State Capacity and Eight Parking Spaces
Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s book, Abundance, makes a compelling case that American government has systematically eroded its own capacity to build things. Through decades of well-intentioned regulations, environmental reviews, and bureaucratic processes, we’ve created a system that prioritizes blocking bad projects over enabling good ones. The result is a country that can’t build high-speed rail, can’t streamline housing development, and struggles with even basic infrastructure improvements.
It’s a compelling argument about mega-projects and national priorities. But you don’t need to look at California’s failed high-speed rail or New York City’s decades-long 2nd Avenue Subway project to see this dynamic in action. Sometimes the failure of state capacity is perfectly illustrated by something much smaller: eight parking spaces.
A modest proposal
In March 2022, Seattle City Light announced plans for a small EV charging station in West Seattle’s Morgan Junction. The project was refreshingly straightforward: convert a tiny city-owned lot into eight EV charging spaces. Construction would begin in Q4 2022 and take approximately three months. The charging station would be operational by March 2023.
That was three years ago.
Today, in July 2025, that lot remains empty. No charging stations, no construction, no progress. Just a small patch of dirt and weeds that perfectly encapsulates everything Klein and Thompson argue about American governance: our inability to execute even the most basic infrastructure projects.
The bureaucratic gauntlet
What happened? Everything and nothing. The project didn’t fail due to lack of funding, community opposition, or technical impossibility. It failed because it had to navigate a maze of bureaucratic processes that would be comical if they weren’t so predictable.
By September 2022, six months behind schedule, the project was at “90% design” with environmental cleanup complete and construction permits submitted. But they had to switch charging station vendors due to supply chain issues, and the new equipment had “a very long lead time.”
By October 2024, city officials were calling this eight-space parking lot their “largest and most ambitious EV-charging station project to date” — a phrase that should make every taxpayer, YIMBY, and urbanist weep. The project required “more time, engineering, and permitting than one of our more typical EV charging station projects.”
Read that again: eight parking spaces with electrical outlets required more engineering than typical projects.
By April 2025, officials revealed the project had undergone “three redesigns” and was still a full year away from completion. The original three-month construction timeline had stretched to five or six months, assuming no further delays.
The process is the punishment
This isn’t a story about incompetence. It’s a story about a system that has optimized itself for caution rather than execution. Every stakeholder along the way was undoubtedly following their protocols correctly. Environmental reviews were completed. Permits were filed properly. Vendor changes were handled through appropriate channels.
The problem isn’t that any individual step was wrong — it’s that we’ve created a system where building eight parking spaces requires the same bureaucratic overhead as a major infrastructure project. We’ve made simple things complicated and complicated things impossible.
Klein and Thompson argue that liberal governance has evolved over decades into a system that constrains itself from providing the outcomes it was intended to produce. You can see this dynamic perfectly in Seattle’s EV charging debacle. Everyone involved genuinely wants more EV infrastructure. The project has broad public support. There are no real technical or financial barriers.
And yet here we are, three years later, staring at an empty lot.
State capacity matters
The authors of Abundance propose what they call a liberalism that builds — governance focused on outcomes rather than process, results rather than procedures. They argue that only a nimble and proactive government can deliver the affordable housing, clean energy, and innovative infrastructure that our challenges require.
But even if you reject their broader political program, the core insight remains valid: government’s ability to execute basic functions is a prerequisite for everything else we want to accomplish.
Want to address climate change? You need to be able to build renewable energy infrastructure quickly and efficiently. Want affordable housing? You need streamlined approval processes for new construction. Want economic growth? You need transportation systems that don’t take decades to plan and build.
If we can’t figure out how to install eight EV chargers in a small parking lot without a three-year timeline and multiple redesigns, how exactly are we going to tackle larger challenges?
The cost of delay
There’s a temptation to treat stories like this as amusing examples of government inefficiency — fodder for late-night comedy shows and cynical shrugs. But the costs of this institutional sclerosis are real and mounting.
Every month that EV charging infrastructure remains incomplete is a month that discourages electric vehicle adoption. Every year that housing projects remain tied up in permitting processes is a year that homelessness and affordability crises worsen. Every decade that major infrastructure improvements remain in planning phases is a decade of reduced economic competitiveness.
We’ve gotten comfortable with delay as the default outcome of public projects. We’ve normalized dysfunction to the point where nobody even seems surprised when simple infrastructure takes years to complete.
What abundance looks like
Klein and Thompson’s vision of abundance isn’t about throwing money at problems or cutting environmental protections. It’s about rebuilding government’s capacity to accomplish its basic functions efficiently and effectively.
What would that look like for something as simple as EV charging stations? Standardized approval processes. Pre-approved vendor lists. Streamlined permitting for routine infrastructure. Clear timelines with accountability mechanisms.
Most importantly, it would look like treating simple projects as simple projects instead of subjecting them to the same bureaucratic overhead as complex ones.
The authors are right that America has lost its ability to build things at scale. But the problem isn’t just with mega-projects like high-speed rail or new airports. It’s with everything — from eight-space parking lots to bike lanes to basic maintenance of existing infrastructure.
If we can’t rebuild state capacity at the small scale, we’ll never recover it at the large scale. And if we can’t deliver something as straightforward as EV charging stations in a reasonable timeframe, we probably shouldn’t be surprised when voters lose faith in government’s ability to tackle bigger challenges.
The empty lot in Morgan Junction isn’t just a local inconvenience. It’s a symbol of what happens when process becomes more important than progress, when the perfect becomes the enemy of the functional, and when state capacity atrophies to the point where even basic infrastructure becomes an “ambitious” undertaking.
Three years and counting for eight parking spaces. Klein and Thompson are right: we need to do better.
Appendix: Morgan Junction EV Charging Timeline
March 2022: EV charging station proposed
West Seattle Blog
Notional launch date: March 2023
“Construction could begin as soon as the 4th quarter of 2022. The project will take approximately three months to complete.”
September 2022: Plan finalized, first phase of work starting
West Seattle Blog
Notional launch date: September 2023
“But even though the site prep is being done now, according to Strang, actual construction of the charging station isn’t expected before the middle of next year.”
January 2024: Plan at 90% design
West Seattle Blog
Notional launch date: December 2024
“[At] 90% design, environmental cleanup is complete, and they’ve applied for construction permits. But it won’t be built until the last quarter of the year because they had to switch what kind of charging stations they’re going to use, and the new equipment ‘has a very long lead time.’”
October 2024: 8 EV chargers is “ambitious”
West Seattle Blog
Notional launch date: 🤷♂️
“Morgan Junction is our largest and most ambitious EV-charging station project to date requiring more time, engineering, and permitting than one of our more typical EV charging station projects. We’ve also experienced significant delays with procurement of the chargers and other electric service equipment.”
April 2025: Accelerated timetable
West Seattle Blog
Notional launch date: April 2026
“Another new date for completion of the Morgan Junction EV-charging lot between Fauntleroy Way and SW Morgan, north of 42nd. This time it comes from District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka, who says City Light is now projecting the long-planned eight-charger lot will be open for use in April of next year – still a year away. While his newsletter – and the City Light memo it links to – describe this as an ‘acceleration,’ it is not.”
April 2025: This project required ‘three redesigns’
West Seattle Blog
Notional launch date: April 2026
“‘We’re cautiously optimistic’ that no further big changes will be needed, she said, and they’re trying to find ways to ‘streamline’ the project. They’ve talked with other city departments to try to make that happen…Once construction starts this fall, they hope it will last five or six months (though her slide said ‘4 or 5’), and that the station will be operational in April; they hope to go out to bid this July.”