2 ms·
> Obviously no bridges should be coming down, but there is a real problem here of how to build and maintain a modern city that is smaller than the older one tha
by throwaway894345 5y ago
> Obviously no bridges should be coming down, but there is a real problem here of how to build and maintain a modern city that is smaller than the older one that it replaces.
If an area's population shrinks such that it doesn't need / can't afford all of its bridges, why not prioritize the critical bridges for maintenance and close the others as they become unsafe. Why is this always posed as a dichotomy between letting bridges fail and funding maintenance for each and every bridge?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- burlesona 5y agoThe politics get nasty real fast. Nobody wants the bridge they regularly use to be shut down, regardless of whether the number of regular users is very small. In US politics, especially at the local level a fiercely-motivated vocal minority is very powerful (because hardly anyone else pays attention).
- double_nan 5y agoI'd say bad publicity. People are afraid of hard conversations and US politicians doesn't have any incentives to treat the voters are adults. Politicians treat ppl as children at best and cattle at worst. No one asks children what compromise to make: to buy bread or to buy milk if money are running low. This is the root cause of the problems from my point of view.