Privatizing Infrastructure Is A Really Bad Idea

This happens to be about Canada and I must admit I’ve been there several times recently and it really is a better place. Much more like the U.S. I remember from when if you ignore the terrible burnt tasting Tim Horton’s coffee (Starbucks is not an example to emulate unless you adulterate your brew with milk and other crappuccino) and your burgers are done well (There is no Dana, only Zuul).

The highways are clean and well paved and they have honest to goodness A&W Root Beer in a Frosty Mug!

But this story could be about any bridge over the Mississippi or Mianus (Yup. In Connecticut, same state as Stars Hollow, in 1977. There’s an apocryphal story that one guy stopped just before the gap and tried to warn some asshole in a BMW who flipped him the finger and plunged to his doom. Serves him right. On the other hand typical Connecticut where we invented the Cotton Gin which led to the enslavement of Millions more Black people than there would otherwise have been a market for and poured money in the pockets of our Maritime Triangle Traders. Arsenal of Liberty- don’t forget that!).

A wealthy U.S. family fights to control a key route to Canada
By Kevin Williams, Washington Post
July 1 at 9:32 PM

Every year, $100 billion in trade passes back and forth between the United States and Canada here — roughly 16.5 percent of the total annual trade between the two countries. And it all trundles across the traffic-impaired and slowly declining 86-year-old Ambassador Bridge.

The Ambassador’s questionable condition — concrete chunks rained down upon the Canadian side last year — has trade experts concerned that a vital route could come to an unexpected halt.
…
(A) new expanse would bring bitter defeat to the wealthy Michigan family that owns – and profits heavily from — the Ambassador. And they are not giving up without a fight.

The Moroun family — led by 89-year-old patriarch Manuel “Matty” Moroun — has owned the Ambassador since 1978. Manuel Moroun runs a diverse portfolio of holdings from insurance companies to railroads to real-estate companies that keeps him ranked among the richest men in the United States.
…
It’s clear why the Morouns are battling so hard: One study released in 2008 by the Detroit River International Border Crossing Group estimated the Ambassador would lose 75 percent of its toll revenue with the opening of the Gordie Howe. It’s unclear precisely how much revenue that is, though that same study estimated that the Gordie Howe would generate $70 million annually for Canada.
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The Ambassador Bridge, the only privately owned border-crossing bridge connecting the United States and Canada, is a relic of the heady days of the pre-Depression 1920s, when money could move mountains and, in this case, build bridges. As trade picked up in the 1920s, a need for a bridge became clear. But when neither government could get a project off the ground, a wealthy banker named Joseph Bower secured all the proper permits, brought two international entities together and formed the Detroit International Bridge Company.

The Bowers sold it to the Morouns, who dodged an attempt by Warren Buffett —who owned a 25 percent stake in the company — from buying it. But they are having a difficult time defending the Ambassador from charges that it’s unequipped to handle the traffic that pours onto it, and that a significant alternative route is essential to protect the flow of trade.

“Ohio’s economy would be brought to its knees, and the impact would ripple out from there into the Deep South” should the trade route be halted for any reason, says William P. Anderson, director of the Cross-Border Institute at the University of Windsor.

“The Ambassador needs to be replaced,” said Anderson, who can watch the trucks crawl across the bridge from his warren of offices overlooking the Detroit River.