ICYMI: Mayors of the Largest and Smallest Cities on the Mississippi River Agree: The Need for Action on Infrastructure is Clear

The Mayors of the largest city and the smallest city on the Mississippi River – Jim Strickland of Memphis, Tennessee and Phil Stang of Kimmswick, Missouri – have written an op-ed in the Commercial-Appeal urging Congress to act on infrastructure.

In the op-ed, the Mayors write: "As mayors of the largest and smallest city along the Mississippi River, we both face an equally stark choice – address the mutually dire infrastructure backlog that exists for both urban and rural America now, or stand back and watch as it continues to crumble."

The Mayors note that despite the difference in size between the two communities, the need remains the same. They write: "For years our roads, bridges, sewers, ports, harbors, airports, broadband, grids, and utilities, have been the backbone of our city. But, as we were recently harshly reminded by the fracture in the Hernando DeSoto bridge, our infrastructure is disintegrating.

"In Memphis alone, we have identified nearly $20 Billion in current infrastructure needs – and the list grows each year.

"With a resident population of 164 people, Kimmswick, MO is the smallest city along the Mississippi River; yet the infrastructure issues we face are the same as Memphis, just at a different scale.

"Like so much of rural America, our dependence on infrastructure far outstrips our population, this is because commodity production—the most important activity to American trade—depends heavily on and stretches to the limit infrastructure assets from fields to roads, ports, grids, and water systems."

Click through for fact sheets on the need for action on infrastructure in Tennessee and Missouri. For the NTIA's Indicators of Broadband Need interactive mapping tool, click here.

Commercial Appeal: American Jobs Plan aligns infrastructure needs of urban and rural communities
[Jim Strickland and Phil Stang, 6/17/21]

As mayors of the largest and smallest city along the Mississippi River, we both face an equally stark choice – address the mutually dire infrastructure backlog that exists for both urban and rural America now, or stand back and watch as it continues to crumble.

A plan that simply replaces infrastructure, rather than addressing what it encompasses, will be ineffective and ultimately unaffordable. We need larger policy solutions that incentivize, propagate, and arrange a total adoption of resilience, sustainability, and climate mitigation through our economy or all we rebuild will wash away in the next multi-billion-dollar disaster.

Memphis is the world's distribution center. More cargo moves through the Memphis International Airport than anywhere else on the globe. We're the fourth largest inland port in the country. Five Class I railroads run through our city, and prior to the recent fracture, over 40,000 cars and trucks used I-40 every single day.

The need for action is clear

For years our roads, bridges, sewers, ports, harbors, airports, broadband, grids, and utilities, have been the backbone of our city. But, as we were recently harshly reminded by the fracture in the Hernando DeSoto bridge, our infrastructure is disintegrating.

In Memphis alone, we have identified nearly $20 Billion in current infrastructure needs – and the list grows each year.

With a resident population of 164 people, Kimmswick, MO is the smallest city along the Mississippi River; yet the infrastructure issues we face are the same as Memphis, just at a different scale.

Like so much of rural America, our dependence on infrastructure far outstrips our population, this is because commodity production—the most important activity to American trade—depends heavily on and stretches to the limit infrastructure assets from fields to roads, ports, grids, and water systems.

Memphis and Kimmswick are both convinced any national infrastructure package must include significant deployment of natural infrastructure. Natural assets such as reconnected floodplain and wetlands are the only options we can afford with the most co-benefits to naturally absorb impacts, bolster outdoor recreation and tourism, secure our drinking water, and sequester carbon at scale.

The Mayors along the Mississippi River have developed a plan through which America's most important commodity corridor can be secured for at least a generation we're calling the Safeguarding the Mississippi River Together, or SMRT Act.

Post pandemic, the bipartisan passage of an infrastructure bill has never been more important. Our ten-state corridor has suffered from a systemic lack of investment and disasters have cost us over $210 billion in actual losses since 2005.

This type of package will bring much needed funding in all the areas of our economy and will benefit our nation well into the future if the plan includes multi-lateral solutions like the SMRT Act.

We urge Congress to place the SMRT Act in the American Jobs Plan and pass it before the cost of restoration increases beyond what our economy can muster.

Jim Strickland is the mayor of Memphis and MRCTI Tennessee chair.

Phil Stang is mayor of Kimmswick, Missouri and MRCTI Missouri chair.