the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the $1.2 trillion “infrastructure” bill rammed through the House last Friday includes a multi-billion slush fund that will allow the Biden Transportation Department to bypass the states and spend the money at his discretion — because he is so knowledgeable about transportation having served as the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana. United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will be able to allocate these funds for such projects as combatting climate change and righting the “inequities caused by past transportation projects.” He thinks federal transportation policy has been systemically racist.
For the poor and minorities who are trying to escape poverty, Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg is a nightmare. He wants to get Americans out of autos and into buses and trains and on their bikes and has proposed increasing the Federal Transit Administration budget from $12 billion to $150 billion. His transportation schemes would make cars more expensive and less universally available. The irony of all of this is that one of the single best ways to get poor people out of poverty and away from areas of high unemployment, crime and drug abuse is to get them a car.
A landmark study published in the Journal of Transport Geography covering the years 1994-2010 found that “automobiles provide households with better access to [job/economic] opportunities than other modes of transportation, particularly in urban environments…Automobile access reduces households’ neighborhood poverty exposure by between 3 and 4%.”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/
The idiot, fake war hero Pete Buttegig knows nothing about being Secretary of Transportation. He was mayor of a city that utilized just 46 buses. Now he’s in charge of transportion for the entire nation. He was chosen by Biden to fill this position based on progressive identity politics. Not qualifications. That’s a trend with Biden and it’s damaging our country.
Furthermore, Pete said underpasses were constructed low on purpose to prevent buses with black kids to gain access to the beach (regarding Jones Beach, NY). He’s wrong. He should have read Robert Moses, The Power Broker. 1,162 pages would have given Pete clarity on highway planning and the reason Moses designed low underpasses. Because it is a parkway. Not a turnpike. Parkways are designed for car traffic NOT buses and NOT commercial trucks. So Pete’s argument that “underpasses are racist” is more Democrat stupidity.
I’m sure black families owned cars, used the parkway and enjoyed days at Jones Beach.
Or doesn’t Pete think that black families own a car? The stupidity of the Democrats never ceases to amaze me.
Mayor Pete will be the Dem nominee in 2024 so we better get used to seeing him.
“Mayor Pete will be the Dem nominee in 2024 so we better get used to seeing him.”
Very true. I can see how they’re promoting him more and more. The guy is clueless, the highest position he could fill is probably as bartender at best. But hey, skills don’t matter in today’s twisted world. He has a special side skill that makes him eligible to be prez of USA. Can’t wait to see 2 men kiss on the stairs of Capitol on Jan 2024. Nostradamus was completely off when he predicted end of the world.
Well… as long as it hurts women and minorities I am very upset about it.
I don’t give a rat’s arse if it hurts men or caucasians.
I’m guessing there’s another accident somewhere … Paramus Road and Grove Street are parking lots.
If this was just a Bill for improving our infrastructure, then I’m all for it. However, it’s loaded full of pork with things that have zero connection to infrastructure. It’s exactly this kind of corruption that DT was battling but the powers of the MSM and all the other arms of the machine managed to convince enough people that Orange Man was the devil and had to go.
Democrats are good at one thing. NAMING their tax and spend bills in order to get the lamestream media and dopey Democrats to support their passing.
Infrastructure should be limited to bridges roads tunnels ports and airports.
Not their bullshit social programs.
Other than ‘playing for the other team’ Mayor Pete has zero qualifications for his job.