As Berkeley’s infrastructure continues to crumble and financial liabilities escalate, one would hope the Mayor and Council would focus on closing this gap. Perhaps they would consider scaling back the record growth in spending, so resources could be redeployed to address our maintenance deficit. Projects such as Berkeley's $122 million recreational peir exemplifly their expansionist mindset with little focus of how we maintain our infrastructure. Another example is a plan to risk millions of public dollars to create a "public bank". The startup cost of this endeavor is projected to be $40 million.