We hear of airport radar screens going dark yet no one is held accountable. Billions in infrastructure funding were passed during the reign of Biden. Buttigieg as Transportation Secretary had his hand on the wheel. Let us not forget how we got here. Wasting Billions.
So let’s call this flashback Friday – Let’s take a look at how we got here from Bunks Box of Golden Moments from earlier posts:
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Monday that his agency would use a part of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill to address racial inequities in U.S. highway design.
The program, called “Reconnecting Communities,” will focus on the “legacy of highway construction built through communities” and remove or repurpose infrastructure barriers. (Worth taking the ride out to the link.)
The GOP is quick to point out that the latest spend-a-rama bill just passed only has about ten percent for infrastructure as we know it. There is precious little discussed of the remaining 90 percent. Try as I might, I can only find a broad brush of it. But here is one jewel that deserves our attention:
Tucked in amid larger pots of money is $20 billion to “reconnect neighborhoods cut off by historic investments (in infrastructure)” and to ensure new projects advance racial and environmental justice.
Critics say it could produce unintended consequences such as more traffic congestion in local neighborhoods — especially if it leads to closing or significantly altering highways, as some cities are contemplating.
Some cities, such as Syracuse, N.Y., want to tear down portions of urban highways, restore old street grids and redevelop neighborhoods. O’Toole is skeptical, saying highway demolition could increase traffic congestion in local neighborhoods and lead to other unintended consequences.
“I’m afraid what we’re going to see with this $20 billion is anti-road people tearing out roads,” O’Toole said.
So far, no one is suggesting that will happen in Atlanta. But there are proposals to build parks over the Downtown Connector. Williams recently requested nearly $1.2 million in federal funding for one of those projects, “The Stitch,” which would cover the highway between the MARTA Civic Center station and Piedmont Road.
“I think our communities are trying to figure out how to reconnect, and have had some success,” said A.J. Robinson, president of Central Atlanta Progress, which proposed The Stitch. “We just need more connections.”
Read more AJC
Transportation @SecretaryPete: " If an underpass was constructed such that a bus carrying mostly Black and Puerto Rican kids to a beach, […] in New York was designed too low for it to pass by, that that obviously reflects racism that went into those design choices." pic.twitter.com/0XWkDZehYM
— The Hill (@thehill) November 8, 2021
A plan to dismantle a 1-mile-long depressed freeway that was built in Detroit by demolishing Black neighborhoods 60 years ago is a big winner of federal money
Just 8 more seconds and you get the whole agenda:
Bunks Bonus of Total Nonsense.
Pete Buttigieg Announces $19.5 Million Grant for Heated Sidewalks
A major influx of federal transportation dollars is on its way to the North Country. So goes the synopsis of this grant for the boonies of a forgotten northern town of Berlin, New Hampshire. I could ask about what is being done about our roads and bridges that are decaying beneath our trucks and cars, as opposed to not shoveling a sidewalk but then I would not be in the spirit of the moment.
Pete says the money is going toward economic growth.
You may ask just where is Berlin NH?
It is the northernmost city in New Hampshire. The population was 9,425 at the 2020 census,[5] down from 10,051 at the 2010 census
….
Now that is no small chump change. Guess whose the chump? Try American taxpayers. Of course does anyone really think it will end up costing just $19.5 million?
How about the maintenance of this project when completed? Thought I might ask…
Historically these systems were expensive to install, problematic to operate, and occasionally unreliable.
The best of the swamp. No money for our airport upgrades for our air traffic control, but lots for nonsense.
BUNKERVILLE | God, Guns and Guts Comrades! 