Democrats are trying to divide and view the world through the lense of race.
But Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s effort to try to do that today in regard to infrastructure had people wondering if he was okay.
April Ryan (CNN political analyst) asked about the removal of racism from roads. “Can you give us the construct of how you will deconstruct the racism that was built into the roadways? … Can you talk to us about how that could be deconstructed?” Buttigieg’s response was something else.
Sec. Sec.
You can watch. pic.twitter.com/iTJXFamyWR
— Danny De Urbina (@dannydeurbina) November 8, 2021
Buttigieg’s response included this crazy part:
“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.”
There are a couple of questions I need to ask. What does an underpass do to know the race of the children on the bus? Is it possible for white kids to see the difference? It’s safe to say that his comment is getting ratioed on Twitter because it’s just a bit nuts.
But there’s actually a backstory to that crazy comment. Buttigieg appears to be referencing the claim in a 1974 book called “The Powerbroker” by Robert Caro about master builder Robert Moses — about Moses making the underpasses low to prevent people of color from getting to Jones Beach in New York. Bloomberg explained that Bloomberg refuted this claim.
And contrary to a claim in The Power Broker, Moses clearly meant buses to serve his “little Jones Beach” in the Rockaways—Jacob Riis Park. The parking lot was originally designed for motorists, but it’s not true that New Yorkers who don’t own cars were exempted. It was planned to have bus drop-off points. Photos from this era show buses unloading or loading passengers. “Bus connections with the B.M.T. I.R.T. in Brooklyn,” reported the Brooklyn Eagle when the vast seaside playground opened 80 years ago this summer, “make the park easily accessible to non-motorists.”
Bloomberg also notes the following:
Low-slung and clad in ashlar stone, the bridges were essential to parkway stagecraft—part of a suite of details meant to create a sense of romantic rusticity. The parkway was just that—a way through a park. This parkway is meant to take you out of the city. It also serves as a central park for motorists. The reverie is surrounded by lush vegetation and berms, which block out any view of nearby views that might disturb it. This creates the almost cinematic feeling of driving through vast pastoral areas.
As leisure and recreation infrastructure—park before way—commercial traffic was excluded on all the early American parkways. Not only did this apply to buses, but trucks as well. The parkway was designed to be beautiful and to discourage noisy, loud commercial vehicles. It had no connection with racism. It would have been unnecessary to put the Southern State’s bridges up as barricades. In fact, buses are not permitted on these or any other state parksway.
So this reveals an even bigger problem with the Biden Administration and Mayor Pete’s knowledge. Doesn’t he know this story was debunked? He is using it to justify his actions. Are they aware of the true reason for many low-slung under/overpasses in various places?
This is like Attorney General Merrick Garland’s failure to provide any data for his decision to open a federal effort into parents criticizing school boards. Congressmen asked Garland for this data, but he failed to supply it. Buttigieg also uses false examples to justify federal action.
But here’s another thing that this question reveals. They’re not just talking about taking care of roads that need repair. This would be both logically and technically necessary. The Biden Administration does not consider logical or necessary to be its watchwords.
Buttigieg speaks. They’re looking at potentially completely redesigning roadways and neighborhoods for “equity” reasons. That’s an incredibly expensive and vast endeavor, from an Administration that doesn’t seem to have any idea of what it is talking about. And if you’re attending to that and using money for that, you’re not using it for the roadways or bridges that are actually collapsing.
The mind boggles as to what chaos they could cause with that attitude, all in the name of “equity.”
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