Except that it's not private money. It's public money.
This is the bridge equivalent of a town using a state grant to buy a Cadillac for the code inspector to drive around in. There is no place for that kind of behavior with other people's money.
If the university wants to build a bridge with all the bells and whistles with their own money that's fine. When they do that with public money there is an opportunity cost of the other improvements to society that money could have bankrolled. To claim that it is ok to spend public money on frills like this is to claim that the net difference between a boring pedestrian bridge and a fancy one (i.e, the "frills") is more important to society than the other things that money could have done.
Except that it's not private money. It's public money.
This is the bridge equivalent of a town using a state grant to buy a Cadillac for the code inspector to drive around in. There is no place for that kind of behavior with other people's money.
If the university wants to build a bridge with all the bells and whistles with their own money that's fine. When they do that with public money there is an opportunity cost of the other improvements to society that money could have bankrolled. To claim that it is ok to spend public money on frills like this is to claim that the net difference between a boring pedestrian bridge and a fancy one (i.e, the "frills") is more important to society than the other things that money could have done.