Living in Texas this week has reminded me how dependent we are on infrastructure—and how interdependent these systems are. It's time we started investing in infrastructure as if it really matters to our daily lives.

Sitting here in central Houston this week, with no water, spotty internet, and the looming fear that we would lose power and heat, I kept thinking about John Snow.
Snow was the guy who solved the mystery of the cholera epidemic in London in the 1850s, which took thousands of lives. In so doing, he unleashed a remarkable modernization movement in sanitary infrastructure, which has led to a revolution in public health. This sanitary revolution also set the tone for the way cities — and, indeed, all human settlements — work today: We depend almost entirely on centralized infrastructure to provide us with the things we need to live a civilized life.
There’s no question that we in the United States are living off our past investments in infrastructure without building the new stuff we need or even upgrading the old stuff we have. This is often cast in terms of economic competition with China and other developing countries, but it’s much more personal than that — it’s a matter of maintaining the quality of our lives every single day. Yet our general sense of inertia and our unwillingness to make long-term investments puts us at risk every day, as the ERCOT crisis has shown.
FULL STORY: Infrastructure Isn’t An Abstract Concept. It’s Very Personal.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Chicago’s Ghost Rails
Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.

Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail
The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.

Ohio Forces Data Centers to Prepay for Power
Utilities are calling on states to hold data center operators responsible for new energy demands to prevent leaving consumers on the hook for their bills.

MARTA CEO Steps Down Amid Citizenship Concerns
MARTA’s board announced Thursday that its chief, who is from Canada, is resigning due to questions about his immigration status.

Silicon Valley ‘Bike Superhighway’ Awarded $14M State Grant
A Caltrans grant brings the 10-mile Central Bikeway project connecting Santa Clara and East San Jose closer to fruition.
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Caltrans
City of Fort Worth
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
City of Portland
City of Laramie