[morley]

This is addressed in the article: federal programs promoting infrastructure growth provided the funds. Building new infrastructure generates lots of short-term income to a city in the form of sales tax, permit fees, etc. It's harder to plan for the ongoing maintenance for these projects.

Of course we should build less of it, but we can't unbuild what's already been built, and we can't account for city managers who aren't aware of this future problem.

If someone can solve the problem of the future being here, but being unevenly distributed...