TEDx 1000Lakes - Chuck Marohn: Video Shows The Weird Unsustainable Nature Of American Infrastructure

There's a lot of meat here in a fairly short video. Likely will be back with thoughts.

The Fight To Cross A Bridge In Cleveland

Photo from Rust Wire

I've seriously thought about expanding the blog's name and mission yet again to include the maligned city of Cleveland, and all the area in between. Like it or not, Cleveland is the nearest neighboring planet of size and improvements in both places will be good for all.

A fight is developing, for the simple right of pedestrians and bikes to cross a major highway bridge there. You know, it sucks when people who live in the city inconvenience those who are just passing through. Perhaps the whole city should be labled an obstruction to highway traffic, like the South Bronx was.

"Residents in Tremont, one of Cleveland’s fastest growing neighborhoods, were cut off from downtown when ODOT closed an onramp last year that connected the area to downtown with virtually a straight line.

The bridge is going to be replaced anyway, beginning in 2011. So why not include such a path? It seems rare nowadays that the common sense, the public interest, and federal agency’s directives are on the same page. The Federal Highway Administration’s officially adopted policy for new transportation infrastructure, you would think, makes it easy for ODOT to give the path a green light:"

Dennis Kucinich, today took the issue to the house floor and the story was picked up by the Streetsblog network, which is emerging as an important grapevine for pro urban activists.

Ohio Gets Major Dollars For High Speed Rail

This is in no way a comprehensive report, but it seems Ohio will be getting $400 million federal dollars towards creating high speed rail connections on a planned route linking Cincinnati,Dayton,Columbus and Cleveland. The route is somewhat suprising but perhaps wise, providing it's a start.

If you think about it a bit, one grasps that that one of the Midwest's greatest assets is the gently rolling or flat land that makes transport easy. Chicago was the city of broad shoulders because it acted as the central rail head for a vast,rich and flat area of the country. Like it or not, geographic realities place us practically closer to the cities of the Midwest than to most in the east.

As far as I can tell, other funding will be granted to make a link from Chicago to Detroit and Pontiac, a route that honestly seems to make little but political sense. No progress will be made so far on the logical historic rail link between Chicago, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

I will try to follow this and remain optimistic. The whole thing feels weird. On the one hand, almost all logic and common sense points to the need to revive a great rail system. But, should the government--the same entity that used so much cash and power to destroy our cities and create such a misguided free road system be in this game? How's it done taking care of our highways?

Even more disturbing is that, no real break as far as I can tell has been made with past mistakes. We just don't have money to continue supporting most of our road infrastructure while building a new rail system at the same time. Real goals and choices have to be made. The wisest one being to systematically cut off most federal interstate highway dollars while leaving the market to quickly start creating alternatives, which almost certainly would revolve around rail. (The idea everything must be really high speed is a wasteful fetish. All that's really needed is to be significantly faster than driving.)

By the way, if you haven't noticed it, one of the primary reasons given for Federal Highways was as emergency urban evacuation routes-- a concept proven wrong on numerous occassions like the 2005 failed evacuation of New Orleans. (When the Federally "guaranteed" levee system broke)

Beware Of Feds Bearing Gifts

While doing research on another much more in depth post, I came to realise how much our current cities and landscapes had been shaped by projects born in the last great economic downturn when the Federal Government offered to "stimulate" and improve cities.

Few were as eager for the cash as Newark, New Jersey. "Newark pursued Federal Funds".

"The city made serious mistakes with public housing and urban renewal, although these were not the sole causes of Newark's tragedy. Across several administrations, the city leaders of Newark considered the federal government's offer to pay for 100% of the costs of housing projects as a blessing. The decline in industrial jobs meant that more poor people needed housing, whereas in prewar years, public housing was for working class families. While other cities were skeptical about putting so many poor families together and were cautious in building housing projects, Newark pursued federal funds. Eventually, Newark had a higher percentage of its residents in public housing than any other American city."

No doubt, there was a short "boom" and and many jobs tearing down neighborhoods and constructing "transportation improvements", like the mass of Highways that cut through the city.

"Billed as transportation improvements, construction of new highways: Interstate 280, the New Jersey Turnpike, and Interstate 78 harmed Newark. They directly hurt the city by dividing the fabric of neighborhoods and displacing many residents. The highways indirectly hurt the city because the new infrastructure made it easier for middle-class workers to live in the suburbs and commute into the city."

Not sayin this what's in store-- thankfully because government's at all levels are too broke, but watch out for that "free stuff". It often costs more than you think.