From The New Yorker’s archive: a selection of pieces about how issues of infrastructure have altered the fate of American cities, towns, and lives. View in browser | Update your preferences
The High Stakes of Infrastructure
It has been, it seems, “infrastructure week” in Washington since the Truman Administration. Infrastructure is the dullest issue—until you land at Kennedy Airport. Why is the wealthiest country on Earth half a ruin? Why has it been so slow to invest in the necessity of green energy? Now there is a bill of significance, a moment of real promise. This week, Joe Biden is expected to sign into law a $1.2-trillion package with profound investments in transportation, broadband access, and environmentally sound energy systems. Today, we’re bringing you a selection of pieces about the concrete ways in which issues of infrastructure have so often altered the fate of American cities, towns, and lives. In “The Power Broker,” Robert A. Caro profiles Robert Moses, New York’s master builder, a ruthless and autocratic urban planner who shaped his city more than any mayor. The writer and activist Bill McKibben analyzes the environmental features of the new infrastructure bill and asks whether its specifics are adequate in the face of the climate crisis. In “The Big Story Is Still Joe Biden’s Mighty Ambitions,” John Cassidy considers the President’s efforts to reshape America’s municipal and economic agenda; Susan B. Glasser, meanwhile, examines the domestic political challenges that Biden needs to confront in his attempt to sell a divided electorate on civic investment. For most, infrastructure has long been a MEGO subject—“my eyes glaze over”—and yet it is at the center of our politics and our common future. Start with Caro on Moses and you get a deeper sense of why that is.
—David Remnick
From The New Yorker’s Archive
Annals of Politics
The Power Broker
How Robert Moses got things done.
By Robert A. Caro | August 12, 1974
Annals of a Warming Planet
Finally, Green Infrastructure Spending in an Amount That Starts with a “T”
But is it enough? And how would we know if it were?
By Bill McKibben | April 7, 2021
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Letter from Biden’s Washington
Is Biden Really the Second Coming of F.D.R. and L.B.J.?
Proposing historic legislation is not transformative; passing it is.
By Susan B. Glasser | April 1, 2021
Our Columnists
The Big Story Is Still Joe Biden’s Mighty Ambitions
The bipartisan infrastructure agreement is just the beginning of the President’s plan to rebalance the U.S. economy.
By John Cassidy | June 28, 2021
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