Twice over the past summer, storms caused major flooding struck the New York City subway system, closing 20 stations on July 15. The inundation, per the New York Times, exemplified the system’s “longstanding infrastructure problem that is only getting worse.”

Such recent events might logically figure in the current mayoral campaign, along with maintenance of parks and recreation facilities and the fact that civil engineers have rated the majority of the city’s bridges in fair or poor condition — and five are actually closed.

These and other “infrastructure” issues are about much more than engineering — they are central to the quality of life of a well-functioning city. When commuters are stranded on the F train and must walk to safety through a dark subway tunnel, that should not be accepted as a normal day in the Big Apple. Nor should it be acceptable for neighborhood swimming pools, like that in Red Hook, Brooklyn, to be closed for repairs in the heat of the summer or for aging sewer lines to back up in the residences in Gowanus and East Elmhurst — with repairs estimated at years away, at........

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