Op-Ed

‘Stupid’ Infrastructure Neglect

Published

11 years ago

May 25, 2015

By Julianne Malveaux
NNPA Columnist

When Amtrak Northeast Regional Train #188 derailed on May 12, federal budget observers wondered if the underfunding of our nation’s fraying infrastructure was at least partly responsible for the deaths of eight people and the injuries to more than 200. Despite these questions, House Republicans voted to reduce President Obama’s request for Amtrak funding from $2.45 billion to $1.14 billion. The Republican proposal not only reduces the current level of funding for Amtrak, which is $1.4 billion), it also delays or eliminates needed capital for improvements.

Legislators who represent areas served by the Northeast corridor trains running from Washington D.C. to Boston), including New York’s Charles Schumer (D) and Philadelphia’s Chaka Fattah (D), have voiced objection to the parsimonious plan to underfund Amtrak. Still, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), as characteristically myopic as the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand, lost his cool when a reporter asked about funding for Amtrak.

When Ginger Gibson, a political reporter for the International Business Times, queried Boehner about Democratic criticisms of Amtrak funding, he called her question “stupid.” He then embarked on a partisan rant that ignored the fact that eight people died because of the derailment. What does money have to do with it? Everything.

If budgets allowed for more than one engineer on a train, then Brandon Bostian, the engineer who claims not remember why the train sped up, might have had some backup. Further, with more funding, would the positive train control safety system (which slows speeding trains) have been functioning properly?

Investigations have not yet revealed why Train #188 derailed. It was going 106 miles per hour when it should have been going 50, but how did it speed up so rapidly, and why? Why are there not enough precautions to prevent this kind of accident? What will be done to prevent similar tragedies in the future?

Trains aren’t the only parts of our infrastructure that need attention. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) issues a report card on our nation’s infrastructure every four years. The most recent report, released in 2013, gives the U.S. a grade of D+ when 16 areas (including rail, bridges, aviation, roads and waste disposal) are considered. We get the highest grade, B-, in solid waste disposal because we are both producing less trash per capita, and recycling more of it. We earn D- grades for the status of our levees and waterways. We earn D grades for most other categories, so the C+ grade for rail, compared to D grades for aviation and roads, may not seem like such a bad thing. Still, while U.S. trains should be excellent they are just a tad better than mediocre.

ASCE says that $3.6 trillion dollars are needed to bring our infrastructure up to the level of good, or B, level by 2020. They say the gap between what is funded and what is needed is about $1.6 trillion, or $201 billion a year. Our Congress is so focused on cutting spending that they refuse to invest in infrastructure.

Other parts of our infrastructure are even more substandard. One in eight of our nation’s bridges are structurally deficient, and more than 200 million trips are made across these deficient bridges in our 102 largest metropolitan areas each year. Many of these bridges have been poorly maintained and still handle heavy traffic. They are, on average, 42 years old. While repairs or new construction has begun on some, such as New York’s Tappan Zee Bridge, other neglected bridges are tragedies waiting to happen.

A strong infrastructure is an essential part of a sound economy. It makes it easier and more efficient to move both people and products. It provides jobs and other economic opportunities. On the other hand, allowing infrastructure to erode costs money. For example, ASCE reports that 42 percent of our nation’s highways are congested, costing $101 billion in wasted time and fuel each year.

In the name of reducing our carbon footprint, some will eschew roads for urban rapid transit, but mass transit is unevenly provided in many cities, often providing less service in poor neighborhoods. Public transportation is also woefully lacking outside urban areas, with 45 percent of the U.S. population having no access to public transportation. Business Insider’s Madeline Stone wrote that New York had the best public transportation system, followed by San Francisco and Boston. The Metro system in the nation’s capital doesn’t even make the Top 10 list. On a recent weekend, it operated at half capacity. What does that say about our infrastructure?

Whether we examine roads, planes, trains, waterways, bridges, dams or energy, ASCE finds our infrastructure pathetically inadequate. These deficiencies are costly drains on our economy, while investments in infrastructure generate sizeable returns. Moody’s economist Mark Zandi says that every dollar spent on infrastructure yields as much as $1.57 in gross domestic product.

The Amtrak derailment should be a warning about the status of our infrastructure. It ought to force us to think about ways we can avoid accidents and to operate more efficiently. It ought to motivate the kinds of investments that ASCE and others say are necessary. To ignore this reality is, to quote John Boehner, “stupid.”

Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist. She can be reached at www.juliannemalveaux.com.

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COMMENTARY: The National Protest Must Be Accompanied with Our Votes

Just as Trump is gathering election data like having the FBI take all the election data in Georgia from the 2020 election, so must we organize in preparation for the coming primary season to have the right people on ballots in each Republican district, so that we can regain control of the House of Representatives and by doing so, restore the separation of powers and balance that our democracy is being deprived of.

Published

3 days ago

February 10, 2026

Oakland Post

Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper. File photo..

By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper

As thousands of Americans march every week in cities across this great nation, it must be remembered that the protest without the vote is of no concern to Donald Trump and his administration.

In every city, there is a personal connection to the U.S. Congress. In too many cases, the member of Congress representing the people of that city and the congressional district in which it sits, is a Republican. It is the Republicans who are giving silent support to the destructive actions of those persons like the U.S. Attorney General, the Director of Homeland Security, and the National Intelligence Director, who are carrying out the revenge campaign of the President rather than upholding the oath of office each of them took “to Defend The Constitution of the United States.”

In California, the primary comes in June 2026. The congressional races must be a priority just as much as the local election of people has been so important in keeping ICE from acquiring facilities to build more prisons around the country.

“We the People” are winning this battle, even though it might not look like it. Each of us must get involved now, right where we are.

In this Black History month, it is important to remember that all we have accomplished in this nation has been “in spite of” and not “because of.” Frederick Douglas said, “Power concedes nothing without a struggle.”

Today, the struggle is to maintain our very institutions and history. Our strength in this struggle rests in our “collectiveness.” Our newspapers and journalists are at the greatest risk. We must not personally add to the attack by ignoring those who have been our very foundation, our Black press.

Are you spending your dollars this Black History Month with those who salute and honor contributions by supporting those who tell our stories? Remember that silence is the same as consent and support for the opposition. Where do you stand and where will your dollars go?

Oakland Post

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Activism

Post Newspaper Invites NNPA to Join Nationwide Probate Reform Initiative

The Post’s Probate Reform Group meets the first Thursday of every month via Zoom and invites the public to attend. The Post is making the initiative national and will submit information from its monthly meeting to the NNPA to educate, advocate, and inform its readers.

Published

3 days ago

February 10, 2026

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Tanya Dennis

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) represents the Black press with over 200 newspapers nationwide.

Last night the Post announced that it is actively recruiting the Black press to inform the public that there is a probate “five-alarm fire” occurring in Black communities and invited every Black newspaper starting from the Birmingham Times in Alabama to the Milwaukee Times Weekly in Wisconsin, to join the Post in our “Year of Action” for probate reform.

Reporter Tanya Dennis says, “The adage that ‘When America catches a cold, Black folks catch the flu” is too true in practice; that’s why we’re engaging the Black Press to not only warn, but educate the Black community regarding the criminal actions we see in probate court: Thousands are losing generational wealth to strangers. It’s a travesty that happens daily.”

Venus Gist, a co-host of the reform group, states, “ Unfortunately, people are their own worst enemy when it comes to speaking with loved ones regarding their demise. It’s an uncomfortable subject that most avoid, but they do so at their peril. The courts rely on dissention between family members, so I encourage not only a will and trust [be created] but also videotape the reading of your documents so you can show you’re of sound mind.”

In better times, drafting a will was enough; then a trust was an added requirement to ‘iron-clad’ documents and to assure easy transference of wealth.

No longer.

As the courts became underfunded in the last 20 years, predatory behavior emerged to the extent that criminality is now occurring at alarming rates with no oversight, with courts isolating the conserved, and, I’ve heard, many times killing conservatees for profit. Plundering the assets of estates until beneficiaries are penniless is also common.”

Post Newspaper Publisher Paul Cobb says, “The simple solution is to avoid probate at all costs. If beneficiaries can’t agree, hire a private mediator and attorney to work things out. The moment you walk into court, you are vulnerable to the whims of the court. Your will and trust mean nothing.”

Zakiya Jendayi, a co-host of the Probate Reform Group and a victim herself, says, “In my case, the will and trust were clear that I am the beneficiary of the estate, but the opposing attorney said I used undue influence to make myself beneficiary. He said that without proof, and the judge upheld the attorney’s baseless assertion. In court, the will and trust is easily discounted.”

The Black press reaches out to 47 million Black Americans with one voice. The power of the press has never been so important as it is now in this national movement to save Black generational wealth from predatory attorneys, guardians and judges.

The next probate reform meeting is on March 5, from 7 – 9 p.m. PST. Zoom Details:
Meeting ID: 825 0367 1750
Passcode: 475480

All are welcome.

Oakland Post

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Activism

COMMENTARY: The Biases We Don’t See — Preventing AI-Driven Inequality in Health Care

For decades, medicine promoted false assumptions about Black bodies. Black patients were told they had lower lung capacity, and medical devices adjusted their results accordingly. That practice was not broadly reversed until 2021. Up until 2022, a common medical formula used to measure how well a person’s kidneys were working automatically gave Black patients a higher score simply because they were Black. On paper, this made their kidneys appear healthier than they truly were. As a result, kidney disease was sometimes detected later in Black patients, delaying critical treatment and referrals.

Published

3 days ago

February 10, 2026

Oakland Post

Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, M.D (D-San Diego). File photo.

By Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, M.D., Special to California Black Media Partners

Technology is sold to us as neutral, objective, and free of human flaws. We are told that computers remove emotion, bias, and error from decision-making. But for many Black families, lived experience tells a different story. When technology is trained on biased systems, it reflects those same biases and silently carries them forward.

We have seen this happen across multiple industries. Facial recognition software has misidentified Black faces at far higher rates than White faces, leading to wrongful police encounters and arrests. Automated hiring systems have filtered out applicants with traditionally Black names because past hiring data reflected discriminatory patterns. Financial algorithms have denied loans or offered worse terms to Black borrowers based on zip codes and historical inequities, rather than individual creditworthiness. These systems did not become biased on their own. They were trained on biased data.

Healthcare is not immune.

These biases were not limited to software or medical devices. Dangerous myths persisted that Black people feel less pain, contributing to undertreatment and delayed care. These beliefs were embedded in modern training and practice, not distant history. Those assumptions shaped the data that now feeds medical technology. When biased clinical practices form the basis of algorithms, the risk is not hypothetical. The bias can be learned, automated, and scaled.

For us in the Black community, this creates understandable fear and mistrust. Many families already carry generational memories of medical discrimination, from higher maternal mortality to lower life expectancy to being dismissed or unheard in clinical settings. Adding AI biases could make our community even more apprehensive about the healthcare system.

As a physician, I know how much trust patients place in the healthcare system during their most vulnerable moments. As a Black woman, I understand how bias can shape experiences in ways that are often invisible to those who do not live them. As a mother of two Black children, I think constantly about the systems that will shape their health and well-being. As a legislator, I believe it is our responsibility to confront emerging risks before they become widespread harm.

That is why I am the author of Senate Bill (SB) 503. This bill aims to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare by requiring developers and users of AI systems to identify, mitigate, and monitor biased impacts in their outputs to reduce racial and other disparities in clinical decision-making and patient care.

Currently under consideration in the State Assembly, SB 503 was not written to slow innovation. In fact, I encourage it. But it is our duty must ensure that every tool we in the healthcare field helps patients rather than harms them.

The health of our families depends on it.

About the Author

Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson (D–San Diego) is a physician and public health advocate representing California’s 39th Senate District.