Pork - It's What's For Dinner

Instapundit is asking reader to help identify states and congressional districts that are wasting money on pork projects, when they could better be used in Katrina relief and other worthwhile projects. The Truth Laid Bear is listing all the submissions.

Good for them.

The only one listed for Tennessee, at post time, was this:

339 $2,400,000 Plan and construct a bicycle and pedestrian trail, Smyrna TN (High Priority)
355 $1,200,000 Plan and construct a bicycle and pedestrian trail, LaVergne TN (High Priority)
Estimated budget: $ 36 [I'm assuming they mean $3,600,000 - Barry]
Added by: [Not Specified]
Date Added: 9/19/05
District: Tennessee - 5th district
Representative Cooper, Jim (D)
Senators Bill Frist (R)
Lamar Alexander (R)
[Submitter's comment:] bike path, we don't need bike paths right now, this is not high priority, it is low priority

There was space for comment, and here's mine:

First of all, I'm assuming this means $3.6 million instead of $36.

Second, I have no idea how much a bike trail costs, and I'll wager neither does the person who submitted this.

Thirdly, is this federal, state or local money? I'm assuming it's too steep for local - even for Nashville.

Finally...I don't think this really qualifies as pork. Neighborhood beautification and transportation (yes, it's partly transportation) projects crop up all the time, and are benefits to the entire communities. Especially if, like in Knoxville, they connect up with other existing bike trails and provide non-polluting access to and from different parts of a city. Maybe this does, maybe it's not, but no details were included. It sounds like a bit of a cheap shot to me, without knowing any history of who requested it and how long it's been in the hopper to be done.

Big Orange Michael lives in Smyrna, TN - have you heard of this project? What's your take on its necessity?

Oh wait, I forgot something. Arrrrrrrrr.... There.