One way to get people to not take for granted federal stimulus money is to talk about some of the positive things to be done with it. You used the example of making curbs more wheelchair accessible. I like to imagine a sort of renaissance of urban areas large and small. You go all over the world and cities and towns are awash with great public pedestrian spaces, and even some of the least wealthy areas will have plazas that neighborhoods all over the bay area would be proud of. Here in the states, we could learn from that and make our own spaces more enjoyable to be in, and more conducive to public discourse.