Wastebook - Senator Tom Coburn - U.S. Senate

18. The Million Dollar Bus Stop – (VA)Wastebook 2013“Is it made of gold?” asked one commuter after learning a single bus stop in Arlington County,Virginia, cost $1 million. 240The answer is no.The SuperStop is, however, completewith heated benches and sidewalks,“wireless zones for personalcomputers.” Yet it has oneshortcoming—a roof that hardlyprotects from the rain, snow, wind orblazing sun.With a total cost was $1 million, 241 thebus stop cost more than most singlefamilyhomes. 242It is large enough to accommodate twobuses at a time, but has room to shelteronly 15 people. 243 And where it lackspracticality, it seems to make up for inpresentation: “The glass-and-steel roofThe buck—and the bus—stops here. In fact, one million buckswere dropped off here to construct the “SuperStop,” completewith heated benches and sidewalks but little protection from rain,snow, or the blazing sun.swoops up like a bird taking flight” and “a wall made of etched glass opens the rear vista to newlyplanted landscaping.” 244One patron decried the high cost in anera of more important domesticchallenges: “How much steel? Howmuch cement? How much glass? Onemillion [dollars]? Bring them to court.People are hungry. People are sleepingon the street. It doesn’t need $1million.” 245“Where we’re from, they built a wholehighway rest stop for $1.5 million,”noted one tourist.The former chairman of the ArlingtonCan’t take the heat: the SuperStop’s high-tech screen couldn’t standup to a July heat wave.wasteful spending on non-essential design elements.” 246County Democratic Committee agreedwith the sentiment, labeling the busstop’s construction “extravagant andSome have questioned the open-air design of a roof slanted upward and minimal walls. The busshelter is “pretty,” one County Board member said, “but I was struck by the fact that if it’s pouringrain, I’m going to get wet, and if it’s cold, the wind is going to be blowing on me.” 247 He questioned32