousands of gallons of ethylene glycol (refrigerant that can damage the heart, nerves and kidneys) made its fairly quick transformation to formaldehyde, then on to harmless elements, everything's cool. And besides, the whole place is atop a 300-acre plume of subterranean chemicals left by previous tenants, IBM. So what's a few thousand gallons of anti-freeze, here or there?
So, to sum up, $20.2 million in this area buys you three fired realtors, two dead maintenance workers, and ten thousand gallons of spilled anti-freeze on top of a toxic waste site.
We should be doing better than this. |
