I think this may be the most California story of all time.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom\u00a0celebrated the groundbreaking<\/a>\u00a0of a giant wildlife bridge across the 101 Freeway in Southern California. He noted that while the project came with a $54 million price tag, it could be completed with another $10 million.<\/p>\n For those who\u2019ve followed the California\u00a0bullet train to nowhere fiasco<\/a>, you know where this is going.<\/p>\n On Wednesday,\u00a0City Journal published a report<\/a>\u00a0by Chris Rufo and Kenneth Schrupp highlighting how Newsom\u2019s bridge project was still not done despite being scheduled for completion in 2025.<\/p>\n And shock of shocks, the bridge to nowhere is $21 million over budget with a\u00a0projected price tag of $114<\/a>\u00a0million and an indefinite timeline for completion. A chunk of that money, $25 million, came from \u201cWallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation,\u201d but the rest is being covered by California taxpayers.<\/p>\n Oof.<\/p>\n Now, you may still be wondering what kind of \u201cwildlife\u201d this bridge is intended to protect for such a hefty sum. <\/p>\n Brooklyn Robinson, the assistant to the vice president for Strategic Communications at The Heritage Foundation, told me that she visited the bridge on a class field trip and asked some questions.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile on the class trip to the infamous bridge, I asked the guide what animals the bridge will benefit most, assuming she would say the mountain lions,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cBecause, of course, one mountain lion dying on the 101 is what sparked this multimillion-dollar project. But I was wrong, she told me the main species that would benefit was a butterfly. This confused me because I thought butterflies could fly \u2026 and therefore would not need a bridge to cross a highway. I guess I was uninformed!\u201d<\/p>\n Now I could make a few snide comments here. A bridge for butterflies, seriously? Aren\u2019t there already plenty of accessible \u201ccougar\u201d dens in Santa Monica?<\/p>\n But to give California the benefit of the doubt, there are plenty of similar overpasses built in other states that haven\u2019t been driven crazy by Left Coast environmentalist whacko-ism.<\/p>\n The difference is, those projects were completed within reasonable budget parameters and in relatively short order.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think it\u2019s wrong to question the leadership of this now hundred-million-dollar endeavor. Below is a video of Beth Pratt, the left-wing environmentalist activist who has been put in charge of the project.<\/p>\n Brace yourself.<\/p>\n Beth Pratt is the left-wing activist in charge of building Gavin Newsom’s $114 million cougar and butterfly bridge. She’s turned the bridge into a boondoggle, and now blames Trump for blown deadlines and increased costs. Her bio does not note any previous construction experience. pic.twitter.com\/eepoIW4vhd<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Christopher F. Rufo ?? (@christopherrufo) March 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Ah, there we go. The lady in the pink vest holding a stuffed animal says that the state with what the governor calls the \u201c4th largest economy in the world<\/a>\u201d can\u2019t finish this project because of President Donald Trump and tariffs or something.<\/p>\n Funny, I don\u2019t recall Trump being president back in 2022.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t want to be mean, but I can\u2019t say that this X post doesn\u2019t reflect exactly what I was thinking when I saw the video.<\/p>\n This woman should be in charge of a boutique in LA that loses tens of thousands of dollars every month but is propped up by her rich husband so that she has a hobby and feels good about herself<\/p>\n Instead we’re all on the hook for her hobby, and it cost hundreds of millions https:\/\/t.co\/KiynK3lVSm<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Confirmed Miscer ???? (@ManDaveJobGood) March 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n We should reasonably ask if this is just another gargantuan California boondoggle in a state that long ago forgot how to efficiently build infrastructure or practically anything at all.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no boondoggle, there\u2019s no people stealing money,\u201d Pratt\u00a0said when questioned<\/a>\u00a0about the bridge in January.<\/p>\n Rufo and Schrupp weren\u2019t convinced. And given how much this story falls in line with the modern\u00a0blue state patronage model<\/a>, I\u2019m not either.<\/p>\n The bridge supporting Wildlife Crossing Fund, cited by the City Journal, used government data to say that \u201c\u2019for every $1 billion spent\u2019 on wildlife crossings, \u201813,000 jobs are created.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n And as Rufo and Schrupp found, many of those \u201cjobs\u201d are absurd.<\/p>\n \u201cThe National Wildlife Federation\u2019s WAWC website claims that \u2018[o]ur Native Plant Nursery\u2019\u2014apparently funded by the nonprofit SAMO Fund and other \u2018partners\u2019\u2014\u2018has prioritized hiring Indigenous team members to help steward the plants that will vegetate the bridge,\u2019\u201d they wrote. \u201cThe nursery\u2019s co-manager said she makes an \u2018offering\u2019 after collecting seeds, sometimes including pieces of her hair.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s another job created.<\/p>\n \u201cThe nursery\u2019s founding manager worked with \u2018helpers and volunteers\u2019 to \u2018seed scout[]\u2019 across the Santa Monica Mountains,\u201d Rufo and Schrupp wrote. \u201cHer associates on the \u2018design team\u2019 received \u2018feedback from all the various project partners\u2019\u2014including state and federal bureaucrats\u2014for their plant list.\u201d<\/p>\n Even if everything here is being done legally, it\u2019s still an absolute insult to state taxpayers. It would almost be a relief to think that the money was simply being stolen under the noses of state authorities. But that\u2019s not what this looks like to me.<\/p>\n As you can imagine, Newsom responded to the allegations that his glorious butterfly bridge is a boondoggle with his typical grace and concern for government propriety.<\/p>\n Newsom\u2014or really one of his Zoomer interns\u2014went with an online \u201cgotcha,\u201d posting a picture of two assumedly disastrous bridge projects in Texas and Florida, two states he seems particularly concerned about for some reason.<\/p>\n The problem is that the pictures\u2014clearly meant to show incomplete bridges\u2014were of old, decommissioned bridges in the process of being taken down. In one of the pictures, you can actually see the new bridge completed on the other side if you click on it. Oops.<\/p>\n The picture on the left is the old Seven Mile Bridge in Key West that was built a century ago and has been decommissioned since its replacement was built in 1980.<\/p>\n Newsom’s moronic staffers think that’s somehow similar to the $100M ‘wildlife bridge’ they’ve failed to build. https:\/\/t.co\/ewu2m5tC8O<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Newsom can say whatever he wants, but the butterfly bridge is just another example of the kind of dysfunction that\u2019s become endemic in the Golden State. This is all worthwhile if you are politically connected or are otherwise on the public dole, I suppose. It\u2019s not so great for everyone else.<\/p>\n And California, as wealthy as it is, can\u2019t keep doing this forever. The tech money will eventually dry up. The budget deficit is already alarmingly high, and the proposed \u201cwealth tax\u201d won\u2019t fix things. If anything, it will make\u00a0the problem much worse<\/a>.<\/p>\n The good news for Newsom is that the whole thing may only truly blow up when he\u2019s out of office at the end of the year. I\u2019m sure a man with such noted humility will settle into a fine, modest retirement away from the public spotlight.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t