A time for renewal

摘要

Rahm emanuel,the mayor of Chicago, Illinois, lifts up a decayed wooden tube and waves it for emphasis. Many of the city's water pipes are over 100 years old, he says. Some, it turned out when the Water Department got round to replacing them, are made of wood. No wonder the network sprang 3,800 leaks in 2011 alone. Yet at the pace of investment that prevailed until last year it would have taken the local water company until 2059 to refurbish all the mains, the mayor points out. Everywhere Mr Emanuel looks, he sees the need for new or improved infrastructure: pockmarked roads; century-old stations on the "l", Chicago's elevated-train network; grand but draughty municipal buildings; a congested airport; clappedout schools and community colleges. Over the next three years alone he plans to spend over $7 billion to start fixing all this. But finding the money has required some creativity.