Hello, I'm City Journal editor Brian Anderson.

Thanks for joining us for the Ten Blocks podcast featuring urban policy and cultural commentary with City Journal editors, contributors, and special guests.

Hello, welcome to Ten Blocks, the podcast of City Journal.

I'm your host, Seth Barron.

Joining me today is John Tierney, contributing editor for City Journal and a contributing

columnist, science columnist for the New York Times.

John, thanks for joining us.

Thanks, Seth. You recently wrote an article for City Journal called Trump's Infrastructure

Opportunity, in which you say that the government can make infrastructure great again

by getting out of the way. But isn't it the government who builds roads and bridges? I mean,

isn't that their responsibility? Well, people tend to think that, and of course it is the government who builds roads and bridges? I mean, isn't that their responsibility?

Well, people tend to think that.

And of course, it is the government at some level authorizes these roads.

But we've had this myth really since the Great Depression that the federal government should

be doing the lion's share of this, or that infrastructure is a federal responsibility. And each president promises that he's going to make it great again.

Meanwhile, the infrastructure, the bridges are not doing great.

The highways have been deteriorating.

In fact, infrastructure really ought to be a local responsibility.

And the great thing about the Trump plan, we haven't seen the whole plan yet, but we've seen their principles, and we just had today some leaked documents from what appears to be the plan.

They're the first administration that has really put some good people in there who recognize the principle that it should be local

governments and the private sector that ought to be building these projects. It's not

something that Washington needs to mastermind. Okay, but back up a moment. You know, I've always

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