Infrastructure

Sorry, there are just no pictures adequate to add to this post...

As a non-political statement I have found that the roads in California have been allowed to deteriorate substantially. What I mean here is that our twice a year contact with I-5 going to or from Mexico and Washington state has a bouncy component in the middle of California. The infrastructure has been let fly by the governing mob of the state under the cry of, “Budget Crisis” which, I am sure, is in an acute state of fiscal reality in most states these days.

The road bed on much of I-5 has been beaten senseless by the too many vehicles traversing the long north/south corridor. There has been little or no repair in long stretches of the road and neglect is the main component of its current state. There are some perfectly pleasant sections but they are incredibly brief. It seems that there will be some serious prices to pay to fix the problem at some as yet undermined time in the future. While I am not at all clear on how the funding mechanism works in terms of federal versus state amounts but it seems that Some Money is surely available… just not now for that purpose.

If this road is in this condition (barely functional in places) it begs the question, “What other designated infrastructure is in so deep a trouble?” What has become of the funding for schools? Why has the crisis of the moment been extended for so long? Are dams and bridges in as much trouble? There is serious money in the government of California and from observation of the workings of the taxman in that state (one in which I would never choose to live with the possible exception of San Diego) there is a very active taxing authority there as well. If the legislative and executive branches do not solve these problems there is very little need for them. On a state level they exist to cooperatively deal with these infrastructure matters. If they cannot execute that responsibility then why have them around? For all the wrangling I have seen on TV as we travel down the state in this election cycle it is clear only that the politicos exist in some fairly rarified air and have just as clearly lost touch with clarity of thought. “Magical Thinking” is all I can think of to describe this idiocy of blame and stupidity. Pointing fingers at each other has absolutely no place in this debate.

The commercial interests of the state will suffer from the lack of infrastructure. The public at large is suffering from the under maintained roads. The number of trucks plying the roadway tells you that without decent roads the costs of maintaining the trucks will increase and we will all pay for that in the marketplace. The underlying fabric of our national life is displayed in these ways and it should make you concerned for the future. This problem is NOT a matter of politics; it is a matter of loss of focus. It is a matter of a system going toward irrelevancy. It is a matter of an unsustainable system being picked apart by idiots.