An investment in the future?

A House in Hartford is getting demolished today because it
spontaneously started to collapse yesterday.

Have you been watching the news lately? Forget that-  have you seen the news in last half a decade or so? Punctuated this morning by a building near collapse in Hartford and a Bridge Collapse in Washington, the state of repair of our State or for that matter Nation is ABYSMAL.

Last week, a train derailed in Bridgeport. No one quite can tell why just yet, but regardless of why two trains going 70 miles an hour crashed in one of the busiest American travel corridors, the fact that it crippled us so should give us pause. Four tracks. That's all we have between us and gridlock. And those tracks are under going a decades-past-due revamp to put them back in their full insufficiency.

Thing will break forever more. Its a natural fact that all machines and structures need constant repair and maintenance.  But I wouldn't chalk the train derailment up to bad maintenance even if its proven that Metro North could have foreseen the events. Because to indict them for failing to head off a disaster at the pass, when as a society we are by far so much more guilty of negligence on a gross scale would be hypocritical.

Metro North: Are they to blame for the train
derailment last week- No way. If you want to blame
 someone, look in the mirror

 In the train business they are given an impossible task. Move a 100,000 people a day on tracks that were built and designed in 1800. They cant build more tracks to alleviate the burden cause no one wants to spend the money. And repairing a set tracks and trains that is so out of date and insufficient  its funny,  cannot be an easy task.

But lets get back to that bridge in Washington and that Building in Hartford. THEY FELL DOWN. It wasn't like the train that was going 70 miles an hour and went off the tracks. A pair of Static Structures that have have stood for decades, out of the blue FELL DOWN. Does that not scare the hell out you?

How many Bridges were built prior to 1950 and were designed to last 50 years? How many Buildings were built in 1900- 1940 and were built in a hurry to house a booming industrial workforce? These things were never meant to last forever, but are being asked to do a job in a day and time that has all kinds of increased usage, non-envisioned vibrations and various abuses that they were never built to endure. Can you tell me a brick tenement building from 1890 was built to withstand the bowl shaking rumblings of a Mac Truck parked next to it? Or a Bridge like the Route 5 Bridge in Washington  was designed to accommodate  50% of all the people in the community driving a car over it daily?  And now they are failing and we are surprised- really?

We need an investment in tomorrow in a BIG WAY. Not more taxes and more spending- that wont get it done. If we leave this up to Uncle Sam to do alone, every project will take a decade longer than it should and become a Frankenstein like I-95. But we need PRIVATE investment for a public good.

What if Howard Hughes was alive today and saw the squalor we call the American Infrastructure System? What would he do? Or Einstein or Ford or Sikorsky, Beardsley or Barnum? What if Edison knew that the electrical system he created was going dark on a regular basis and was so out of date, expensive and unsustainable that it was ending the world as we know it- do you think he'd do something?

They all would. And they wouldn't wait for a tax increase to get it done. They dig in to their pockets, call in some favors and fix it. That's how we built the 20th century and that's what we need to build the 21rst century. If Americans want it fixed, Americans will be the ones to fix it. But that's where Government comes in.

Crazy guys like Howard Hughes don't invest in a bridge for the community purely because they hate swimming.  They do it because they like to look good while doing it. Every Politician has an underwriter. Someone who finances their efforts and makes it possible for them to do good work. Unfortunately, that means dollars go to funding campaigns and don't go to investing in new buildings, new bridges and new parks. If Barnum had to finance Lincoln's run for president, do you really think he would have paid for Seaside Park? Politicians need to stop using their political favors for self interest and start using their public leverage to make the next Howard Hughes invest in something for the common good.

PT Barnum Marches his Elephants Across the Stratford Ave Bridge.
He did a similar march across the Brooklyn Bridge. You could argue
 he did this for free publicity of his show, but he also did it to show
 his personal stake in the Bridges of the 1800's. If his elephants
couldn't take down the bridge, the public investment was worthwhile.
When is the last time you saw a celeb or philanthropist lend their credence
to a public project like infrastructure? It ain't sexy but its important.
A school ship has a lot more sex appeal, but is just as challenging to fund
as a bridge because there just isn't up front financial benefit to the project.
That is why we need charities and governments to work together to do
 big things like this. 

Which brings me to the school ship. (You knew I was going back there didn't you?) While I fully support the investment in bridges, trains and buildings, I also favor investment in parks, schools and yes....ships.

The School Ship is one of those projects that needs an investor for the common good. A Person with vision who says "it needs to be done, so I will make it happen". I don't know if Howard Hughes would have supported the SV Mystic, but I do know my job would have been a lot easier in the time of Mr. Hughes or for that matter in the time of Mr. Barnum or Mr. Carnegie.

A School Ship for Connecticut is just the kind of community investment I am talking about. And we need a LOT of different community investments- not because  "it makes financial sense", but because it is the way we will protect our future investment in our community. Bridges, trains, buildings and ships are all expensive and do not make money. Which is why governments and Non-profits make them happen, because we don't do it because it makes money, we do it because it makes sense for the community.

I have been asked by the State DECD to figure out how to make the SV Mystic into a money maker. If I can do that, they will write the note to finance the down payment and the Loan Company in Florida will consider investing $1.5 Million in Connecticut to fund the purchase and operate the SV Mystic. And I could do that. I have designed a revenue structure that can pay the loans back, put the Mystic on a course for success and have her set sail as soon as the USCG gives us the green light. But then, I have to charge prices to use the vessel that make it impossible for kids to sail aboard her and she then goes from school ship to charter boat and completely misses her mark. A $1.8 Million Boat that is built to be a school ship can only become a school ship if we have the underwriting from someone bigger than us to make it happen. And we have to do it all by June 1 when bids are due for the Mystic and she will presumably be sold.

Well as I have always said, this project is not boat dependent and if we cant convince the State and Private Donors to work together to make the SV Mystic happen, perhaps we can make another ship happen.

I give you the Tole Mour from Long Beach, California. She is operating as a school ship currently, has current USCG certifications, and is being offered for $1.3 Million, over $500,000 less than the SV Mystic. Built in 1988, the Tole Mour, meaning a "Gift of Life and Health" has been used as a hospital ship and school ship in the South Pacific, Hawaiian Islands and most recently in California. She is now being offered for sale by the Non-profit who owns and operates her and is as turn key as it gets for school ships.

This vessel could allow us to start operations next week, if we could secure the funding, and from what I am told, all the Captain needs is sailing orders and supplies and the vessel could be inbound tomorrow. But again this is going to require an investment.

Even as a more affordable vessel, she still isn't cheap and to run her for a charitable function requires us to find sponsors, donors and underwriters to finance and operate her. But our hope is that by offering options and by proving she is ready to sail, we will garner the kind of public and private support that make projects like new bridges, new roads, new parks and new ships happen for the common good. You can help by spreading the word and calling your elected leader and explaining this concept to him or her.
Cheers