The New York Times ran an interesting op ed today on the decline of the “super project,” i.e., the Golden Gate Bridge/mega-Subway kind of project: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/weekinreview/29uchitelle.html?ref=weekinreview.
The article raises a very good point — one that’s received a lot of attention lately — about modern America’s lack of investment in our infrastructure. We’ve seen the results of this under-investment in crumbling bridges and roads, and President Obama attempted to address the issue by providing billions of dollars to shore up our infrastructure for “shovel ready” projects.
Yet, as important as the infrastructure aspect of the stimulus is, it begs the larger question of our continuing and consistent commitment to maintain the infrastructure that we have to and to create new infrastructure that will improve our quality of life, and the quality of life of our children and grandchildren, for decades to come.
There are two ways that we have fallen short on infrastructure. First, we have under-invested. For example, in San Francisco, we have almost half a billion dollars in deferred maintenance on our roads alone. Our public transportation system, Muni, has outdated technology and communications systems. A number of Muni vehicles are or will shortly require mid-life rebuilds, yet we have little or no money set aside to cover that important capital cost. Our sewer and water systems have aged without adequate investment. We are now starting to address these problems as a city and to dig ourselves out of the hole we have created — a hole that exists because we haven’t been disciplined in budgeting adequately to maintain our infrastructure.
Recently, on the bright side, we have been spending more in annual appropriations for road maintenance, though only enough to prevent further deterioration as opposed to enough to start improving road quality. We passed a bond to retrofit our water system and another one to rebuild San Francisco General Hospital. And, we are gradually replacing 100-year-old sewer pipes. In addition, we now have a 10-year capital plan (http://www.sfgov.org/site/cpp_index.asp?id=39210), which is updated each year and which (in a very realistic and sobering way) catalogs our many infrastructure needs, puts a price tag on them, and proposes funding mechanisms for at least some of the needs. If San Francisco is able to follow this plan, we will move in the right direction to dig out of our infrastructure hole.
The second way we have fallen short is in our vision to create new, smart, and big infrastructure projects that fundamentally improve our quality of life. For example, the pace of creating new public transportation in this country is pathetic. There is an important movement afoot to create a national high-speed-rail system, which will have dramatic positive impacts on transportation and economic growth. However, the federal stimulus allocates a meager $8 billion to help fund what will require hundreds of billions of dollars to build nationally in any meaningful way.
In San Francisco, we have no shortage of vision in terms of major new infrastructure. The Transbay Transit Center, which will be a transit hub for the entire Bay Area, from high-speed rail to other transit, is moving forward. Muni recently launched the Third Street Rail, which extended the light rail system to the southeast section of the city. The Central Subway is moving forward, despite concerns (which I share) about whether this was the best use of approximately $1.5 billion in scarce transit dollars. Bus rapid transit (where buses are physically separated from cars and thus do not have to contend with vehicle traffic congestion) appears to be moving ahead on Van Ness and Geary. And, we are seeing more and more of a push to change sidewalks and street crossings to improve pedestrian safety.
So, San Francisco is actually moving in the right direction on new infrastructure, particularly in the transit arena. That is a very good thing. However, we need to ensure that we are taking care of the infrastructure that we already have, from our roads to our waterfront piers (with billions of dollars in deferred maintenance) to the Hall of Justice (which requires either complete replacement or a massive retrofit to survive a major earthquake) to the current Muni infrastructure. Accomplishing this will require budgetary discipline, and it will not happen overnight. When budget season comes around, we need to make sure that infrastructure investment — which benefits everyone from all walks of life on a daily basis — is right up there with other critical priorities like health care and public safety. It also will require budget reform like devoting one-time revenue to one-time expenses (i.e., capital expenses). This budget reform hasn’t gotten traction yet, but it is a sensible way to start devoting more funding to infrastructure and to make some big changes in the long run.
