Editorial for August 9, 2007 edition:


It’s time to rebuild

Do you get butterflies in your stomach whenever you drive your car on the "singing" part of the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, realizing that at any second you might drop into the mortal and mighty Delaware River?
If driving on suspension bridges or drawbridges doesn’t worry you in the least, you’re living in la-la land and you need to pay close attention to what’s been happening in Minneapolis, where the Interstate 35 bridge collapsed last week.
The Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, at 78 years old, is 38 years older than the I-35 bridge, and in fact is among the bridges listed as "structurally deficient."
The sorry state of the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, including bridges, will likely take center stage at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis next year, but of course this crucial issue should command the national spotlight immediately, and remain there as long as necessary.
Given a choice of spending money on an ill-conceived war, construction of baseball stadiums, expansion of convention centers, and the so-called "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska, or using our precious financial resources to inspect and replace America’s infrastructure, what is really more important?
If you would rather not fall into the river when you’re driving on the Tacony-Palmyra (or the Betsy Ross, or the Ben Franklin, or the Walt Whitman, etc.), take action after you read this editorial: Call your local members of Congress and demand that they put allocation of funds to save the infrastructure on the fast track.
Your life may depend on it, and as the folks in Minneapolis found out, that could be sooner rather than later.
Here are the members of Congress whose districts include Northeast Philadelphia:
Bob Brady: 215-389-4627
Chaka Fattah: 215-387-6404
Patrick Murphy: 215-826-1963
Allyson Schwartz: 215-335-3355

Respond to this editorial . . .

Letters to the Editor . . .