The Next Infrastructure Crisis?

• Author: Anderson, Janet

Two decades ago, when I first designed service-based budgeting tools for the City of Detroit, Michigan, I created an inventory of the city's services to catalogue how we serviced the needs of our deteriorating neighborhoods. There were 36 physical infrastructure-related services on city streets out of nearly 100 services across regulatory enforcement, safety responses, amenities, and related planning support areas. Today, in all cities, the list is likely much longer.

Interaction and innovation are the heart of cities, so some of the allure of an urban place is how many things are fit together in small spaces. But the pressure for cities to find their most efficient form is ever greater. Leaders must look at the true costs of city assets in relation to the whole package of services provided.

More and more stuff on city streets

The list of infrastructure assets in cities today is longer than ever. New technology has found its way onto street corners and storefronts, with monitored cameras, 5G telecommunications, public Wi-Fi, and gunshot detectors. Smart sensors for everything from streetlight outages to autonomous vehicles can't be far behind. (1) Bike lanes, bike repair stations, and transit islands have transformed Motor City roads, alongside speed bumps, pedestrian signs, and kiosks. More electric vehicle chargers, or magnetic inductive charging in roadbeds, will pop up. Strategies to address climate change has brought the city onto residential property to install seawalls and basement protection devices, and green stormwater infrastructure is starting to blanket the landscape. Other cities have similar stories.

Private entities also have more infrastructure on city streets, often in close quarters with the city's things: emergency call boxes, neighborhood gateway signs, scooters, dog water stations, solar panels, cell towers, power distribution lines, fiber optic cable, freeway overpasses, fencing, and viaducts. It's an impressive package, representing admirable visions for transforming daily life.

It's just that some sidewalks are thoroughly laden with manholes and handholes, signage, and devices attached to pavement and poles. In some cases, installation of one may compromise another. In other cases, uses collide. They take up space and they require attention. Whether or not all this hardware is necessary, or the city's "fault," is not the point--it adds value for somebody. A city government must understand the collective value it adds and assure that it is sited and operating in a safe and orderly manner. (See Exhibit 1 for a catalog of Detroit's physical infrastructure services since 2000.)

The art and science of defining your service catalog

A city understands the value of its infrastructure by understanding how that infrastructure supports public services. The service is what constituents focus on. Cataloguing public services can help reconcile spending, to make sure it meets public expectations and so infrastructure works in concert, supported by sufficient funding over its life.

The service is the product delivered to the public--it is the output of programs or agencies. It comes with a lot of gear:

([right arrow]) Road paving, curbs, curb cuts, lane stripes, medians, sprinklers, crosswalks, speed bumps, and sewer grates.

([right arrow]) Street, traffic and informational signs, bus stops and benches, bike racks or bike share stations.

([right arrow]) Handholes or manholes in sidewalk flags and pavers, alongside fire hydrants, parking meters and kiosks, trash receptacles, trees, or decorative inlays.

([right arrow]) Traffic lights and signals, streetlights, wires, telecommunications, cameras, or other technologies.

([right arrow]) An unseen cavity of water and energy pipes, fiber optics, and electric wires under the street.

In concept, the catalog of services relates each thing the city delivers to a broader purpose or strategy, and to success metrics. Exhibit 2 shows Fire Department services, what appropriation funds them, and to what ends. This...