And I’ve got the perfect one for our fair city from Thomas Sowell, and it goes like this: “Some people seem to think that the answer to all of life’s imperfections is to create a government agency to correct them.”

And in Grand Junction we don’t just create a government agency, we elect them to boot. On our city council today (and their resultant hirings) we now have a majority of do-gooders who seemingly can’t create enough programs to help the little people who just don’t know how much help they need. No, sir. Worse, our local leaders go the ultimate step in creating problems out of thin air.

Tell me this doesn’t ring true when you look at the follies foisted upon the citizens of Grand Junction and Mesa County by City Council.

Now, I know “some” folks will respond and tell me I’m digging into the Way Back Machine for some of my examples, and they’d be right. But that digging goes to patterns of behavior of our esteemed “leaders” on city council, who never met a tax dollar they seemingly didn’t want to spend. As for the word some, let’s just say it’s a word used a lot as an excuse for council members doing the things they do, along with their other favorite words of “many,” “most,” or the garbled combination “everyone I talk to.”

So, let’s look at a few examples of the agencies the leaders of our fair city have put into place.

There’s our city’s foray into the entertainment business known as the Avalon Theatre. Of course, what they voted to approve in terms of dollars didn’t include millions in HVAC and other related costs that no one seemed to know, or care, about. What mattered was the council meeting was “packed” with supporters wanting the mobile-home expansion (read bailout) for the “arts.”

How about the city’s attempt at commercial real estate development, known as Las Colonias, or as one campground might put it: where we can find ourselves staying in a van, or trailer, down by the river.

From what we’ve been told by council members, the development is millions in the red. Heck we’ve even had new tenants pull out after only a year or two due to broken promises, and others couldn’t come to an agreement to build or relocate into one of the many empty spaces available. Heck, it took almost five years and a few million to get the zip line built. And I didn’t even have to mention Costco.

But at least you can take a scooter to the zip line if you’d like. So, I suppose our city can brag about the success of its Hell’s Angels EV Club — if you can find one with the many abandoned on just about any street outside the city.

Then again, maybe you can’t take a straight route to the Zip-a-dee-doo-da since you have to go around the construction on Ute and Pitkin (I know that’s a state thing) or the encampments now surrounding the day shelter for our ever growing “unhoused” population, who are sure to vote for these same leaders for re-election.

While taking a scooter for your drug deal, prostitution or to relieve yourself on someone’s property is more convenient, it’s still against the law, no? Why would city leaders, who tell us time and again safety is the number one concern of citizens, create and support an area so unsafe for traffic, the public, business and property owners or for anyone who has to go near it? Oh, I forgot, grant money.

We can move on to the new recreation center, which keeps growing into a behemoth unrecognizable to what was voted on. Already over budget and much larger in size, the city had to go out and ask for dollars for an entity to operate a physical therapy center. Now, I don’t blame anyone for ponying up a few bucks to get the business when a monopoly like the city decides to go into the medical business (I mean, could you imagine how poorly it would operate if the city ran it?), but I didn’t know there was a shortage of rehabilitation businesses in town, what with three hospitals all having one along with several privately owned businesses.

Do I even need to get into Fourth and Fifth Streets? Just another problem which didn’t exist having millions wasted on it while inconveniencing the people. And here I thought people’s concerns about safety were about their lives, not what they chose for getting around town.

But fear not, the city is addressing getting around as well. And if your apartment complex won the lottery, you’ll soon have a couple of electric cars to share with your neighbors, so you can take Fourth Street around the homeless encampments to the zip line for some fun overlooking empty lots before rehabbing at the rec center from your fall off the zip line or getting hit by a scooter while dodging PVC pipe and enjoying all downtown has to offer all by yourself, because no one wants to deal with the hassle of going there.

I watched our city’s “Mobility Manager” state if the city wasn’t addressing these kinds of needs, we’re failing as a city.

I can’t believe this isn’t apparent to all those leaders, but you’re failing as a city.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of the Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com