That Darn Economy

Impacting Rahm's bottom line again:

• Scott Stevenson, the man in charge of the city’s harbor system, is sticking to the “If you build it, they will come” mantra when it comes to explaining the low occupancy rate at 31st Street Harbor.
  
  But he’d like to add an addendum: Have patience.
  
  At the harbor, which opened in 2012 and cost $103 million to build, only 319 of 1,013 spots were filled in mid-August.
  
  Like an unsecured anchor, the abysmal statistic drags on the overall occupancy rate of the city’s 10 harbors, which, with 4,381 of 5,747 total spots filled, stands at 76 percent.
  

If you overcharge for it and someone else offers it for cheaper, they won't come. Basic economic fact. And who's to blame?

• When construction began in 2009, the thinking was that the harbor would fill in three to five years.
  
  “Now we’re thinking five to eight years,” Stevenson said.
  
  Despite building the harbor in the midst of a recession — which sent boat sales into a death spiral — he does not regret the decision.
  
  “I still believe it was the right thing to have done, but I don’t think anyone could have forecast the economy would take as long it has to rebound,” he said.

Actually, everyone with a brain and anyone who paid attention was predicting the economy would take years to recover from the unfriendly atmosphere being generated out of DC. And of course he doesn't regret the decision - he got paid, the contractors got paid, the politicians got paid-off and the taxpayers (most of whom don't own boats) got screwed. What's not to love?