Roosevelt's Tree Army

by: simonstl

Mon Jun 21, 2010 at 13:14:19 PM EDT

This Saturday, my wife and I took our kids and both sets of our parents up to Filmore Glen State Park for a hike up the gorge trail.

I spent a fair amount of time marveling at just how solidly the structures and paths were built, and wondered if this was at least partly Civilian Conservation Corps work from the 1930s, when we put unemployed people to work building things that have been useful for three-quarters of a century since.

Sure enough, it was, as a plaque in the (amazing stone) pavilion indicated.

Roosevelt's Tree Army plaque commemorating Civilian Conservation Corps at Filmore Glen.

Built to last, at a time when it wasn't clear anything would last. I'll take that over crony capitalism, market worship, and calls to privatize everything in sight any day.

The Champlain Bridge crisis

by: NYCO

Wed Oct 21, 2009 at 22:53:50 PM EDT

There's a real crisis unfolding right now in upstate New York - one that state and federal authorities can do something about using stimulus money. The bridge over Lake Champlain at Crown Point, which was scheduled for repairs by 2013, has deteriorated to the point where officials suddenly stepped in this week and declared an emergency shutdown. This has stranded thousands of New Yorkers and Vermonters at home, and they face the prospect of not being able to get to work each day and losing their business. It's a regional disaster.

Earlier today, Gov. Paterson declared a state of emergency in Essex County - after Vermont did, for Addison County.  All these press releases are nice, but still don't answer the question of why an aging bridge that was known to need critical attention was allowed to get to this point where thousands of people in two states, already slammed by a deep recession are now virtually cut off from their jobs, their loved ones in nursing homes, and even emergency medical care.  Right now, the best solution being offered?  Telling affected people to drive down to the crossing at Whitehall, NY every day to get to where they need to go in Vermont... a one-way trip of about 75 miles (down the lake and back up again)!

We need some deeper answers here.  Today the Champlain Bridge, tomorrow it could be a critical piece of infrastructure that YOU rely on, somewhere in New York.  Who in Albany has failed these residents, and why?

High Speed Rail - Responding to Your Comments

by: Adama D. Brown

Fri Aug 28, 2009 at 15:20:20 PM EDT

Last week Chris Smith and Adama Brown were kind enough to help me crosspost at WNYMedia, TAP, and GLOW Democrats and talk to you about bringing high speed rail to Upstate New York. On Monday, New York State applied for over $500 million in stimulus funding to start making that goal a reality. Since last winter, I have worked with Governor Paterson, Amtrak, CSX, and my colleagues in the Upstate Congressional Caucus to make sure that Upstate was given top consideration in the grant process, and yesterday was vindication for our efforts - in fact, all of the grants which New York State applied for would go to Upstate.

In addition to letting you know about the grants, I wanted to share my responses to comments my post received last week on each of the sites with all of you, and invite you to discuss in the comments how we can make high speed rail work best for all New Yorkers.

Obama, McCain & the Infrastructure Thing

by: Intrepid Liberal Journal

Sat Sep 06, 2008 at 20:06:33 PM EDT

Sarah Palin has enabled John McCain to revive the culture war as we argue over who is the real elitist, sexist or patriot. We've seen these sorts of smokescreens from Republicans before. They're diabolically brilliant at distracting voters with visceral appeals to the politics of cultural resentment while exploiting America's dark underbelly of racism and xenophobia. McCain/Palin even have the chutzpah to campaign as patriotic change agents eager to fight on behalf of regular folks while promoting polices that amount to class warfare against wage earners and small business entrepreneurs.

How easy to get caught up in Sarah Palin's polarizing celebrity and lose sight of the real issues at stake. That's exactly what the GOP wants. I too have been consumed by the Palin phenomenon in recent days and the GOP's toxic convention. Well it's time to get back to basics. Obama did a good job of that yesterday with respect to the new unemployment figures. I'd like to take a moment and focus attention on another vitally important issue that's easily overtaken by cultural politics: infrastructure.

Bruno Pretends to Care About Intercity Rail

by: Roatti

Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 11:42:25 AM EDT

While these improvements are certainly needed, acting as if $22 million is some significant amount almost causes more harm than the good these monies create- creating a first-rate intercity high-speed rail infrastructure in NYS will cost in the tens of billions of dollars- acting like $22 million is significant just makes the potential larger and necessary appropriations look that much more burdensome and scary to legislators. 

If we are ever going to get serious about intercity rail in New York, the back-patting for miniscule amounts of pork has to stop.

Problem bridge list

by: simonstl

Wed Aug 08, 2007 at 07:56:43 AM EDT

The earlier piece on bridges was frightening, but had 1994 data. I dream of having as cool a current map, but if you want to be frightened about New York State bridges, you can try this list of bridges from MSNBC. It's only for bridges that carry 10,000 or more vehicles a day, but it's (un)impressive nonetheless.

The bridge nearest my house isn't in great shape. I'll try to forget that as I drive it.

When Infrastructure Attacks! (a special you won't see on Fox)

by: ElanaDMIBlog

Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 18:48:27 PM EDT

As you've all heard the explosion wasn't caused by terrorism, it was an underground steam pipe constructed in 1924 that had too much cold rain water leaking on it, causing it to explode like Old Faithful-- except flinging more mud and some asbestos into the air. I know that the air has been declared clean but the dust and debris spat out from the explosion do contain asbestos and what with air movement and you know, gravity, I can image that the carcinogenic dust will get air-born and be inhaled endlessly till it's cleaned up.  Remember when the EPA told the public that the air around Ground Zero was safe to breath - when it actually wasn't? You'll have to excuse me for being a bit concerned over whether the same thing will happen here.

I should probably explain this blog post's title. When chasms in the earth open up near Grand Central the media tends to report it. Even Fox. But what you won't see in the media by and large is a discussion of  why it is that these accidents take place. Sure they'll explain how the explosion was caused by water hitting an antediluvian steam pipe but they just won't make the connection between the lack of investment in our country's infrastructure and things going kablooie. You see it takes money to keep any locality running. And localities get that money through our taxes.

More attacking infrastructure on the flip...