Burnt Mac Bridge: Politicians Point Fingers at the Oppressed

If you live in Cincinnati or Northern Kentucky, you’ve certainly heard of—and likely been impacted by—the damage to the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge (also known as the “Big Mac Bridge”) caused by a fire that occurred in the early morning hours on November 1st. 

Details continue to emerge regarding the true nature of what and who caused this fire. The bridge was damaged due to the Sawyer Point Park playground, which is underneath the northern side of the bridge, catching fire, which then jumped to the bridge. Rumors immediately swirled that a homeless encampment under the bridge may have been what caused the fire. This has recently been proven false, however, as four locals of the Greater Cincinnati area were arrested and charged for their connections to the fire: two are facing charges for aggravated arson, with the other two facing charges for obstruction of justice. It was nearly six weeks after the fire that the Cincinnati Fire Chief finally announced that homeless encampments under the bridge had nothing to do with the incident.

According to WLWT, in an analysis of emails they obtained from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT):

Homeless encampments were discussed numerous times in email chains… including an email on Dec. 13, when [ODOT District 8 engineer Brandon] Collette followed up with his supervisor. He wrote, “Homeless encampments are a continual concern and we seem to have a fire or two a year in Hamilton County... However, these locations are a moving target as we chase them from bridge to bridge (about 50 different locations), and police have become less responsive to our requests to ‘evict’ people living under our bridges over the last couple years.”

Along similar lines, ODOT spokesperson Matt Bruning told WCPO, “We’ve always looked for things that were obviously flammable… In fact, in our review, we found items like semi-trailers, dumpsters, construction materials, and debris from unhoused people under our bridges,” following a Federal Highway Administration memo from last year warning state transportation departments to be aware of flammable or hazardous materials stored under bridges. Apparently, the question of whether a playground made of flammable materials should be allowed under a bridge did not cross ODOT’s minds as a concern in the same way homeless encampments did.

It is very telling that the knee-jerk reaction from local government agencies, without any specific evidence supporting their claim, was to imply that unhoused people—who are just looking for a place to sleep that is even slightly out of the elements—were responsible for the damage to the Big Mac Bridge. Such rumors cultivate an “us-versus-them” mentality, when, in reality, working-class Americans are facing ever-increasing risks of becoming unhoused. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the unhoused population in the US increased by 18% in the last year to over 770,000 people. Although that number is by far the highest since HUD started keeping count in 2007, it is still almost certainly a massive undercount due to certain groups – such as unhoused people who are living on a family or friend’s couch – not being included. This isn’t by accident or some cause of “human nature.” In order to maintain compliance within its workforce, capitalism perpetuates houselessness in order to create what Marx dubbed a “reserve army of labor.” This army of the downtrodden not only keeps enough of the population desperate enough to take any work or alms that they’re offered, but also makes those who are fortunate enough to have a house and a job fearful of losing either or both at any moment.

While the damage to the Big Mac Bridge occurred as a freak incident caused by people intentionally setting fire to a playground, many of the other bridges in the Greater Cincinnati area are facing structural problems as a result of infrastructure being deprioritized. This isn’t just a Cincinnati issue; it’s a national one. Infrastructure in the United States has been crumbling in recent years. As we wrote in our recent statement “Why Has This November Been So Hot?,” President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) was hailed as a piece of legislation that would revitalize the nation’s infrastructure while paying particular attention to climate change resilience, mitigation, and clean energy initiatives. Unsurprisingly—though still unfortunately—the goals of this legislation are lip service to any real reform in an attempt by the Democrats to appeal to their constituents. An analysis by the organization Transportation for America found that over half of the funding allocated by this law has been given to projects for roadway widening and resurfacing, completely neglecting local roads, bridges, and public infrastructure which are in various states of disrepair.  

With all of these bridges facing structural integrity concerns, the question of car dependency in this country also arises. The average American pays over $12,000 per year to own, drive, and maintain a car, and transportation is the second-highest expenditure for the average US household (second only to housing costs). Fossil fuel and car lobbies have a concerted interest in maintaining the rule of cars over the vast majority of Americans as their only viable and reliable form of transportation. In the first quarter of 2024 alone, the auto industry spent $23.1 million just on Federal-level lobbying. Public transit is always an afterthought, if it’s even mentioned at all. 

According to Transportation for America, on a state level, the median amount of BIL funding on highway expansion per capita is about $105, whereas the spending on transit/rail per capita is only $27. Here in Cincinnati, the Brent Spence Bridge expansion project—with its $3.6 billion price tag, traffic projections that have not materialized, and its questionable Environmental Impact Statement—is one of the more anticipated and publicized BIL-funded projects. In terms of transit, Cincinnati’s Metro is in a better state than almost any other transit agency in the country. Its success is due to a combination of its ridership surpassing pre-COVID numbers and its new services and routes following an increase in funding from a tax levy passed in 2020. However, the Cincinnati Metro still falls woefully short of meeting the need of public transit in a city of over 300,000. Across the river the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK) is facing a fiscal cliff in the next couple of years, and most other transit agencies nationwide are in the same boat. 

The corporate elites, whom our politicians represent, inherently benefit from privatizing as much of our lives as possible and, as Trump argues for the privatization of the United States Postal Service (USPS), it is evident that public services are no exception to this. Slashing funding to, or attempting to fully privatize, transit will only worsen its already lackluster state in the US, further harming those who are dependent on it and deepening car dependency for everyone else.

At a bare minimum, we deserve infrastructure — bridges, roads, and water pipes — that aren’t deteriorating. More than that, we deserve more sustainable and affordable transportation systems that aren’t meddled with by corporate interests and lobbies. We deserve transparency on the shortcomings of the infrastructure we depend on daily—not for unhoused people to be made a scapegoat and a target by our officials with no evidence (all while houselessness skyrockets under the systems those same officials uphold), or for highway expansion projects with outdated Environmental Impact Statements to be lauded as revolutionary. 

We know from centuries of trial and error that the capitalists, their government, and their charity, does not, cannot, and will not help overcome societal issues like houselessness, climate change, or even basic public infrastructure until we the people start challenging and threatening their power. The current arrangement is far too profitable for these entities — and, under a system with legalized government bribery, how can we expect mere token reforms to not become overpowered by the prevailing economic interests that our government represents? We need a government of, by, and for the American working class. This can only be achieved by the people organizing collectively to build local, state, and federal councils of workers, with elected representatives who are held accountable and recallable by the people at a moment's notice. There’s no way to sugarcoat it: challenging the supremacy of a 200-year-old empire is daunting. The work will be tiring, but we have a world to win — a world that we can be proud to bring future generations into, rather than a world ruled by fear of what the future holds. With our collective power, we can produce collective change.