After our terrifying experience with a manhole explosion and fire at the office last Thursday, the pressing need for infrastructure investment was brought home to us here at GRITtv in a very real way. Years of budget cuts and tax cuts have led to public safety hazards around the country, and the stimulus bill isn't enough to fix all the electrical, structural, and other problems.

We talk to Fabiola Carrion of the Progressive States Network, Amanda Little, Grist contributor and author of Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells---Our Ride to the Renewable Future, and Glenn Von Nostitz, former director of the Office of Policy Management, Office of the NYC Comptroller and Senior Fellow in Policy Research and Development at the Center for an Urban Future, about the problems with infrastructure and ask where our priorities should lie: with public safety or green technology.