IS IT TRUE the infrastructure deficiencies in the City of Evansville seem to raise their ugly heads in more and more places on a weekly basis?…that one engaged and concerned citizen named Brent Jackson is finally beginning to see some publicity regarding his crusade to draw attention to the dilapidated sidewalks in Evansville?…the City County Observer published a study by Mr. Jackson that included some classic examples of long term neglect of sidewalks last year and that the Courier and Press has finally followed suit?…that the TV stations need to get on board and drive the point home with the bulk of our citizens who seem at times to live in simple oblivious comfort completely unaware or uncaring about the state of the City of Evansville?…that Mr. Jackson estimated the cost to repair dilapidated or missing sidewalks at a minimum of $100 Million using per square foot pricing used by City Engineers?…if every sidewalk in Evansville were replaced that the cost to do that would exceed $600 Million?…that the CCO agrees that Mr. Jackson’s estimate for immediate needs is probably in the ballpark (no pun intended) of what needs to be spent right now to get the sidewalks of the City of Evansville up to minimally acceptable standards with respect to safety?

IS IT TRUE that the revelations of the last several years with respect to the dilapidation both above and below ground in Evansville are enough to strike fear into the pocket book of even Larry Ellison who just last week bought the Hawaiian Island of Lanai for a reported $500 Million?…that the EPA has the City of Evansville under court order to repair or replace the Combined Sewer Overflow problem so that we as a people do not contaminate the Ohio River, Bee Slough, and of course our streets, yards, and basements?…the accepted estimate for that work is $500 Million to $600 Million?…that it was recently owned up to that there are 600 miles of cast iron water pipes that are in need of replacement at an estimated cost of $450 Million?…that now we learn that between now and 20 years from now we can add around $500 Million to the maintenance budget for sidewalks?…that former Director of Metropolitan Development, Tom Barnett is on record stating that there are over $1 Billion in repairs needed to get over 8,000 abandoned houses into LIVABLE CONDITION?…the total of these costs add up to roughly $2.5 Billion (nearly $60,000 per household) just to get the City of Evansville salvaged to a point where we can claim that the sewers, the water system, and the sidewalks are safe and sufficient and that there are no rat trap houses rotting down like a month old Halloween pumpkin for all the world to see?

IS IT TRUE that all of these necessary repairs to get to the level of acceptability must really be a buzz-kill to the partying and park loving class that seems to have had a chokehold on local politics recently?…that at a time when literally $2.5 Billion is needed to get the City of Evansville into presentable and livable condition, our government has spent $127 Million on an arena, tried to waste $18 Million on 8 ballfields, are hostage to a belief that an incentive package of $15 Million or more is needed to entice a convention hotel developer to come to town, spent $603,000 on a parking lot at a hotel that the City does not own, have two more parks at $10 Million on the drawing board, and are in the process of final negotiation on $80 Million to read water meters attached to dilapidated pipes over the internet, our leaders dare to smile for the cameras and say things like “it’s a great place to raise kids” or “we have a great quality of life”?…the statements and actions of local government and its surrogates are enough to make ones head spin in disbelief?

IS IT TRUE that having insufficient water pressure to fight fires, brown water to drink, crap in the streets during rains, a polluted river, fragments of concrete formerly known as sidewalks, and a looming $2.5 Billion to spend to get to acceptability does not constitute a “high quality of life” or a “great place to raise kids”?…that spending money on frivolity like parks, arenas, star wars water meters, and junkets to Savannah makes about as much sense as flying lobsters in for the last meal on the Titanic before it sinks?…it is time for the leadership of Evansville to get serious about making Evansville into a “great place to raise kids”?…that the leadership will need the help and support of the people of Evansville who are comfortably oblivious to reality?…there is only so much picking up garbage can hide if anything at all about the real quality of life in River City?

The late nineteenth and very early twentieth centuries in America are often referred to as the “Gilded Age.” The origin of this name is usually attributed to Mark Twain who co-authored a novel entitled The Gilded Age. The term is metaphoric on several levels. It can be taken to reference an obsession with appearances. Unlike “golden,” which has positive associations of beauty and value, the word “gilded” carries connotations of cheap commercialization, shoddiness, and fakery. Twain’s novel is about social climbers and get-rich-quick schemers who are all show and no substance, like a gold-painted trinket. “Gilded Age” also suggests a fascination with gold itself and with the wealth and power that gold symbolizes.

Concern with gold was certainly heightened by U.S. money being minted in scarce gold coins. In addition, gilding, in the sense of gold plating, is often done to make objects beautiful that must also be strong and durable, because gold itself is a soft metal. This might reflect an American sentiment of that era that their efforts toward culture and refinement were just a veneer over a strong but coarse base. All interpretations of the meaning of “Gilded Age” carry an element of irony, however. Perhaps this sense of the ironic is more insightful than any particular interpretation of the term in describing an age of such extremes of wealth and poverty, opportunity and disaster, high standards and low practices, advancement and decay.

The population of post-Civil War America ballooned with a new tide of immigration. In spite of the terrible losses during the war, the census of 1870 reported a population of 39 million Americans, up over 25% from the decade before. The U.S. had become the third most populous nation in the Western world after Russia and France. While farmers struggled and barely maintained their numbers, business and industry boomed with America’s increasing demand for goods and services.

From afar, in countries with repressive social and political structures, stagnant economies, depressed wages, and high unemployment, America seem like a dreamland of opportunity to millions who had no hope of bettering their situation in their native country. Immigration surged, providing industry with a huge new labor force. Immigrants did well if they had a skill, money to start a business, or relatives already in the U.S. who could help them get started. Most immigrants, however, were unskilled, poor, and found themselves without support in America.

When the immigrants arrived on American shores, they gravitated toward established enclaves of people with the same language and customs. These cultural and ethnic clusters often amounted to little cities within cities that provided support, assistance, and protection for new arrivals. Cities became filled with tens of thousands of people who, because they could not afford the cost of public transportation, had to live within walking distance of their employment. As a result, huge labor-intensive factories and industries were ringed with multistory tenements that offered workers shelter from the elements and little more. Certain districts in Chicago had the highest population density in the world, exceeding even the crowding in cities such as Calcutta and Shanghai.

As immigrants were pouring into the cities, the old middle class was moving to the suburbs, taking with them most of the experience and expertise in governing an industrial metropolis. The posts of leadership were often then filled by people with less experience in city government and less of an understanding of traditional American culture.

In the nineteenth century, government at all levels saw itself a provider of essential services such as roads and as an advocate of justice, but not as responsible for the welfare of individuals. The law was supposed to protect people from being wronged, but beyond that they were responsible for their own fate. Neighborhood and fraternal associations bridged the gap between what government provided and what people needed. These organizations helped people in many ways: they gave material assistance to new arrivals, got people jobs, provided necessities for families in distress, supported small businesses, and provided legal assistance. Those who had received help and eventually made good were expected to help others in return.
Many of these associations gained considerable power using the “good old boy” system of giving preferential treatment, especially in business, to members of the group. Some began to wield their power by mobilizing large blocks of voters to influence candidates, elections, and local political parties.

Eventually the association leaders, generally called bosses, began to run for office and get elected themselves. Their first loyalty, however, was not to their government posts or to any political party but to the associations through whose ranks they had risen and to whom they owed their political and personal success.

In all the large industrial cities, such associations became embedded in city government. This new political landscape where the official government was supported and manipulated by a shadow government of bosses and associations became known as machine politics for its ability to call out the votes “like a machine” to sponsor any political agenda. It is important to remember that these associations sprang up to provide vital services to people who had no other recourse. But because shadow government operated outside the public eye, opportunities for graft and abuse of power abounded.

The most infamous example of machine politics was Tammany Hall, headquarters of the Democratic Party in New York City. Headed by William Marcy Tweed, the Tammany Hall political machine of the late 1860s and early 1870s used graft, bribery, and rigged elections to bilk the city of over $200 million. Some of this money went to create public jobs that helped people and supported the local economy. Some went into constructing public buildings at hugely inflated expense thus lining the pockets of building contractors and suppliers of materials. But contractors and suppliers, and anyone else doing business in the city, had to give kickbacks to the bosses in order to stay in business. Many machine bosses, including Boss Tweed, amassed fortunes as a result of kickbacks and bribes.

Some of the city’s money also went for such laudable, though unauthorized, uses as support for widows, orphans, the poor, the aged, the sick, and the unemployed. Tammany supporters cited these diversions of public funds as benefits to society that worked to redistribute some of the wealth that big businesses reaped from having a pool of cheap labor. Many of the people of New York were not convinced by these arguments of the benefits of the boss system, but New York City residents who complained were threatened or had their property taxes raised.

In 1871, the New York Times published sufficient evidence of misuse of public funds to indict and eventually convict Boss Tweed and some of his Tammany cronies. The brilliant political cartoonist Thomas Nast conveyed Tweed’s abuses to even the illiterate and semi-illiterate masses of recent immigrants. Nast was offered a $100,000 bribe to “study art in Paris,” a euphemism for discontinuing his pictorial campaign against Tweed. Nast refused despite even higher offers.

To escape arrest, Tweed fled to Spain. Ironically, he was identified from Nast cartoons circulated in that country, and as a result was captured by Spanish authorities and extradited back to the United States. Samuel Tilden prosecuted Tweed, which paved the way for Tilden’s presidential nomination in 1876. Tweed was convicted in 1872 and died in jail.

In the wake of experience with political machines, reformers, who at first had simply been against the machines as a matter of principle, began lobbying for more government involvement in providing social services. These were the same services the machines purported to provide, but openly and under public scrutiny. Reformers pointed out that the social benefits provided by the political machines came at terrific public expense.

Americans have traditionally been resistant to any sort of socialism, but the arguments of the reformers made sense on both economic and humanitarian levels. City, state, and national governments began to consider the welfare of society in their planning and budgeting and to incorporate social services as an integral part of the function of government.

Source: Gilded Age Scandal and Corruption