Joseph Kane: Prioritizing People (Not Projects) In Infrastructure Spending

<p>As leaders in Washington, DC look to stimulate the American economy, one course of action with bipartisan support—<a href='https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/5/13/nbspits-infrastructure-week-again-heres-your-rhetoric-vs-reality-primer'>as per usual</a>—is to pour money into infrastructure. Yet as Strong Towns readers know, infrastructure spending often leads cities down the road of <a href='https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/5/7/the-more-we-build-the-poorer-we-get'>insolvency rather than prosperity</a>, and <a href='https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/1/22/a-letter-to-potus-on-infrastructure'>not all infrastructure spending is alike</a>.</p> <p>In a <a href='https://www.brookings.edu/research/prioritize-people-not-projects-addressing-the-harms-of-legacy-infrastructure-in-the-covid-19-recovery/'>recent two-part policy brief</a>, Joseph W. Kane and Shalini Vajjhala of <a href='https://www.brookings.edu/program/metropolitan-policy-program/'>The Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program</a> wrote that “to truly improve the country’s infrastructure and help the most vulnerable households, federal leaders cannot simply throw more money at shiny new projects. Instead, they must invest with purpose and undo the harms of our legacy infrastructure systems.” They continued: “Above all, leaders should prioritize people over projects in our infrastructure plans. In practice, that means defining, measuring, and addressing our infrastructure challenges based on the needs of users of new and existing systems.”</p> <p>One of the authors of that brief, <a href='https://www.brookings.edu/experts/joseph-kane/'>Joseph Kane</a>, is the guest on this week’s episode of the Strong Towns podcast. Kane is a senior research associate and associate follow at the Metropolitan Policy Program. An economist and urban planner, his work focuses on wide array of built environment issues, including transportation and water infrastructure.</p> <p>In this jam-packed episode, Strong Towns president Chuck Marohn talks