Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Kubla Christie

I've been making noise about the funplex formerly known as Xanadu for a little over a week now. One thing I failed to acknowledge was that this thing was originally a Jim McGreevey pet. His administration basically gave the original developers the green light to use the land, and he made the deal with then New York governor George Pataki for the transit link. Thus, its a little unfair of me to harp on Chris Christie about it and it may seem like I'm attributing the whole thing to him.

I will say this, however: McGreevey didn't make any deals to commit public financing for the project. In fact, if it had succeeded it would have been a nice revenue generator in the form of rent for the property which the state owns. It's just obscene to me that in the wake of all of the budget cuts for education, police, fire and other public services that Kubla Christie has made, and after all of the complaining he does about New Jersey's defect that he would drive the state into more debt to hand money over to a project that so far has proven that its a failure.

The whole thing has inspired me to do a painting as well as scribble an adaptation of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's original ditty…

In Rutherford did Kubla Christie
stately Pleasure Dome decree
Where Hack the muddy river ran
Through meadows measureless to man
out to a septic sea.

If you're a New Jersey resident you'll soon be part owner of this turd.

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