[jphelan]

It's important to distinguish primary infrastructure from the secondary infrastructure that is built on top of it. Housing, transit, energy, water & waste water, and communications are the primary infrastructures (made of networks like roads and pipes, and the services on top of the networks, like buses and water) on top of which we provide secondary services, like healthcare and schools.

In the bay area, we have good city planning for our primary infrastructure besides transit and housing. For instance, Sunnyvale owns its wastewater treatment plant and is prudently investing in it. Housing has no real planning, except for city councils (who benefit from a housing shortage) approving projects. Transit is a derived need that stems from our housing inbalance among other things.

If transit isn't working, ambulances can't get around and children can't get to school. If water isn't working, we can't operate hospitals. This is why we distinguish primary and secondary infrastructure as layers of abstraction.

Not to say that secondary infrastructure isn't important, but it doesn't have as much public sunk cost investment in things like the digging the networks of tunnels and such, so secondary infrastructure is easier to fix in a shorter time span.

[DrScump]

  city councils (who benefit from a housing shortage) 

How do city councils benefit?

[jphelan]

They are all home owners.