»In which we put on the fritz

Is San Francisco on its way to becoming the District of Columbia, with gaping potholes (does one ever see any adjective besides gaping or yawning next to that word, pothole? never patched, that's for-damn-sure)? The San Francisco Chronicle quietly points out that the city has fallen some $340mm behind in patching potholes, repaving streets, and generally keeping pace with the increasing weight of Americans in Hummers (a generalisation, yes). Combine this with the weighty problem of the sewers, and we have a looming infrastructure crisis to add to the ever-present fiscal crisis. Those adjectives should be th' other way around: the fiscal crisis should be looming, but how can we avoid the ongoing infrastructure problems? Everything about this city, this state, points to gross misunderstanding and mismanagement of our resources. How could we not anticipate periodic failure of sewer pipes and asphalt road surfaces?