(By Guy Heston.)
Americans seem to take our infrastructure for granted. Turn on the faucet and here comes the water. Flick a switch and on come the lights. The gas company will make sure you are warm in the winter. We expect everything to work with nothing more to think about than paying the monthly bill, which we gripe about but pay anyway to keep the lights and heat on, and with precious little thought about what has to go on to make all of the infrastructure function.
We are making a mistake with this thought. Infrastructure requires ongoing investment and maintenance to keep everything working. It doesn’t happen magically, and if we don’t pay for it through our utility bills, taxes and programs to help those less fortunate keep the lights on, we will suffer the consequences—blackouts, worse floods and fire damage, roads in disrepair, more unhoused people because they can’t pay the bill and so forth. Yes, there will always be natural disasters such as the recent fire in Maui and Category 3 hurricane in Florida, but well built and maintained infrastructure can often greatly lessen the damage and heartbreak.
I worked in public transportation for three decades and was always amazed by elected officials’ lack of interest in infrastructure maintenance. I could always find federal grants to fund new buses, transit centers, customer amenities and the like, and it was a given that we had to have a public event to celebrate the arrival of new buses or the opening of a new transit center, where elected officials could talk about what had been accomplished for the community and show off shiny new stuff. Great photo opportunities for the press.
Maintenance of such infrastructure was another matter, and in my experience a topic that politicians found about as interesting as watching an egg boil. When I would explain the importance of keeping up the infrastructure the taxpayers had invested in, slightly glazed eyes seemed to be the order of the day. There was even a rule (since thankfully modified), that federal transit funds could not be spent on maintenance. More than once I was told by an elected official that operational expenses for a new project was my problem, not theirs.
When each fiscal year I would draft our transit system's proposed budget, my first order of business was to talk to the maintenance staff. What do we need to keep things running? Resealed shop floors, reupholstering of bus seats, that sort of thing. Nothing sexy about it but kept things running in a good state of order. And for newly proposed capital projects I learned to ask how we were going to keep said projects well maintained. Some of them were cancelled because I didn’t get a good answer.
I was once asked to participate in a focus group on the strategic future of the California State University. The faculty members of the group, rightly so, talked about the importance of student outcomes and investing in faculty. When it came my turn to comment I said it was also important to invest in the maintenance of the 23 CSU campuses infrastructure. I proffered that we were sitting in a lovely classroom near the grassy, tree lined campus quad and that it took money to keep everything functioning so the faculty could teach and the students learn. Based on the quizzical looks I received you would have thought I had just landed from Mars. The faculty members looked at me with the interest of watching an egg boil. I glanced at the chief facilities officer of the university who was also participating in the group and we exchanged slight smiles and kept quiet.
So here is my proposal. Let’s make our nation’s infrastructure maintenance glamorous. A newly resurfaced road with Beyonce dancing on it in a TikTok video? Barbie sitting in a bus with new seats and a refurbished engine (yes, well maintained buses are needed during an emergency evacuation)? Harry Styles showing off a new maintenance shop floor? I realize that none of this is likely to happen, but perhaps it is time to reimagine our nation’s approach to infrastructure and remind our elected officials that decide on the use of taxpayer dollars that maintenance may not be glamorous but is critical in everyday life and even more so when a natural disaster strikes. Well maintained roads, water systems, power grids, public transit buses and the like keep our collective lives running.
Sexy, no. Needed, yes.
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