General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUPDATED | In 1890, Benjamin Harrison was the US President, Idaho and Wyoming became states, and
Last edited Wed Jul 18, 2012, 04:41 PM - Edit history (1)
. . . . a 20 inch water main was laid beneath Light Street in downtown Baltimore.
That pipe burst yesterday and will disrupt thousands of lives for at least the next three weeks.
The story was in Baltimore this time, but the situation exists all across this country. Here in "We're Number One" America, our infrastructure is so neglected as to be almost criminal. With infrastructure that is more than a century old common, we are in constant danger of having something break.
Here in Baltimore, there are, famously, still some *wooden* pipes below the oldest part of the city.
Sewers, bridges, electric lines, steam lines, gas lines, all those mains, crossing, shifting with the earth. Just a little. But always shifting.
Look at that gas main in San Bruno. Was that a year ago? Two?
The I-35 bridge.
The list of failures is long. The potential for catastrophe is high.
Bills languish in Congress. No tax increases. States are now as broke as the feds.
No tax increases.
Maybe the teabaggers can hold a bake sale to buy the road fairy a new magic wand.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-07-16/news/bs-md-ci-light-st-water-main-20120716-11_1_kurt-kocher-proactive-repairs-public-works
edit: The update is in my new post, below.
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)RobertEarl
(13,685 posts).... Baltimore needs to have the US declare war on it.
Then the federal dollars will flow.
Blecht
(3,803 posts)Right into Halliburton's pockets.
Nothing would get fixed, though.
phantom power
(25,966 posts)what if we, like, hired some of the millions of people who are desperate for jobs, to fix all this 19th-century shizzle?
...
Nah, I'm sure if we just keep the free-money firehose pointed down the pie-holes of banksters, it will sort itself out.
sarisataka
(18,895 posts)it worked once- eight million jobs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration
phantom power
(25,966 posts)And it would work just as well today. But our Very Serious Leaders have all decided that they're going to pretend Keynesian economics isn't Serious Enough because liberal hippies like it, and even Democrats are obligated to punch hippies in a ritual cleansing. Or something.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)progressoid
(50,013 posts)Just let the invisible hand of the market fix it.
spanone
(135,924 posts)they can't put their names on underground pipes
phantom power
(25,966 posts)progressoid
(50,013 posts)lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)ThoughtCriminal
(14,052 posts)one that clearly hasn't learned what being "American" is.
Stinky The Clown
(67,838 posts). . . . . modern standards is more than $2 Billion.
That's just one city of less than 700,000 people. That's just one infrastructure system in that one city of less than 700,000 people.
Extrapolate *that*!