We in this area have known for some time of the plans by Robert Kraft and family to build an industrial park on land he owns across U.S. 1 from Gillette Stadium, and his desire to have a footbridge span the highway to link the two parcels with less risk to pedestrians.

But apparently, it's not "news" until the Globe gets hold of it - which it did Saturday. Apparently, Gov. Deval Patrick has put on the fast track a plan to devote $9 million of federal stimulus money to the footbridge linking the Kraft-owned properties, while bypassing several other public works projects that, in the eyes of some observers, have more valid reasons to use the federal funding than a plan to enhance a billionaire's playground.

Needless to say, the public response was overwhelmingly negative. Some of the responses were the usual sort of nonsense that one comes to expect under newspaper stories in the Age of the Internet - playing fast and loose with the facts, resorting to insulting references to the primary players in this melodrama rather than using logic to support one's objections, and a lot of borderline illiteracy. If those responses are representative of the majority of the general public, then I seriously fear for the future of the republic.

But amid all the rhetoric, there seems to be a consensus that there's very little reason to support using stimulus money to build a bridge that has far fewer benefits to the general public than it does for a family corporation that has propelled its patriarch into the list of top 500 billionaires in the country.

About the only public benefit I can see is that another bridge over U.S. 1 would funnel most of the pedestrian traffic over the highway on 10 or so game days each year, and maybe another 20 events that would require that the parking lots across the street be used for a stadium event. Route 1, of course, is a state highway. The sidewalks on either side are also of state origin. Everything else on either side is Kraft-owned, but at least it makes some sense for the state (or some other public entity providing the funding) to pay for at least some of the cost to build a bridge that would increase public safety over a state highway.

And, the precedent is already set. When Gillette Stadium was built, the state chipped in $80 million in "infrastructure improvements" to re-do the parking lots.

For about the first three or four years after Gillette opened in 2002, that money was well-spent. But the Kraft Group's development of Patriot Place changed everything.

Most of the football game-day parking was moved across the street to new lots, vehicular and pedestrian traffic became a nightmare again, and it's still far from being as functional and convenient as it was in those few happy days before Bob and Jonathan figured out that they could squeeze a shopping mall into their east-side parking lots.

So if a new bridge over Route 1 can move the pedestrians out of my way as I try to make it to the media parking lot, I'm all for it. But at the expense of federal stimulus money that could address far more pressing situations? I'm not sure that's the right thing to do.

Kraft wants to build a business park across the street, one that would house medical and high-tech firms according to the stories that have run in the news pages of your Blue Ribbon Daily. Surely, a pedestrian bridge would benefit that park because the Kraft Group would encourage the employees working at those firms to eat and shop at Patriot Place across the street.

No doubt, the Krafts would like to encourage as many individuals as they can to utilize Patriot Place. It's still unclear whether the place has been a boon or a boondoggle; by all reports, the restaurants are doing a brisk business, but a large number of retail storefronts are still empty. There are days when, in my wandering through the shops on the way to Five Guys, the loudest noise there other than the piped-in music is from the chirping crickets.

The few supporters of the bridge project touted the fact that Kraft chose to build his stadium with mostly his own money, and therefore brought jobs and tax income to the commonwealth. Yes, he did - but not until after trying unsuccessfully to convince politicians in three New England states to foot the bill for him.

Basically, he had no choice.

That choice was an expensive one, but you have to spend money to make money, and Kraft has done both, and done it well, off Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place. For a man who has the potential of writing 10 figures or more before the decimal point on his checks, it would seem to me that another $9 million to build a fancy footbridge (complete with elevators!) can be written off as part of the cost of doing business in Massachusetts. Or at the very least, the Krafts should pay for any expenses over the cost of building a bare-bones bridge over a public highway that would serve the needs of public safety. If the Krafts want to make it extra wide, or add elevators, Starbucks kiosks or any other amenities to the structures on the sides of the road, it should come out of their pockets.

It certainly shouldn't be a gift-wrapped Christmas present from the federal government.

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com. Read Farinella's blog, "Blogging Fearlessly," at thesunchronicle.com/farinella.