Posted on 08/05/2007 9:03:43 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
What does the bridge collapse in Minneapolis have in common with the Hurricane Katrina fiasco in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast? The answer is the neglect of infrastructure.
If you saw Spike Lee's splendid documentary, "When The Levees Broke," you got to see the levees developed in Holland. This is a country sitting below sea level and it's managed to build a state-of-the-art dike system that has enabled it to avoid the type of flooding seen in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast.
On the other hand, the United States has a dike and levee system that is a throwback to a bygone era. Why would the richest country in the world have a second-rate levee system in one of the most vulnerable regions to flooding?
The answer is to be found in the ideological approached used by the by this and past Republican administrations. Republicans and some Democrats believe that government is a beast that must be starved of tax dollars. This will help to reduce the size and influence of government for our society and the economy.
Ronald Reagan came into office with the expressed goal of dismantling social programs created under the New Deal and the Great Society initiatives of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, respectively. Along with cuts in social programs there was deregulation of the economy.
In addition, generous tax cuts were given to the wealthiest segments of society; this helped engineer the greatest transfer of wealth and income from the bottom to the top of American society. It was in this context that maintenance on the country's infrastructure was deferred.
About 25 percent of America's bridges that are longer than 20 feet are considered structurally unsound.
The American Society of Civil Engineers reports on its Web site that, between 2000 and 2003, the percentage of the nation's 590,750 bridges rated structurally deficient or functionally obsolete decreased slightly from 28.5 to 27.1 percent. However, it will cost $9.4 billion a year for 20 years to eliminate all bridge deficiencies. Long-term underinvestment is compounded by the lack of a federal transportation program.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, infrastructure in the United States barely receives a passing grade. Aviation infrastructure received a grade of D+. Bridges get a grade of C; dams a grade of D; drinking water, a grade of D-; the national power grid a grade of D; and waste management a grade of D. Roads get a grade of D and schools, from a structural standpoint, earn a grade of D-.
Would you be pleased if your son or daughter brought home these grades from school? I don't think you would.
When you add to the above list health care and a program for balanced urban revitalization, you get a picture that shows a serious need for a shift in the country's priorities.
Hurricane Katrina exposed the lack of preparedness and incompetence in the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the callous disregard of the Bush administration for the victims of Katrina. The Minneapolis bridge collapse paints a picture broader than the face of Katrina.
Americans regardless of race, ethnic and class background are at risk from a crumbling infrastructure. Perhaps these facts will help to underscore the urgent need for a shift in our national priorities, especially when $2 billion a day is being spent on a war in Iraq that should never have been fought.
When people are educated and involved in issues of public policy they are better able to resist ideological arguments that mislead people into believing that their interests are being addressed by someone with communication skills and media support.
If the Minneapolis bridge collapse and Katrina help to teach Americans that disasters like these can be avoided by a more enlightened domestic and foreign policy, the lives lost will not have been in vain.
However, citizens will have to get more involved in the public policy debate at every level of our society and press our elected officials to address the vital issues of the day.
Nothing less than the quality of our lives is at stake.
David Johnson's "Subject to Change" appears every other week in The Star. Johnson is a professor at South Suburban College in South Holland and a former mayor of Harvey. He may be reached at djohnson@southsuburbancollege.edu.
At least it isn’t Bush’s fault this time!
"It's not that our Liberal friends are ignorant. It's that they know so much that isn't so."
Exhibit A: David Johnson.
bump
The problem here is not that Government, at all levels, lacks the money to spend on infrastructure repair, the problem is the Govt, at all levels, repeatedly misspends the funds it does have.
This bridge was determined structurally deficient in 1990. It was build using 1960s engineering norms that were now out of date.
During the 1990s the State of Minnesota diverted over a billion dollars of State, and Federal, infrastructure dollars into an eco-freak boondoggle light rail project between down town Minneapolis and the Minneapolis airport. The project was called the “Hiawatha Light Rail Corridor”. Maybe Minnesota politicians should of been tending to their existing infrastructure instead of wasting our money for political “legacy building” and “prestige” projects.
Using the currently stated cost for rebuilding the bridge at $250 million, for the cost of the light rail project this bridge could of been completely rebuilt from scratch 5 or 6 times during the 1990s.
This “Hiawatha Light Rail”project was largely the brain child of the Metropolitan Council . Either as the head of the council, or one of its most politically connected members, at the time was former VP Walter Mondale’s son Ted Mondale.
The sadly ironic thing here is the terminal for this billion dollar waste of state and Federal transportation dollars is about 1 mile from the bridge that collapsed.
Here is the link to the the website about the line. The bridge that collapsed is the one on the map where 35W crosses the blue line of the Mississippi River in the upper right of the map.
http://www.metrocouncil.org/transportation/lrt/lrt.htm
Additional information
“...$2 billion a day is being spent on a war in Iraq...”
What a liar David Johnson is!
I agree. The amount we spend on social programs is just off the scale. Politicians raid the “infrastructure” accounts in all states year after year to buy more votes by giving ever greater amounts of money away to those they deem “needy”.
Wow! No mention that New Orleans Dem’s controlled the money that maintained the levees.
” generous tax cuts were given to the wealthiest segments of society; this helped engineer the greatest transfer of wealth and income from the bottom to the top of American society.”
Wow, pretty much sums up where this guy is coming from (and it is not reality).
Almost barfed right there, told me exactly how the rest of this was going to go...
...the levees developed in Holland. This is a country sitting below sea level and it's managed to build a state-of-the-art dike system that has enabled it to avoid the type of flooding seen in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast.
What has really enabled Holland to avoid that type of flooding is geography - sitting off the North Sea where there are no Hurricanes fool!
If the Minneapolis bridge collapse and Katrina help to teach Americans that disasters like these can be avoided by a more enlightened domestic and foreign policy, the lives lost will not have been in vain.
Ah yes, that wonderful keyword "enlightened"... Anytime I hear that, I just translate that into "unrealistically idealistic" ;-) What this guy doesn't seem to get is that bridge maintenance is financed through fuel taxes. It was Minnesota's responsibility, not the feds.
Really? The fact that we have sent over $500,000 per man, woman, and child who lived in pre-Katrina New Orleans doesn't suggest "disregard" to me. In fact, I don't think a dime of federal funds should be sent to NO, especially when it passes through Nagin's corrupt hands. If you're dumb enough to build a home 8' below sea level and not insure it, you gambled...you lost. Not my problem...not my gov't's problem. Johnson simply has an agenda and that's to blame Bush for everything. What a bunch of crap.
Why does everybody forget that money was being on this bridge at the time of collapse? So maybe the money would have been better spent on the structure rather than the surface, but quit bitchin that Iraq, etc. has taken money away.
Ah, but it is...Reagan and Bush did this...LOL
"Perhaps these facts will help to underscore the urgent need for a shift in our national priorities, especially when $2 billion a day is being spent on a war in Iraq that should never have been fought."
“Why would the richest country in the world have a second-rate levee system in one of the most vulnerable regions to flooding? “
Oooh!!! I know I know.
Is it because people vote for second-rate politicians?
Is it because all these states have high taxes and use their federal infrastructure dollars to pay for their buddies luxuries while the people suffer?
Is it because liberalism is a mental disorder and these people have no clue how to govern?
Or is it all of the above?
There can be no “official neglect” because Bill Clinton fixed this problem, he promised:
Bill Clinton’s campaign promise to put people back to work and jumpstart the economy by spending $20 billion a year on infrastructure has generated a similar frenzy among the nation’s highway-building interests.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1525/is_n2_v78/ai_13475745
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