… NOT a record to run on … or even waltz into the White House
(by Bill Stremmel)Normally this column does not wade into partisan politics as transportation infrastructure, prudent + sensible investments into and the efficient sustainable uses of it, should be apolitical benefiting the entire commonweal. And as a non-profit 501(c)(3) the Institute for Effective Transportation cannot take sides with any candidate for public office or political party.
However, IET may exercise its right to question someone’s tenure in a position to affect transportation, especially in a position with so much profound influence as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Pete Buttigieg, appointed shortly before President Joe Biden was inaugurated in January, 2021, did hold this office for four years of particular significance as generous portions of the huge sums in the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IJJA) and so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” were allocated to transportation projects and programs under the aegis of DOT. Since leaving Mr. Buttigieg has been embroiled in controversy over FAA failures and responsibility for January’s deadly mid-air collision over the Potomac River. Moving from Indiana to Michigan ostensibly for a more “blue” political complexion, Buttigieg defied expectations that he would run for a U.S. Senate seat to be vacated in 2026 by a Democrat, sparking speculation that he was instead preparing for another run for the Presidency in 2028.
The late Governor of New York State, Alfred E. Smith, offered this advice when evaluating a candidate’s suitability for public office: “Let’s Look at the Record.” And for “Mayor Pete” as he was referred to on the 2020 campaign trail after having served as Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Mr. Buttigieg’s record in public service following the military and on Wall Street begins there. A heavy lift for Pete and all of his predecessors since Studebaker closed its automobile manufacturing plant in 1963 has been to fill that cavernous facility ideally located on a rail siding with affordable housing nearby for the workers with new firms, but when I stopped by in 2018 it stood empty. South Bend was cleaned up, but lacked much economic vigor.
Especially revealing was a January, 2021 segment of Brian Lehrer’s WNYC radio show dedicated to President Biden’s nomination of Buttigieg. There weredozens of callers and hundreds of online comments – all of them questioning how a mayor of a city with barely 100,000 residents could relate that experience to the transportation issues of an entire nation comprised of many cities with populations in the millions served by complex transit systems. One resident of South Bend called to say that Mayor Buttigieg had removed a stop light in a black neighborhood and six months later a black child was killed trying to cross the now unsignaled intersection. So much for “transportation equity” and balancing traffic flow with pedestrian safety that Buttigieg harped about so much at the helm of DOT.
When Pete Buttigieg first emerged as a rising star in the Democratic Party ten years ago the first thought that came to mind was: “I’ve seen this face before.” Then it came to me: the June, 1966 cover of MAD Magazine affixed to the door of our 6th grade classroom just weeks before we were to graduate from elementary school. Below the image of an adolescent character the spitting image of Pete Buttigieg even a generation older was the caption: “WHAT ME WORRY”. Indeed that seemed to be the theme underlying all of Pete’s pronouncements ranging from pure politically correct drivel to broad policy statements. He just came off as a modern-day Marie Antoinette brushing off concerns of those who weren’t wealthy or woke enough to fit into the Biden administration’s fractured future for ordinary Americans. Like owners of non-Tesla electric cars with such a paucity of places to recharge because despite billions of $ earmarked for generic recharging stations by the IJJA, only a few dozen were in operation by the end of Biden’s term. WHY? The biggest reason could be a nonsensical provision in the Act prohibiting construction of charging stations in Highway rest areas … which happen to be the most logical place for them because the duration of time people spend for a rest break is just about sufficient to recharge an electric car for the next leg of its journey. A truly proactive Secretary of Transportation would have had such a ridiculous regulation removed before the bill even reached the House floor. Buttigieg was aloof in deed as well as in word, taking the first sabbatical of any Cabinet secretary in memory ( my political awareness goes back 65 years) for months in 2021 to help care for his newly adopted twins. With a hubby to share responsibilities could he not have broken away to make just a few phone calls down to longshoremen on the piers in Los Angeles and Long Beach to unsnarl the logjam with hundreds of ships berthed offshore waiting to unload? Maybe not because Pete could not seem to relate to working class folks. The supply chain crisis at the height of the COVID pandemic contributed mightily to the inflation that factored into the Dems debacle at the polls in 2024.
In all fairness Pete Buttigieg was the third in a series of political appointees at DOT with consequences as bad for transportation as a similar pattern at DOE has been for energy. The combined tenure of Anthony Foxx, Elaine Chao, and Buttigieg spanning 12 years has been marked by a lack of appreciation for technical aspects of autonomous vehicles and aircraft, neglect of critical systems at the FAA, and the basic function of moving people and goods cheaply and quickly with minimal impact subsumed to other agendas. During this time there has been a dangerous drift with spectrum essential for V2X communication invaded by the entertainment industry for lack of forceful intercession by DOT with the FCC. Planning ahead for a new dimension of airborne mobility calls for incorporating landing pads on building rooftops in new construction while scrutinizing continuing investment in surface highway expansion and underground rail.
Buttigieg – as well as President Barack Obama – was particularly captivated by Robert Caro’s THE POWER BROKER published over 50 years ago in 1974 to expose the flawed planning and methodology of New York’s legendary public works czar Robert Moses. Yes, there are important lessons to be learned from too much power concentrated in a single individual with a narrow agenda of facilitating the use of private automobiles to the exclusion of all other considerations. But Caro never intended his book to be the all-encompassing bible for urban transportation planning it has come to be regarded by the woke universe. Floundering transit and high-speed rail could have used people with Moses’ determination and grit to overcome petty parochial interests as they were when highways were steamrollered through cities.
Buttigieg is now engaged in a volley of criticisms over alarming failures of America’s civil aviation regulatory apparatus, effectively parrying ridiculous remarks by Trump and other MAGA folks about DEI by citing a record of zero airborne fatalities during his watch, the midair collision between the American Airlines regional jet with an Army helicopter over DC occurring just nine days into the new administration.
To which I say: “Not so fast, Pete.” The same WNYC radio program analyzing his nomination in early 2021 four years later aired statistics indicating a heightened incidence of near misses at airports and in the air correlated with FAA staff shortages beginning in early 2023. Indeed, earlier in January just before the end of Biden’s administration two airliners clipped their wings on a clear day on a taxiway at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Investigation of the January 29th tragedy reveals a built-in conflict over the Potomac River with routine incursions by military helicopters into the approach path for Reagan National Airport, while a communications link between FAA and Pentagon controllers had not functioned for two years. And where was our illustrious DOT Secretary? Missing in Action!