Infrastructural Guignol & Conservative Failure

In rural New York, a stream appeared overnight. Although the water is clear and delicious, the stream is no miracle. As reported in The New York Times [1], a leaky water tunnel is releasing some 36 million gallons of water into the earth each day. The problems aren't limited to New York. In January, an 80-year-old water main burst in Chicago, cutting an 80-foot-wide hole in the street. Our water system is old and ailing. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that water utilities will need to spend some $280 billion over the next 20 years in order to provide repairs, upkeep and modernization. In the meantime, you can expect more and more water main spectacles across the nation [2] For even more infrastructural guignol, check out the online component of Popular Mechanics' "Rebuilding America Report." There's a slide show [3] of America's 10 worst pieces of infrastructure, and a list [4] of five possible (but fixable) disasters. Here's Disaster #4, the "Gotham Superstorm."

The storm surge of a Category 3 or 4 hurricane that came ashore in New York City and on Long Island could submerge Kennedy Airport, dump seawater into the city's subways throughout lower Manhattan and flood the Holland and Brooklyn Battery Tunnels. "The first storm's going to be a little bit of a bad day for us," says Kelly McKinney, the deputy commissioner for planning and preparedness at New York's Office of Emergency Management.

There's even more juicy disaster pornography on the site (I don't think I'll be walking over the Brooklyn Bridge anytime soon [5]) but the report is a little thin on the political economy. America's looming infrastructure nightmare wasn't accidental. It is the direct consequence of a long conservative crusade against public spending. Sometimes this meant unsalutory neglect [6] and sometimes it meant explicit attacks on funding [7]. But the result was the same: unsafe bridges and tunnels, broken levees, sinkholes, decaying public transportation, cracking dams. The Popular Mechanic report suggests some good ways to 'rebuild America.' But the projects will be massively expensive, and they will require massive political will. Much of our infrastructure was built during the New Deal [8] and it might take another one to rebuild it. [9]