Pete Buttigieg launches $1 billion U.S. government program to tackle racist roads

AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

Pete Buttigieg, Biden’s Transportation Secretary, has launched the “Reconnecting Communities” program to infuse social justice and racial equity into urban infrastructure. The project will cost an estimated $1 billion to dismantle historical highways and award millions of dollars in grants to feelings of “racial harm” brought about by racist roads. 

On Thursday, Buttigieg launched the first-of-its-kind pilot program to go about “mending what has been broken, especially when the damage was done with taxpayer dollars.” 

Under the program, cities and states can apply for federal aid to alleviate supposed harm caused by roadways that bisected lower-income black communities after the 1950s creation of the interstate system.  

“Transportation can connect us to jobs, services and loved ones, but we‘ve also seen countless cases around the country where a piece of infrastructure cuts off a neighborhood or a community because of how it was built,” said Buttigieg, who made the announcement in Birmingham, Alabama. 

“This is a forward-looking vision,” Buttigieg said. “Our focus isn’t about assigning blame. It isn’t about getting caught up in guilt. It’s about fixing a problem. It’s about mending what has been broken, especially when the damage was done with taxpayer dollars.” 

As detailed by the L.A. Times, the U.S. Interstate Highway System, which was established by President Eisenhower in 1956, saw transportation planners tearing through urban locales with freeways “through intention and indifference,” that “carved up black communities.” 

“Overall, within the first two decades of highway construction alone, more than 1 million people had lost their homes nationwide,” the publication explained. 

As reported by the Associated Press, the $1 billion figure tied to Buttigieg’s program is “considerably less than the $20 billion the Democratic president originally envisioned. Advocacy groups say the money isn’t nearly enough to have a major impact on capital construction for more than 50 citizen-led efforts nationwide aimed at dismantling or redesigning highways — from Portland, Oregon, to New Orleans; St. Paul, Minnesota; Houston; Tampa, Florida; and Syracuse, New York.” 

“New projects could include rapid bus transit lines to link disadvantaged neighborhoods to jobs; caps built on top of highways featuring green spaces, bike lanes and pedestrian walkways to allow for safe crossings over the roadways; repurposing former rail lines; and partial removal of highways,” the Associated Press reported. 

The move was slammed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who described the infrastructure plan as the “wokeification of federal policy.” 

"There's trees they're putting in, they're saying that highways are racially discriminatory, I don't know how a road can be that,” said DeSantis in February. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) slams the "woke-ification of federal policy" in the bipartisan infrastructure bill:

"There's trees they're putting in, they're saying that highways are racially discriminatory, I don't know how a road can be that." pic.twitter.com/0lQyhYDcPc

— The Recount (@therecount) February 1, 2022

The Associated Press reports: 

Under the program, $195 million in competitive grants is to be awarded this year, of which $50 million will be devoted for communities to conduct planning studies. 

The department will also launch a “Thriving Communities” initiative to provide technical support for potential projects that serve disadvantaged communities alongside the Housing and Urban Development Department. 

The Transportation Department has previously estimated it could help as many as 20 U.S. communities under the new program to remove portions of interstates and redesign streets by tapping into other transportation funds. According to the department, communities that win the Reconnecting Communities grants but still need additional funds will be prioritized in their applications for other pots of federal transportation money. Dozens more communities could derive benefit from the planning grants.