Government policy hurts the city also with respect to the water supply, an issue we talked about in an earlier e-seminar. A large part of the problem of infrastructure in New York City in our time is that much of that water system that is so very wonderful is now in a state of decay because pipes underground are leaking and otherwise deteriorating. The federal government has not provided much relief to New York City, although it's Washington largesse that virtually created the cornucopia that became California's Central Valley, the richest agricultural region in the world. In the American West, all that water shooting out all over the place in irrigation systems is often financed by the federal government too. The American taxpayer has financed billions of dollars' worth of infrastructure improvements to the central and western regions of the United States, but the federal treasury seems not to have much money for improvements to the infrastructure of an old and aging city, a preexisting infrastructure that was funded by local people and built centuries ago.
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