Global Warming - The Downside Upside

One characteristic of cities is over time the older areas decay.  Houses get delapidated, infrastructure breaks down over time.  If the city is wealthy folks can afford repairs, at least in the areas where the wealthy live.  It is a chronic problem that after World War II government began addressing by creating redevelopment agencies.  The law gave cities the power to forcibly buy big chunks of land and redevelop the area.  

Redevelopment efforts have a checkered history.  Some were pretty successful, but over the years redevelopment agencies turned into classic bureacracies heavily influenced by the developers that profited from Redevelopment.  The problem became worse as city budgets got tighter so cities relied on developers for more and more of the funding.  So small parts of town got fancied up while infrastructure decayed in the rest of town.

Here in California it got so bad that Governor Brown, a former Mayor of Oakland and well versed in the problems of redevelopment, abolished redevelopment agencies.

As a result, here in the Bay area, much of the infrastructure, from the gas and water lines underground, to the roads and wires above ground, are old and decaying.  The cost of replacement is far beyond what government In California is willing to spend.

Not to worry, there is a downside upside.  Rising sea levels could inundate much of the greater Los Angeles area, much of the Bay area, most of Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, big swaths of San Diego.  Much of the state will have the opportunity to build new cities from the ground up.  So our lack of will to address global warming will save us from our lack of will to address decaying infrastructure.