There's a real crisis unfolding right now in upstate New York - one that state and federal authorities can do something about using stimulus money. The bridge over Lake Champlain at Crown Point, which was scheduled for repairs by 2013, has deteriorated to the point where officials suddenly stepped in this week and declared an emergency shutdown. This has stranded thousands of New Yorkers and Vermonters at home, and they face the prospect of not being able to get to work each day and losing their business. It's a regional disaster.
Earlier today, Gov. Paterson declared a state of emergency in Essex County - after Vermont did, for Addison County. All these press releases are nice, but still don't answer the question of why an aging bridge that was known to need critical attention was allowed to get to this point where thousands of people in two states, already slammed by a deep recession are now virtually cut off from their jobs, their loved ones in nursing homes, and even emergency medical care. Right now, the best solution being offered? Telling affected people to drive down to the crossing at Whitehall, NY every day to get to where they need to go in Vermont... a one-way trip of about 75 miles (down the lake and back up again)!
We need some deeper answers here. Today the Champlain Bridge, tomorrow it could be a critical piece of infrastructure that YOU rely on, somewhere in New York. Who in Albany has failed these residents, and why? |
