Obama on Cities: The Solution, not the Problem
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 06.24.08
With all the talk about ethanol, drilling and batteries, other issues like infrastructure, cities and transit tend to get buried. It's nice to see they are on Obama's radar:
“Yes we need to fight poverty; yes, we need to fight crime,” Mr. Obama, of Illinois, said in a midday address to the United States Conference of Mayors. “Yes, we need to strengthen our cities. But we also need to stop seeing our cities as the problem and start seeing them as the solution. Because strong cities are the building blocks of strong regions, and strong regions are essential for a strong America.”
The New York Times quotes Obama as saying that the federal government should provide aid in building and repairing the roads, rail networks, electrical grids, water systems and telecommunications networks that stitch together metropolitan areas. He promised a $60 billion, 10-year program of infrastructure development. ::New York Times and ::The Where Blog
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I want to like Obama, I really do, but every time he gives a speech the words "the federal government should provide aid" seem to show up. The federal government is essentially bankrupt. That is the root of virtually all the current economic problems we face. There is no aid to give. Stopping the financial outflow in Iraq would start to normalize things, but politicians need to stop believing that money is going to be available for other uses. That money doesn't exist.
superbad,
If the federal government invests (not the word invest) in making cities stronger, and in green tech, then the economy will prosper and revenue will increase.
I believe that Obama Has some amazing policies to offer. The best part about Obama is that, when ever he brings out a problem with the system, he has a solution ready. And that solution is not conventional sometimes but its effective.
this speech is an excellent example. I think a man who has solutions to problems that are innovative, is exactly the kind of person who should be the leader on the free world. Because for so long the "usual" solutions have not worked!
There is lots of money. We just need to stop wasting it on stupid things.
Iraq is one example, but consider the military as a whole. We spend as much on our military as the entire rest of the world put together. Aren't Europe and Japan rebuilt by now? Can't we let them handle their own defense? If we have no money to manage our own internal affairs it is because we choose to manage everyone else's for them. Plus imagine how much less defense we would need if we spent more money helping impoverished countries- i.e. the only ones that end up harboring groups that want to kill us. People in rich countries or whose lives are getting better don't harbor those that want to destroy their stake in the world.
Social security is seen as another cash hog, but this is mostly because the retirement age for collecting benefits has not kept pace with rising life spans. It is politically unpopular to raise the retirement age, but economically that is the realistic thing to do.
If we didn't pay billions in subsidies to wealthy farmers we could spend that on energy solutions or education. That alone exceeds the $6 billion a year mentioned above several times over. We could use the rest to invest in energy solutions.
I for one am for proposals to build new and better planned and implemented public infrastructure. Our road and rail systems, such as they are, as well as our power grid and water distribution systems, are unworthy of a nation as purportedly advanced as the US. They are old, just like our bridges. And we know how to do better.
Technologically, every problem we face has a solution, often using several existing solutions in conjunction. Economically, if the US doesn't have the resources to do it, who they heck does? Which means there are only 2 more places the problems can lie: in our politics and in ourselves. We can argue all day about corrupt politicians and flawed culture, but we need to speak with our wallets and our votes, make ourselves visible agents of positive change, and hope for the best, and that others will follow.
I totally agree: our military budget is at least twice as much as it needs to be, the Social Security retirement age needs to be gradually increased to at least 70, and our farm subsidies are utterly wasted. However, if you put any of those proposals up before Congress, you'd be lucky to get 10 votes, and the lobbies you pissed off would ensure that you got voted out of office at the next election.
Those are the realities of politics in America today, and Barack Obama knows that. Talking about all this money he's going to spend without talking about how he's going to pay for it is disingenuous pandering.
Obama is right on the money here. We've seen recently how municipalities can be the leaders in the green movement when the federal government lags behind. Portland, OR, for instance, was able on its own initiative to reduce its carbon emissions by 17%, among a host of other accomplishments (see article). Obama does not necessarily have to give a whole bunch of "aid" for other cities to be as successful as Portland. Small subsidies, or even just federal facilitation of better municipal planning, such as the coalition of mayors founded by Seattle mayor Greg Nickels, could go a long way in improving this country.