May 18. 2016

Infrastructure — not the most exciting thing that government does, but when it fails, boy are citizens upset.

It is national Infrastructure Week. Events are taking place all over the country to try to bring attention to an expenditure that typically draws the response, “Why pay for it today when we can put it off until tomorrow?”

Yet for the past month, this newspaper and others have focused on the quality of our drinking water infrastructure. Presidential candidates from both parties have been talking infrastructure, dare I say in agreement? (Well, almost. One would have more investment in green and one in more traditional infrastructure.) They certainly agree that it is of critical importance, can be an effective use of taxpayer dollars and will create well-paying jobs, even for those who may not have gone to college.

Our roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, airports, mass transit systems, public buildings and broadband, solar and wind installations and every new form of power generation are all components of infrastructure. Do we spend enough? That depends. Will the current level of investment carry us through this century? No. Is our present-day spending enough to even bring us to a state of good repair? The jury is out. In some areas, infrastructure is just ignored — and not for bad reasons. There simply are no funds.

You see, when you are rebuilding the Tappan Zee Bridge, everyone can look at it in awe and realize it will be a safer trip. But when you are rebuilding your water and sewer system, it is just a little harder to get the public’s attention until a situation arises like the one in Flint, Michigan, or closer to home, in Newburgh, for instance. You start testing water systems in schools, where our kids are, and then all hell breaks loose. Why weren’t we doing more? Where was everyone? It wasn’t something you could see, and you didn’t drive over the pothole every day, so it just wasn’t at the top of the list.

I wrote my master’s thesis on New York City’s crumbling infrastructure. This was decades ago, yet parts of it could have been written this past week. We need a set of safeguards, reporting mechanisms, regular rigorous inspections at all levels of government, new forms of financing and modern ways to build and track. We need new and improved systems, and these must include green principles and approaches that keep us from falling into the trap of deferred maintenance.

There is no shortage of committed public works employees throughout the Hudson Valley. Most of them are creative and smart — just watch when a superstorm like Sandy or Lee hits our region and they spring into action. They just need the support of the public so that it doesn’t take a superstorm to find funds and the will to fix things like bridges.

As the old expression goes, there is nothing as certain as death and taxes … and the need for infrastructure!

Jonathan Drapkin is the president and CEO of Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress, a nonprofit research, policy and planning group that seeks regional solutions to increase the vitality of the region. He can be reached at .

Pattern for Progress conferenceHudson Valley Pattern for Progress will hold its annual infrastructure conference from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday at Anthony’s Pier 9, 2975 Route 9W in New Windsor. For more information, go to pattern-for-progress.org.