They _finally_ finished construction on the I-94/I-41 upgrade (also accommodating a new Amazon warehouse near Kenosha) a couple of years back, and this Foxconn agreement meant having to tear it all up again and redo it even wider than before. It's (IMO) unsafe to drive through in the Winter time.
It's a perpetual mess in Southeast Wisconsin. The problems extend far further than just the economics of the deal, into perpetual construction, shady eminent domain and reclassification of generational farms as "blighted", etc. It's criminal how much this one "deal" cost the area.
Don't misunderstand me, I'm a Wisconsinite as well. So I'm incensed by this whole cluster-F. I was just pointing out that while we have spent millions on construction and royally screwed over a lot of farmers and people in southeastern WI, we haven't actually handed over any money to Foxconn yet. So we may be best advised to take our losses, which I concede are considerable, and leave the table so to speak.
It's definitely not a knock on you or your position; it's more a knock on these sorts of politically-motivated, but empty, sweetheart deals. Walker's a particularly efficient trigger when the subject comes up.
Also, I'm just a bit bitter as someone who travels back to my hometown area (the Fox Valley) often from Chicago and it's never the same thing twice. ;)
I'm not so much bitter as filled with pity, to see all the effort Kenosha went to to try to recover from the loss of AMC, and then the remaining Chrysler factory jobs. But the downtown streetcar from nowhere to nowhere takes the prize for worst idea. The only way for it to be sadder is if it were an elevated monorail.
The reason people stay is that nowhere better wants them to come. And they can at least scrape some value out of the traffic between Chicago and Milwaukee, and from the far-flung commuters, and Chicagoans looking for a cheaper place to tie up their weekender sailboats during the summer.
13000 jobs would have been a real boon for the area, if they were ever real. But the Rust Belt is rusting, and states and communities are competing against one another to be the last spots of steel left, when everything else around is grimy red holes. Kenoshans will vote for anyone that promises more jobs or better jobs, no matter how transparently false the story may be. Their dads built cars, and now they're stuck cleaning the go-karts at Action Territory, or waiting tables, or commuting for an hour or more each way. So the one who tells them the most comforting lie wins.
I think it's probably the exact same story in Janesville, after the GM plant is finally closed for good, with no backsies. In another 10 years, someone will promise them a big manufacturing plant there, and the voters will fall for the exact same trick, all over again.
> and reclassification of generational farms as "blighted
Not that I'm defending this obvious abuse of power but most multi-generational farms have enough old vehicles and equipment sitting around that most white collar people would call them "blighted" if the context were different.
It's a perpetual mess in Southeast Wisconsin. The problems extend far further than just the economics of the deal, into perpetual construction, shady eminent domain and reclassification of generational farms as "blighted", etc. It's criminal how much this one "deal" cost the area.