Article: Our infrastructure's becoming an embarrassment

[NewJeffCT]

Good op-ed piece in today's Hartford Courant:

Our Infrastructure's Becoming An Embarrassment
Susanna Rodell
August 3, 2007

A few years ago, my in-laws from Australia came to visit. I picked them up at LaGuardia Airport. My sister-in-law glanced out the window, a look of dismay on her face. "I thought I was coming to the richest country in the world," she said. "This looks like the Third World."

All around us were piles of dirt, rusty construction equipment, half-filled ditches, puddles of filthy water. The highway was a mass of potholes and cracks. The road signs were dirty, in some cases actually illegible. I felt ashamed.

Last year I spent some time back in Australia. Arriving in Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport, I was immediately surrounded by spotless concourses and, once outside, pretty eucalyptus trees and a smooth new highway entering the city, lined by colorful modern sculptures.

I met an old friend there, an American married to an Australian and a frequent traveler to Asia. He had recently gone home to the San Francisco Bay Area for a visit. His first impression after years away from home? "Everything looked so sad and old," he said. Even in one of the most prosperous areas of America, the infrastructure looked rundown. In Shanghai, by contrast, he said, all was new and sparkling. "It's a city that works," he told me.

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-rodell0803.artaug03,0,4335993.story

[Bonobo]

1. I go back and forth to Japan alot. Exactly the same. US is filthy and rundown.

[NewJeffCT]

2. What I find remarkable was when I was in Shanghai

They have a whole section along the Pudong river that was built in the 1930s called The Shanghai Bund that is very similar to buildings built in New York City around that time. The only thing is, those buildings in Shanghai are very well maintained and clean. The buildings in NYC haven't looked like that in decades. :-(

Not a great picture, but this gives you an idea. It's way more impressive in person.

[Bonobo]

11. Almost nothing left of that era in Japanese cities...

But I know what you mean, wow...

[antigop]

3. And look who may profit from all of this....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1497299

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1497394

[NewJeffCT]

4. it's not just Carlyle

I know that GE has invested a ton of money in infrastructure development.

But, it is something that has to be done.

And, it will require:
1) Getting out of Iraq - that would clear up $60-70 billion/year. The actual current cost is more, but I figure some troops would have to be sent back to Afghanistan to clear up that disaster, and maybe some peacekeepers in Darfur?

2) Rolling back the Bush tax cuts beyond just the top 1% that many have talked about - call it the plan to Renew and Rebuild America, or something similar. That would mean $100 billion+/year.

And, just think how many good paying construction and engineering jobs will be created?

http://www.ge.com/company/businesses/index.html

Their 3rd or 4th segment is called "GE Infrastructure" and it employs 85,000 people and generated $47 billion in revenues for GE in 2006 - which is about 3 times the revenue of NBC/Universal.

[antigop]

6. Please read the second link....Wall Street firms besides Carlyle

>>
Now a slew of Wall Street firms—Goldman, Morgan Stanley, the Carlyle Group, Citigroup, and many others—is piling into infrastructure, following the lead of pioneers like Australia's Macquarie Group.
>>

[NewJeffCT]

7. Thanks, I did

I know in CT we've had a recent bad experience with "outsourced" infrastructure improvements. A private company putting in storm drains/sewers along a highway just put in what looked like sewers - but, they were kind of just sewer-looking decorations.

To top it off, they outsourced the inspection of the work to yet another private firm, who was seemingly in cahoots with the company that installed the fake drains.

Now, it will cost the state millions to take out the fake drains and re-install proper drains.

[NewJeffCT]

8. late morning kick

thx

[Cobalt Violet]

5. But we have all those new and sparkling detention centers.

You know, the ones like Halliburton is building for the "rapid development of new programs".

[JohnShadows]

9. It kinda is the third world, if you think about it...

... what happens in third world countries like South Korea, or Hussein's Iraq? Some nutjob takes all the money and funnels it into the military, instead of spending it on infrastructure. That's what's happening in the U.S. now.

[NewJeffCT]

10. good point - and welcome to DU

It is not that different.