- As a geotechnical engineer, I have had plenty of experience with development and construction (mostly in California), and I have been privy to the process by which a client purchases property in lieu of political agreements, which are typically made at the local, county or state level. That being said, Speaker of the House Denny Hastert has just received a political payoff (or as they say on Capitol Hill, "making money the ol'-fashioned way") for his super-shady and (likely) highly-illegal purchase and sale of property near a now-approved highway. Point being, the foresight of such projects, specifically highways and transit, in general, is very great and distant, and any excuse presented that Hastert didn't know this or that within the timeframe he purchased and sold the property, in the world of construction, five months is a very very short time.
- And to be young again... I recall the blissful dream of a modern-day utopia as I met with officers and members of the Student Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers while an undergraduate student at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York (yes, it's upstate, you wankers). However, we competed in the steel bridge design competition and not the wimpy concrete canoe thing. And, one more thing, don't say you're "going to Disneyland" (in California) when you actually mean Disney World (in Florida). (It really upsets me.)
Labels: in_the_news, syracuse
