Stimulus Watch

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[edit] General Description

There are few specifics for this project readily available on the web.

There is a press release from the Oakland Airport, dated May 2003 that talks about the entire $1.4B Oakland Airport terminal expansion. There is a 6,000 car parking garage as part of that program, which may or may not be the parking garage proposed for this project. At the proposed $300,000,000 price tag, this equates to $50,000 per parking spot, which seems extraordinarily high. The price tag may include other surrounding projects. At $27 per day parking and 80% utilization, the facility would break even in about 6.5 years. At $15 per day, the facility would break even in about 11.5 years.

Turner Green Buildings appears to have a history of major, environmentally-friendly construction projects.

One thing that people don't seem to understanding is that projects that create jobs have costs other than job costs. In order to hire people you have to have someone doing accounting to be able to pay them and have things for them to do. Computers to work at or concrete to lay sidewalks or whatever. One of the chronic mistakes on this site is that people fail to see anything other than divide number of jobs into total project cost.

Also note that if people are buying a thing, then that company that sells the thing will also employ people. Much of the stimulus funds are about getting money moving both into jobs and through those projects into the community. If you've never run a business stop a think for a moment about what money it takes to run the business where you do work.

[edit] Points in Favor

[edit] Points Against

• $300,000,000 ($300M) for a parking garage seems excessive.
• The parking garage is neither a critical national priority or a strategic national asset.
• When this parking garage was planned, Oakland International Airport had been in a steady growth phase for a number of years. With Peak Oil approaching and a recession in progress, airline travel is in serious decline. Several airlines that formerly used OAK have gone bankrupt, and most others have reduced fights. This phase of the airport expansion is probably no longer needed, as other phases of the expansion have been canceled or put on indefinite hold.
• The money targeted for this parking garage would be better spent on improving local transit connections.