My Opinion About the BIG News—Crumbling Infrastructures (May 2)
Have you heard? America’s infrastructures are crumbling. Yeah, apparently, we’ve been reluctant to invest in our infrastructures for well over fifty years. Ugh! There’s been a lot of promises made, but little action.
I don’t live in Michigan, but I do own land there. Michigan is not alone when it comes to their highly neglected infrastructures, however. I’m extremely interested in seeing them upgrade their old systems.
The article above states that this effort is largely made possible due to two things …
- A very rare bipartisan effort around water-related policies
- $50 billion dollars from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law by President Joe Biden last November.
Finally! This bill is the largest of its kind in half a century.
The last big federal investment supported the construction grant program for modern sewage treatment following the enactment of the Clean Water Act.
I’m sorry but what is the matter with us?
We experienced so much progress in the 20th century, but the unprecedented efforts to make America a modern and connected country just seems to have waned to nothing as the second half of the century rolled by.
We’re the richest country in the world, yet as China is pouring their efforts into building a modern infrastructure, America is relying on a crumbling 20th century infrastructure to keep our cities functioning.
We’ve had little interest in maintaining what we already have, however, let alone restructuring and updating our infrastructures to meet the new challenges of climate change.
Our old and crumbling 20th century models were never designed to manage the kind of massive rainfalls that now take place in shorter and shorter time periods.
Remember New York City last year?
Heavy rains caused floods of unusual magnitude in nearly all streams in New York. More than half a foot of rain in just a few hours turned streets and subway platforms into rivers.
Clearly, we aren’t prepared for what’s coming. Sorry, I meant to say for what’s already here.
Can we turn this dismal state of affairs around, a situation due almost entirely to massive neglect. Will we? I’m keeping my eye on Michigan. They have a lot more at stake than most people know. Michigan will most likely become a climate refuge state for Americans forced to relocate to kinder climates in more northern regions.
Yes, the shift has already begun.
In the meantime, cities all over America better get busy, because our rotting infrastructures can barely do the job they were designed to do let alone deal with what’s now becoming the new normal.
Michigan, I’m keeping my eye on you.
Teresa Roberts is a retired educator, author, world traveler, and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
