Start the big infrastructure initiative here in the Rust Belt
Investing in our national parks and their gateway communities would jump-start the federal rebuilding program, argues former Pennsylvania parks official JOHN PLONSKI
While President Donald Trump last week was visiting Western Pennsylvania, an area that has come to be considered a part of the Rust Belt, his staff back in Washington was sketching out a plan for national infrastructure renewal. The administration aims to have some details ready for congressional review within a few weeks.
Funding options will be hashed out, and a tug-of-war among members of Congress inevitably will lead to a myriad of approaches to address America’s infrastructure crisis. We’ll hear calls for repairing roads and bridges, fixing leaking water lines, extending pipelines, building tunnels, upgrading airports and railroads, and more.
The temptation will be great to devise an infrastructure plan on a grand scale, one that reaches into many, if not all, of the 435 congressional districts. That way, according to the largesse playbook, everybody gets something. What we also would get would be a scattered, cumbersome and costly initiative that easily could be bogged down by its own weight.
No doubt there are tremendous needs all across the country and in all infrastructure sectors. But where to begin? On which implementation strategy should the president and Congress initially focus? Which one would have the broad support of the American people while meeting the needs of critical infrastructure renewal?
Here’s a plan to consider: Design an infrastructure renewal program so that it occurs in phases. Phase One would target the well-documented deferred maintenance backlog of national parks, specifically those park sites situated in the area of our country known as the Rust Belt. Link the
infrastructure needs of these parks with those of their “gateway communities” — the cities, towns and counties that adjoin are near to the parks and which act as their partners in development and tourism.
There would be a shared funding mechanism so that federal money invested in restoring a park’s infrastructure would be matched by local and state governments that would agree to target structural repairs in the designated gateway community.
There are excellent examples right here in Pennsylvania of park/gateway community investments that could inspire economic growth across the Rust Belt.
For instance, Johnstown serves as a gateway to both the Johnstown Flood National Memorial and the Flight 93 National Memorial. Together, these two parks need $10.4 million to catch up with critical repairs, according to a recent National Park Service (NPS) report. Let’s say the federal government, through this plan, appropriates money to start the process of rehabilitating these parks’ infrastructure. Then, Cambria and Somerset Counties along with the commonwealth of Pennsylvania earmark economic development funds for Johnstown and the other communities that serve as gateways to the park sites. This would result in a dynamic partnership working to rebuild roads, water systems and utility lines inside the park and across the region.
Another good example in Pennsylvania’s Rust Belt is Scranton. There, the Steamtown National Historic Site is burdened with more than $36 million in backed-up maintenance, as detailed in the NPS report. Using the same approach as the one for Johnstown, Washington would set aside funds to rehabilitate Steamtown while the city of Scranton, Lackawanna County and the commonwealth would contribute money to repair the streets, sidewalks and bridges that lead to Scranton’s national historic site.
Using this federal/state/ local partnership approach, national parks and their gateway communities in all parts of the Rust Belt, from Pennsylvania to Michigan and Ohio to Wisconsin, could benefit. and, in turn, would be attracted to the revitalizing gateway communities, where they would spend money on lodging, food, gas and supplies, thus giving a shot in the arm to the local economy.
Perhaps the next time the president visits our buckle on the Rust Belt, he might want to take a short side trip to the Flight 93 National Memorial or the Johnstown Flood National Memorial. I believe he would be inspired by the stories they tell and get a better feel for the uniquely special nature of our national park system. He would see firsthand their physical needs and might agree that the national infrastructure renewal program would get off to a powerful jump start if implemented first in the Rust Belt, because it would produce immediately demonstrable improvements in national parks and local communities.
Phase One, as outlined here, would provide good jobs, vibrant commerce, environmental enhancements and safer roads and bridges to an area of the country that truly needs a helping hand.
If successful in the Rust Belt, this federal/state/local initiative could be expanded nationwide. Imagine hundreds of national park sites finally reaching their full potential and generating the infrastructure and economic renewal needed by their surrounding communities. It’s a win/win/win formula that could result in all parts of our country becoming more vital, prosperous and secure.