http://m.host.madison.com/mobile/article_c39eb339-4650-5066-ad10-5825b55f4611.html
If we aren’t going to talk about the dangerous consequences of deteriorating infrastructure when there is a fatal accident, when are we going to talk about it?
The least important fact about the tragic accident that killed a 15-year-old boy on his way to Summerfest is that it comes at a politically inconvenient time for County Executive Scott Walker, who is running for governor.
Young Jared Kellner was crushed when a 27,000-pound slab of concrete fell from the outside of a county parking garage built under O’Donnell Park on Milwaukee’s lakefront.
The most important concern, of course, is why 13.5 tons of decorative concrete on the exterior of a county structure were so unstable as to fall into a crowd on the first day of Summerfest.
Questions immediately were raised -- as they should be -- about whether more than $200 million in deferred maintenance in Milwaukee County parks may have contributed to unsafe conditions. It is no secret that infrastructure all over America has been neglected for years as politicians everywhere in both major parties have put cutting taxes above most other public concerns. Walker simply represents a more extreme version of that philosophy. The enormous deferral in county park and building maintenance seemed to have no political consequences for him when all it meant was deterioration of one of the nation’s premier park systems and trashy public buildings.
It’s difficult to rally the public against gradual decline in our quality of life. But a tragedy is a shock to the system. Nobody gets excited about our deteriorating roads and bridges, either, until a bridge collapses and people are killed.
Some reporters immediately focused on a consultants’ report completed late last year warning county officials the O’Donnell parking garage needed nearly $600,000 in repairs for multiple problems including cracking walls.
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