Use It or Lose It

Bob Herbert's column in today's Courier-Journal discusses the sorry state of our nation's infrastructure . Herbert cites a finding of the American Society of Civil Engineers that the infrastructure is in such " sad shape, and it would take more than a TRILLION and a HALF DOLLARS over a five year period to bring it back to a reasonably adequate condition." (emphasis added)

This national abdication of responsibility has had local consequences. If the federal government can simply walk away from a crumbling infrastructure, why should we be expected to do more in our own city? The bar has been lowered to such a depth that we simply write off as unnecessary such extravagances as Main Street Hill and now Spring Street Hill. Herbert points out that the Current Occupant (as Garrison Keillor so eloquently refers to The Decider) has decided to forego, for the time being, New Orleans. These solutions to difficult problems are the result of a mindset discussed in a "greatest hits" version of New Albany Confidential posted yesterday on that site. The New Albanian pointed out that, like excercise-averse chubsters, we have chosen as a nation to throw our lot in with tax-averse hucksters. We'd like a city that can keep its streets open, or fix its sewers, or clean up its alleys, or rejuvenate its neighborhoods, or fix up its downtown, or enforce its ordinances, or fill in the blank. Yes, we'd like those things, but not at the expense of higher taxes. When reading NAC, I was reminded of an episode of Seinfeld in which George is trying to combine the satisfaction of two appetites, one of which is for food. As George tells Jerry of his plan, Jerry utters a candidate for best line ever as he says, "George we're trying to have a civilization here."

That is precisely the trouble with a short-sighted view of infrastructural inattention. We can avoid the pain of taxes. We can avoid the pain of decisions. But we are trying to have a civilization here. Regardless of the success of our efforts, we need to at least try. It is the evidence of effort that can convince people to take a look at New Albany. If we will try to increase home ownership while also improving the necessary rental housing stock, we might succeed in attracting businesses and people; and this then becomes the source of new revenue for the city. Why do we need to fix housing to get businesses to locate here? Because businesses look at the environment where potential workers will live. They also guage the seriousness of the community by how it handles such a basic need. It's like the decision-making process we all go through when evaluating an unfamiliar restaurant in a strange town: do we opt for the well-lighted place with plenty of cars out front or do we choose the seedy establishment advertising sandwiches and bait?

It so happens that we have available to us a pool of accessible fiscal steroids provided through the work of John Miller and New Albany Community Housing. Every time his organization closes a sale on a house it generates a large amount of federal match, which can allow the housing stock of this city to be increased, and can also work toward strengtening existing neighborhoods by fixing up existing housing stock.

As we have ignored the built-infrastructure, we are also seeing irrefutable signs that we are, through inattention, causing harm to the natural infrastructure we call planet Earth. Everything we do here and now to make ours a more livable city can place us on the side of those who are working to have a civilization here.

Earth Day will be celebrated at the Falls of the Ohio park this Saturday from 10:00 AM to 4:00PM. Admission is free.