Maybe Steve should get out of North America/Europe and see that almost every other country in the world has much more deplorable roads than we do. When i was in China i saw, on more than one occasion, cars stuck in potholes bigger than the car. Never saw that on the streets of Portland...
The point of the trip, or at least one, according to Sam, is to foster EXPORTS to China. If Steve wants to get on the topic of problems in Portland, i would say the tight economy and outsourcing are biggies. If we started exporting more goods, we may bring back jobs and bring in the revenue needed to pay for better streets.