Al Franken for the WIN.

[SWBTATTReg]

13. Other states besides MN may ignore the bridge infraS. problem, but they shouldn't, in MO,

we have over 6,000+ bridges, some of which I'm sure need quite a bit of work, restoration, etc. and this takes money, lots of money...regardless of politics, regardless of one's political affiliation, infrastructure needs work.

The bridges (some of them) will need plenty of restoration (and thus money) to bring up to code...heck, there is a bridge between IL and MO (in STLMO), the Eads bridge (built in 1874, first Iron bridge built over the Mississippi), that was pretty scary to drive on (both outer lanes were closed but the inner lanes are still open), but now has been repaired and is in much better shape. Unfortunately, crime in the downtown area has forced the temporary shut down of this bridge in order to limit traffic into the downtown area. A true shame.

Perhaps some other mechanisms can be used in order to facilitate the more robust and permanent opening of the bridge, such as cameras, more onsite enforcement, etc. in order to bring peace and calm to the downtown area...the downtown area, for those of you not in the know, has been taken over by large groups of motorcycles, street racing, lawlessness, etc. (but many areas of the city/outer areas have crime too), a shame since so many older buildings downtown were converted into lofts, thus preserving older city architecture into the next century.

There are steps being taken to address crime and other problems downtown, perhaps closing downtown city streets might be a permanent solution but the downtown area brings in 20% of the tax revenues to the city. Not a viable solution in reality.