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
Minneapolis Mayor Rybak was interviewed on NPR and plans to divert some of the forthcoming money to develop more bicycle trails for commuters.
Here is how democrats fix bridges.
http://www.thedeadpelican.com/jackstands.htm
Maybe it's also because the entire state politico is CORRUPT.
Mr G works with someone who’s good friend is a civil engineer in Minneapolis. This CE has refused to drive over that bridge for at least 10 years....he drove way out of his way so he wouldn’t have to use it.
I guess that I missed the point where I am shown why I must pay for a system of levees to control flooding in a flood plain below Sea level for those people who choose to live there.
As I see it, these are all local issues for which the local governments need to accept the arcane concept of "responsibility," and stop pointing fingers at everyone else but themselves like a 5 year old child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
A bridge collasped. That is called gravity, and that is the way that it is.
Bush and the levee’s,Reagan and the bridge in Minn., as the old Maine farmer once said, “ya can’t get there from here” but that’s never stopped these liberal losers from trying anyhow !!!
They should have the above warning at the beginning so you don't waste your time reading and wondering how an author can be so stupid. Once again another idiot, this time David Johnson, writes from the template that ALL MONEY belongs to the government, and the government distributes that money as it sees fit.
...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.
How hard could it be for Johnson and his ilk to understand that Democrat politicians seek to confiscate as much money as possible from society's hard-working success stories (Republicans) in order that they may use that money to buy the votes of society's losers, bums, and parasites (Democrats)?
Either this writer is an idiot -- or he thinks the paper's subscribers are idiots.
Why would there be jacks there at all instead of a cut to fit beam or concrete?
How about every time they tried to fix it, the Sierra Club and O.W.L. sued the Army Corp of Engineers because some tree or animal was in danger. That’s the real reason. These freaks care more about animals than they do about people. And that’s the bottom line.
David Johnson must be a dumb ass as Holland flooded many times and may do so again as the gateway in the North Sea will only hold back so much water and a 100 year storm could over ride the gateways.
Loads of our money "spent", apparently just leaked away without any infrastructure ever being improved....
If this has been posted on one of the Bridge Collapse threads, please accept my apologies.
Here is a map that shows every bridge in the US and pertinent information on each bridge. Just click on your state, to see what condition your bridges are in:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20093413/
Those tax cuts he goes on about didn't decrease the government's take of money...it increased it dramatically. There was much more money after the Reagan and Bush II tax cuts were adopted. And those tax cuts didn't redistribute income (from poor to rich), they are the definitional antithesis of redistribution...they allow a person to keep more of what they earn (as an incentive to earn more, and by earning more pay the government more times - the gov't. gets a smaller slice more often).
The only people "hurt" by tax cuts are those who don't bother to earn anything, those that are merely waiting for the Great White Father's handout.
Factually incorrect. So far from being correct one has to wonder just how this insane lunatic keeps his job? 2 billion a day would be $730 billion a year. The entire US Defense budget this year is $459 billion. This clown claims we are spending almost double the total US Defense budget for the entire year in Iraq! A complete idiot is this one. We would have to be spending about 1/4 of the entire Federal Budget for this year just on Iraq if this clown's numbers were any where near accurate.
Yes, it’s blatant. And here’s my email to the author.
Dear Sir:
Your political utterings aside, the money for repair to the bridge in question was most certainly available to the locality and was not applied.
Look there for the facts, if you dare. My guess, you can’t. It will shatter your world. Orwell lives and you are his illustration.
Good day.
I guess we should be glad that this idiot is just a prof and not an engineer...
I read an article in the past year that engineers from Holland came here and said for $40 billion they could protect NOLA from ever flooding. The government turned down the best levee engineers in the world. It would have been less than we have spent thus far. I wish I could find the article link
[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-. ]
Of course, these will all change to A+ when the dems take over.
“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.”...
Professor at South Suburban “College”, and former Mayor of Harvey, one of the poorest, run down crime-ridden suburbs around Chicago - ‘nuff said about his orientation.
Bravo Sierra.
Reagan also created the AIDS crisis. He personally flew across the globe performing anal rape on unsuspecting monogamous homosexual men, and spread the HIV virus everywhere. He surely must be the worst president in history!
the people who were suppose to edit this article should be fired....
I often think about how Dimocrats like to romanticize federal tax policy in terms of Robin Hood...that is, take from the evil rich and give to the good poor. But then, unlike the Dimocrats, I get a few neurons firing and ask: What have the rich done for me versus what have the poor done for me? The list for the rich is fairly extensive: they are entrepreneurs who create new jobs, expand and create new products and markets, support the arts and charity, contribute to capital formation, and pay the lion's share of federal income taxes (e.g., the top 10% of the income distribution pay over 80% of the income taxes). Then I list all of the things the poor do for me: Nada...zilch...nothing, except drain money from the public coffers without giving anything back except another generation of dependent, unproductive members of society. Johnson and all other liberals are clueless as to what drives the economic engine that makes the US the best place on earth to live. If you liberals want to help the unproductive members of society, fine...but do it with your own money, not mine.
Clearly, the problem is not lack of money, it’s lack of focus.
It is possible, just possible, that we may all be surprised by the cause of this catastrophe and it has nothing to do with rust or neglect. But, in the absence of facts, it’s always safe to blame the Republicans.
And the Democrat administrations in between had nothing to do with it?
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.
Which is a GREAT thing.
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.
And did he get it?
Along with cuts in social programs there was deregulation of the economy.
Which happened where? Be specific. Did the budgets for the bridges ever get cut?
A second example: Civilian public investment (in infrastructure, research and development, education and training, and the like) fares even worse. In 1997, outlays in these areas are projected at $136 billion, or 1.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In George Bush's administration, the level was as high as 1.9 percent of GDP, and during the Reagan administration, up to 2.5 percent. We would need an extra $60 billion next year to compare to efforts during the reign of the Great Sonambulator.
http://maxspeak.org/Op-eds/Federal_Budget/Bridge_to_Nowhere(6-26-97).htm
Hmmm, 1997. Now who was President then?
The concrete slabs fell into the water with the Katrina tidal surge. They sat there in brackish water for up to several months and then were placed back onto the support pillars. Many were damaged on the ends due to the fall (see the cracks). After being replaced, presumably the fit was poor in some cases because there was a lot of switching of the sections to complete one side of the bridge first. I presume the jacks are there to support those sections that do not fit well and that would be prone to slip back off the pillars. One can only imagine the condition of the rebar in these sections after being in salt water for months. This bridge is about 6 miles long (12 if you consider both sides) and dozens if not tens of dozens of these sections were damaged.
Right. There were no presidents between Reagan and Bush II.
Well done! Futile, though, I have no doubt. He won’t dare, as you suggest. He’ll be hit in the face with the facts, though, but will never acknowledge them.
The answer is the neglect of infrastructure.
Ding, ding, ding. Wrong.
That is the symptom not the reason
The reason is liberal political corruption. Both cities are moonbat havens run by liberals
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