Monique Verdin, "Headwaters : Tamaracks + Time : Lake Itasca" (2019), digital assemblage. Photograph taken in 2019; United States War Department map of the route passed over by an expedition into the Indian country in 1832 to the source of the Mississippi River.

Infrastructure for All

February 15, 2018

2/14/18 – The Trump administration just announced its long-awaited infrastructure plan, which is light on federal spending and heavy on expected investments from the private sector. But in Issues, two scholars recently detailed how private investors in past efforts to deploy three major types of infrastructure—railroads, electricity, and the internet—initially targeted communities that were already well off. Matters were set aright only by “citizen activism that demanded fairer treatment for average Americans,” they said, adding a call for new policies that “recognize the public benefits of infrastructure and seek to level the playing field for underserved areas.”