July 30, 2024 • 30 mins
Reeling from the political whiplash of the last few weeks, we look to the future and discuss who Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, will choose as her running mate in the 2024 elections. We discuss each contender's transit record and decide who we think would be our best transit champion.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Doors are closing.
Public transit that's my way toroll On the metro.
I'm taking control.
Full throttle.
Bus stops, train tracks it's mydaily grind.
Daily grind.
Public transit it's the rhythmof my life.
On this episode of TransitTangents, we take a look at some
of the top contenders to joincurrent Vice President Harris's
(00:24):
run for the White House andserve as VP.
How do these candidates comparewhen it comes to issues
surrounding transit?
We'll break it down on thisepisode of Transit Tangents.
Hey everybody and welcome tothis episode of Transit Tangents
.
My name is Lewis and I'm Chris,and today on the show we're
going to talk about just theabsolute whirlwind of everything
(00:44):
that's happened in the last twoweeks, basically Like a year's
worth of worldly events Ageneration's worth of events in
two weeks.
Yeah, and this is going to beone of the most timely, relevant
episodes we've done.
We're going to be talking aboutwho the next VP could be and
which ones would be the absolutebest as far as transit goes,
(01:06):
which is obviously what we talkabout here on this program.
So, obviously, unless you'vebeen sleeping under a rock,
President Biden is no longerrunning for reelection Within a
couple hours.
Vice President Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
You think you just fell out of a coconut tree.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Is now the presumptive nominee, essentially
, Presumptive nominee yeah, yeahwe're not quite at the
convention yet, but all thingsare kind of pointing to Vice
President Harris At this point.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
has raised nearly $150 million since Biden bowed
out of the race, and then on topof that, has secured all of the
pretty much all the delegates,the vast majority of the
delegates for the democraticconvention.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
so when we say presumptive, we mean yes, she's
going to be the nominee, as wellas all of the support from
everything that matters is beingthe the first brat vp ever.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Um, yeah, yes, so we'll see who the, who, the, the
vice president now pick isgoing to be all of this also
follows the attemptedassassination on former
president Trump, which I don'tknow about you, but
unprecedented times are among usand I am tired of living in
unprecedented times.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yes, I would like things to get back to precedent.
Yes, yes, but before we getinto it, the most wild event
that happened among all of this,far, far more important than
assassination attemptspresidents stepping down.
Thanks to all of you, we're nowwell over it, but over 1,000
subscribers here on YouTube.
(02:34):
So thank you all very much,seriously.
Thank you for that.
Obviously not more importantthan any of those things you
said.
What you said, yeah, you knowwhat?
I don't take it back.
I don't take it back.
I don't take it back.
Way more important.
Um, but yeah, this is going tobe a little bit of a fun one,
but we are going to get intosome of the specifics of what
some of the actual vp candidatesare.
Uh, again, to serve as vicepresident under kamala harris,
(02:57):
uh, could be.
Uh, some of them are more funones that would just be like the
ultimate transit vp.
Uh of them are more realistic,but also a couple of the real
choices could be a majorpositive for for transit in
general in the U S.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
So and and just to preface this, there's, there are
over.
I think there's a dozen or morepeople being floated right now,
and vice president Harris isall over the country campaigning
with folks and really trying toget a feel for these different
candidates.
We picked sort of our favoritesand who we think is easier to
talk about when it comes totransit.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Totally so.
Without further ado, let's jumpinto the potential VP
candidates.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
All right, these are going to be in no particular
order, but first on our list isMichigan Governor Gretchen
Whitmer.
For those who don't know,governor Whitmer, she's the 49th
governor of Michigan.
Uh, for those who don't know,uh, governor whitmer, she's the
49th governor of michigan.
She's uh had a strong focus onhealth care, education and, most
importantly to us, oninfrastructure.
She's very active on tiktok.
If you have not seen her videoson tiktok, uh, she's a huge
(03:56):
advocate for a lot of thesetransportation projects in
michigan lots of veryenthusiastic bridge building
videos.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
There's a really nice bridge being built.
Someone I saw described it as afangirl video over this, like
beautiful international bridgeover to canada, um, all sorts of
stuff like that.
Um one of her slogans when shewas running also, uh, and I've
got a little qualm with this.
I'd like to see some otherinfrastructure being done, but
her campaign one of them was fixthe damn roads.
Um, so a lot of the attentionseemingly on a lot of car
(04:27):
infrastructure.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, um, in the state, but well, and she's
coming from a state where carsare the economy or cars were the
economy.
Yes, I mean, if you think aboutautomobile states, michigan's
kind of high up there.
But yeah, michigan, if youthink of michigan, it's this
sort of post-industrial state.
There's a lot of areas thatprobably fell into disrepair
when a lot of jobs movedoverseas.
Some of that's changing andthey're doing a lot of work to
(04:50):
try to reinvest in the economythere, which Whitmer's been a
big advocate for.
But fix the damn roads Kind ofmakes sense for a state like
Michigan.
That being said, maybe fix thedamn rails, right, yes, that as
well.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
A couple specifics here.
So they secured over $66million in RAISE grants for
projects in Detroit, menomineeand Kalamazoo to improve road
safety, connectivity and reduceair pollution the reducing air
pollution one.
There's a lot of mixed things.
Gretchen Whitmer is not greaton some of that stuff.
In my view, there's a couplespecific instances in Kalamazoo
(05:27):
that you can look into.
Beyond that that's unrelated.
Here Again, we talked a lotabout road infrastructure.
So there's road and bridgerepairs over 23,000 lane miles
of state-owned roads beingrepaired, 1,600 bridges and
supporting over 89,000 jobs.
There's kind of all sorts ofthings in the road department In
the road department there's alot of positives.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
It's not all roads and we're not trying to paint a
bad picture of Gretchen Whitmer,but there was also positives
for transit as well.
They secured about $6 billionin economic development.
$2 billion of that was fortransit-related projects and
mobility projects really aimedat enhancing public
transportation and economicviability in cities.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
But recently though there was this is a little bit
more on the downside.
This is just in the last coupleweeks, actually the budget for
public transportation, and Iwant to read this off here, off
here.
So the latest budget for thestate of Michigan this year had
(06:31):
$246 million for local busoperating expenses, which is
divided among 77 transitagencies statewide, and only $20
million of that is justone-time funding and likely will
not be available next year.
To compare that last year's was$261 million.
So that is a decrease ofroughly $20 million and maybe
another decrease of $20 millionafter that, because there is a
(06:51):
section of that that wasone-time funding.
So definitely a decrease inspending on local bus operations
, which definitely hits transitnetworks hard, because if your
bus is not running frequently,if you don't have the money for
drivers, buses are expensive tooperate.
So minus one point there.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, and it's kind of disappointing for a state
like Michigan where, like manystates in this region, they're
really trying to attract youngtalent.
The Growing Michigan TogetherCouncil, which is a group that
really focuses on trying toimprove cities and find a way to
attract younger people toMichigan to improve the economy,
they were some of the peoplewho really sounded the alarm on
(07:32):
the fact that money was beingtaken away from public transit.
So you know, the budget gotpassed.
There wasn't as much money aswe hoped, you know.
So if we're looking at apotential VP, I think Gretchen
Whitmer checks a lot of boxesand being, I think,
pro-infrastructure andpro-transit, but her record so
far has been heavily, heavilyfocused on private car ownership
(07:53):
and roadways over things likeimproved train service All right
.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Next on our list, again in no particular order,
here is the current governor ofPennsylvania, josh Shapiro.
He's on the short list as well.
A big part of the reason,obviously Pennsylvania is a big
swing state.
He won that state by a lot.
I forget the percentages, butif Kamala Harris can carry
Pennsylvania, everyone's sayingthat's why they're potentially
(08:18):
going for Josh Shapiro.
As far as transit goes a littlebit of a mixed bag.
I know you found a couplepositive things in this first,
and then I'll kind of get intobeing the negative Nancy a
little bit here.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, I think you negative.
Yeah, I don't know.
One of the things that stoodout to me was with the big
infrastructure bill we hadpassed in Congress he was able
to work with the stategovernment to secure grants for
passenger rail somewhere in thetune of about $140 million.
That is going to improvementssort of across the state.
(08:53):
But one of the big focuses ison the Keystone West Corridor
which connects Harrisburg andPittsburgh, so this train
service should see more regularservice improvements to it.
So that's a pretty big win, Ithink, for residents of sort of
that western side ofPennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Absolutely.
I also like to see too I meanjust like looking at how Josh
Shapiro talks about these sortsof things.
When you look at his Twitteraccount and even press releases
and stuff, he's happy to talkabout public transit and how
important it is and whatnot.
He's happy to talk about publictransit and how important it is
and whatnot.
It did look like they wereactually going to have a pretty
good funding mechanism set inplace to help some of these
(09:30):
transit agencies, includingSEPTA, which is the transit
agency running all of the publictransportation in Philadelphia.
It seems like it was close toactually having a pretty good
thing happening there.
I don't know all of theintricacies in it, but
unfortunately it seems like someof that has fallen apart or at
least the can has gotten kickedon the road.
Alan Fisher, who, if you'rewatching us or listening to us,
(09:52):
you've maybe seen some of hisvideos on YouTube.
He's a big transit urbanismYouTuber who lives in
Philadelphia follows this stuffvery closely On Twitter.
He was talking about you know,the VP stuff and he actually
said please, not Shapiro.
He absolutely dropped the ballon SEPTA funding and he feels
like he's trying too hard to beauthentic all the time.
I don't know about the secondpart, I don't haven't seen too
(10:12):
many clips of him, but I lookeda little bit further into that
and we'll have a link to thisarticle in here from Metro
Philadelphia.
But I'll read a little bit ofit.
So Governor Josh Shapiro'sproposal to increase
Pennsylvania's public transitfunding was heralded as a way to
overcome SEPTA's fiscal cliffand avoid what the authority's
general manager has referred toas a death spiral of cuts and
fair increases.
It did not happen, however.
(10:34):
When budget negotiationswrapped up last week in
Harrisburg, septa and other masstransit agencies in the
Commonwealth did get a pledgefrom the governor and
legislative leaders to revisitthe issue in September.
Governor and legislativeleaders to revisit the issue in
September.
So the plan to devote.
The plan was to devote a highershare of state sales tax
revenue to transit agencies andwould have netted SEPTA an
(10:54):
estimated $161 million a year tocover operating expenses.
Instead, the authority will endup getting less than a third of
that total under the currentplan.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
So I also don't love the tax mechanism for that,
though, either, because it makesit way easier for future
administration to cut funding.
I think when it's tied to taxesand also in times of economic
downturn, that also is going toaffect the amount of revenue
that comes in.
So I'm also not a huge fan ofthat particular method.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Right, although I will say it is better than
nothing.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
right now, when it like the.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
The issue is is like if, if this money does not come
through, you're going to seemajor cuts, uh, for service for
for folks in philadelphia, uh,as well as fair increases at the
same time.
So, uh, you know it's, it's notall the way over.
It seems like again, they're,they're.
Shapiro is pledging to revisitthis in september.
Um, but obviously people wouldlike to see things just like
happen now we want things tohappen faster.
(11:43):
We always do right, but as we'vesaid many times before, things
move at the speed of governmentyeah, and government could move
faster if we had, if we hadpeople who really stuck to their
guns.
But I don't know, maybe shapirocould go through and do it, but
if he gets tied up in this racefor vp, maybe he's gonna forget
about pennsylvania, I don'tknow.
No, but it's not all bad, it'snot all bad.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
One other thing I wanted to call out for Josh
Shapiro is his office was ableto invest about $50 million in
other types of transitinitiatives.
It was about $50 million in 58.
Projects or communities in 37counties around.
I know that's a lot of numbersin like 37 counties around
Pennsylvania and a lot of thatwork went into some urban
transit projects, road projects.
(12:33):
But a lot of it also went intobetter bike and pedestrian
infrastructure, which also we'dlove to see.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Totally right, and we've done a whole bunch of
content on that, relating toVision Zero and speeding and
traffic calming and all thatstuff.
So if you haven't seen some ofthose, we'll make sure that
those are linked.
You can check them out.
We're going to jump right backinto this episode in just a
second, but first, if you havenot liked this video, go ahead
and do so.
Also, leave a comment.
We love reading all of them andrespond to as many as we can,
and be sure that you aresubscribed so that you catch
(13:00):
every episode as they come out.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Please come out, please share this with your
friends and if you don't havetime to watch YouTube videos in
the future you can catch us onany of the podcast platforms
that are out there.
Just be sure to leave us arating and give us a comment.
Next on the list is MinnesotaGovernor Tim Walz, minnesota,
not a stranger to public transitprojects.
If you've ever been in the TwinCities area between Minneapolis
and St Paul, you know there'skind of a train that runs
between.
It's actually a really nicearea of the country, totally.
If you haven't been, I doencourage you to check it out.
(13:31):
He is a member of theDemocratic Farmer Labor Party,
which I'd never heard of before.
I actually haven't either.
Yeah, but that is what ishappening in Minnesota, I guess.
Yeah, he was also part of thefirst congressional district of
Minnesota, so he was in the USHouse of Representatives and
before that, before he enteredpolitics, he was a high school
(13:53):
teacher and football coach andwas also in the military before
then also.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
So he, as far as running for office goes, he
checks a lot of the boxes, ifyou will, which shouldn't matter
, but it does.
You know how things go.
But in general, he's actuallypretty solid on a lot of transit
stuff.
I am struggling to find thenegatives here.
I don't know I just saidnegative Nancy earlier and I
don't know what it is but yeah,quite a few positives.
(14:18):
So I'm going to run through acouple different things here.
This person on Twitter actuallypulled together a couple uh
positive bullet points here forfolks who are quote yimby, slash
climate, slash transit uhinterested, um.
So we'll go through a couple ofthem here, because this is high
level.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
That sounds like us.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yes, it sounds like us and probably sounds like you.
And if it sounds like you andyou haven't subscribed to us yet
, uh, consider hitting thesubscribe button down below and
liking this video.
All right, sorry about that.
So created new programs forfare enforcement with unarmed
folks.
So we're not having policeenforcement but just having
essentially folks to help attransit stations who are
(14:59):
checking fares, but are alsohelping folks navigate the
system.
Included e-bike tax credits, um, as well as connecting unhoused
folks to social services forall those people who are in the
the cult of the e-bike, yes wehaven't mentioned in a couple
episodes yeahum.
Uh also passed 650 milliondollars to erase transit funding
(15:20):
deficits.
Uh funded bus rapid transit aswell as new passenger rail from
the Twin Cities to Duluth,created a robust requirement to
require highway expansions to beoffset by climate-friendly
transportation, which isinteresting there's an article
here that we'll make sure islinked in the description for
more information on that as wellas committed $10 million for
(15:41):
the new Borealis line.
A lot of folks have probablyseen the new Amtrak line that
has opened in Minnesota.
It's actually been wildlysuccessful for having just
started.
Right now it's only like onetrip each day, but it's looking
like.
The will to make it intomultiple trips per day is
definitely there and underGovernor Walz's leadership they
added $10 million in funding forthat.
(16:02):
A couple of interesting thingsof note as well.
In previous episodes we'vetalked a little bit about the
gas tax and how in many statesthe gas tax has not gone up.
It's stayed stagnant whileinflation has obviously gone up.
So part of a recent bill thatpassed through Minnesota, the
gas tax is now tied to inflation, which is it might sound small,
(16:25):
but that's really important.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
No, it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, so that's an important here.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
It makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
A lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
A lot of sense off the gas tax, okay.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Another nice element to that, though, is some of that
funding is actually goingdirectly towards supporting
public transit networksthroughout the state, so the gas
tax is going to be increasing.
And also wow, you're reallylaughing.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
I'm still stuck on it , sorry.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yes, so yes, it does make a lot of sense.
I want to read a couple of thespecifics here, just to make
sure we've got it in here.
So Minnesota state lawmakerssay they've created a national
model for transportation fundingwith a new bill that creates
more stable financing for roadsand bridges, provides new
recurring funding for publictransportation, allocates $200
million for new passenger railline and forces state agencies
(17:16):
to make good on aspirationalclimate goals.
What's really impressive aboutthis entire bill also, and the
inclusion of all of these things, is that, yes, waltz was the
governor, uh, but they only hada one seat majority, uh, in the
congress and the in thelegislature to get this through,
and they still made it happen.
(17:36):
Um, frankly, I want somebodylike that who is even with a
narrow margin which whoever winsthe presidency is going to have
a narrow margin one way or theother.
I want somebody who can makethat happen to cross the finish
line.
So, right now, personally, I'ma Waltz fan.
At this point, is there anendorsement?
I don't know if I'm quite readyto endorse yet I might withhold
my endorsement, but I'mdefinitely a fan.
(17:59):
I also saw a really funny videoof him at like the Minnesota
State Fair with his daughterriding like the slingshot thing.
Think we're gonna go do theslingshot, which I don't know
what it is and they're keepingit from me, but then we're gonna
go get some food corn dog, I'mvegetarian, turkey then Turkey's
meat Not in Minnesota, turkey'sspecial and we will go do some
of those things and report back.
(18:20):
Oh my God, oh my God, and thatreally just won me over.
He just seemed like a realperson out there hanging out
with his daughter.
He seems like a good guy.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
A guy you could have a beer with.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Frankly yes.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yes, he does?
Speaker 1 (18:36):
He just seems normal.
So many of these people arejust not normal.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I want to see one of these governors stand up and say
public transit doesn't have tobe profitable.
I just need one person to standup and say get over it, it's
not going to be profitable.
Roads aren't profitable.
This is the closest on our list.
At least this is the closestsomebody comes to saying it.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
All right.
Next on our list is the one whoChris makes sure we get into
every single episode here.
I try, I try my best.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, our new best friend, soon-to-be best friend,
pete Buttigieg.
Sorry, secretary ofTransportation Pete Buttigieg,
or, as many people stillaffectionately refer to him as,
Mayor Pete.
He was appointed as Secretaryof Transportation by Joe Biden.
Before that he ran forpresident.
Before that he was the mayor ofSouth Bend, indiana.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah, and obviously, if you pay attention to any of
this, pete Buttigieg has beenpretty solid on public
transportation in general,pushing for things like
high-speed rail and all sorts ofthese different initiatives and
trying to kind of mainstreamsome of these conversations that
we have here.
He does have a decent shot atmaking this happen.
(19:45):
I know that this weekend he'sdoing some, uh, some funder
sorry, his husband is doing somefundraising with, uh, vp
harris's husband.
Uh, they're out on fire islanddoing some fundraising.
So, uh, that could be a signmaybe of things to come.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
But fire island, famous for being an lgbtq plus
uh place to go on vacation, andone of my favorite memes that
people have sent me over a dozentimes lately is LGBT stands for
let's go by train because,because queer people love
transit, for whatever reason.
Yeah, I know, I love people tojudge.
I like his record on a lot ofthe work that he's done in the
(20:22):
office of being thetransportation secretary.
If you ever listen to him, justget grilled at a Senate hearing
.
He's so good at responding.
If you haven't seen it, go backand watch his hearing about EV
adoption in the US.
He's so good about defendingthe current administration's
(20:43):
record on promoting EV adoptionTotally.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
And whether it be on things like EV adoption,
transportation or even just likepolitics in general.
One thing I really respectabout him is he's willing to
like go on.
He'll go on Fox News all thetime, even though that's, like
you know, not his territorynecessarily, but he'll go on and
like do a really good jobholding up the arguments and all
that sort of stuff.
So I think that that'sextremely notable and important
when thinking about a VP pick,even beyond the transit elements
(21:10):
of it.
But obviously, you know, peteButtigieg, the transportation
secretary, who we've seen be theone actually talking about all
these projects in the UnitedStates, would be a top tier pick
, probably the most top tier ifyou only care about transit and
the VP out there.
I don't necessarily know thathe's got the best shot at it,
but notable for sure.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Notable for sure, and I think if anybody on our list,
he's going to be like you said,he's going to be the best for
transit as a whole.
Yes, you know, out of thecurrent administration, we've
seen the infrastructure bill getpassed.
His department really ran withit and set up a lot of really
awesome funding mechanisms.
Out of that infrastructure billthat's $4 billion going to 14
(21:56):
major transit constructionprojects around the country.
It's the TI FIA 49 initiative,which works on transit oriented
development in cities all aroundthe country.
He's worked on BRT systems.
You've talked about high-speedrail networks.
Really, just Like we said, ifthere's anybody that knows
(22:17):
public transit, it's going to beMayor Pete.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, and if you had to find one qualm, I guess the
only qualm that I could think ofand this is minor in comparison
to everything else is, like alot of the funding that's been
put out there, there has been aton of money still for highway
expansions and even like some ofthis money involved in these
like reconnecting communities,grants and whatnot, can
literally still be used forhighway expansions, even though
(22:39):
you're putting a cap on it orsomething, if you had to find a
qualm.
But overall, I don't think thatthat's necessarily even
something that he personallywants to be pushing for, but
it's just like part of thegambit, unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
And a lot of the money is open to states to
choose what they do with it.
Like we looked at thediscretionary versus the
grant-based funding and theformula funding, so there's
various reasons why a lot of themoney goes towards roads.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
All right.
Up next we have Arizona SenatorMark Kelly.
He is heavily focused on issueslike health care, veterans
affairs, as well as renewableenergy.
Most notably for me, he's anastronaut, which is pretty
awesome, pretty awesome.
We could see the forefront ofspace travel, space
transportation.
I like space transit, spacetransit, front of space travel,
space transportation I like, Ilike space transit, space
(23:20):
transit maybe someday would bepretty cool probably not
happening under the nextadministration, um, but it's fun
to dream about it.
Um, uh, he also, uh, is wellknown, as his wife is former
congresswoman.
Uh, gabby Giffords and yeah, soalong with that, you know,
(23:43):
collectively they've advocatedfor more gun control measures,
all of that sort of stuff.
As far as transit goes, though,what do we know about Mark
Kelly's backing, or lack thereof, of transit?
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah, well, when you first think of Arizona, you
don't initially think of publictransit, although they did have
the new rail line outside ofPhoenix that opened up not too
long ago and that made a lot ofnews.
So you are starting to see morepublic transit efforts in
Arizona.
Some of the things that he hassupported in the past is the
Valley Metro Streetcar Extension.
He, along with Senator Sinema,were able to secure about $40
(24:20):
million in the RAISE grants toget that program really off the
ground.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
And some of those expansions I don't know if it
was necessarily tied to thisgrant happened in, like the last
year, even in Phoenix, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, so we see some progress there.
You have the Yuma MultimodalTransit Center as well.
He secured about $10.6 millionin funding for it, so really
supporting these sort oftransportation hubs in Arizona.
Also, we have the bipartisaninfrastructure law that did pass
, and he was a major, majoradvocate for it and one of the
(24:52):
big forces in helping get thatlaw through the Senate and the
House and then into PresidentBiden's hands.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Last on our list and, if I'm being totally honest, uh
, his name is not in contentionfor this at all.
But if we were going to pickthe like a tier top transit vp,
uh, to be serving alongside ourcurrent vp, harris, I think it
would have to be the congressmanfrom massachusetts, seth molten
(25:19):
are you ranking him above?
Our good friend pete budaj.
I am literally ranking him abovepete budaj disagree yeah, uh,
if anyone's got some weirdconnection to seth molten, he is
pete budaj.
Is your like dream guest on theshow right now?
Mine is seth molten.
Now, seth molten is in my toptier, all right, uh, a category
here?
Uh.
So seth molten?
Uh, for those of you don't knowanything about him, he's a
(25:40):
Harvard graduate, a formerMarine.
He served four tours in Iraq,earned the Bronze Star Medal for
his service.
He was elected to Congress in2014.
He's really been pushing forveterans affairs, mental health,
national security, generally onthe more progressive side of
things.
But on top of literally being awar hero, he is very much a
(26:03):
transit hero.
He is currently the mainrepresentative pushing forward
the High Speed Rail Act, whichhe's got several co-sponsors on
it, mostly on the Democraticside.
There might be one Republicanactually on board, if not.
He said he's working on tryingto get some Republicans on board
, but they're trying to spend$205 billion To get on board.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
To get on board.
Yes, on board.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
There you go $205 billion over five years to build
out the kind of backbone ofwhat could be a high-speed rail
in America.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yeah, we're talking about like $205 billion With a B
yeah, with a B that would bededicated to this high-speed
rail Right and, frankly, I thinkwe should absolutely be pushing
forward stuff like this.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
And do I think that this is going to happen in the
short term?
No, but I'm honestly verydisappointed in our members of
Congress for not getting onboard with this, Like if you
want to talk about modernizingthe country and having real
transportation alternatives andif you actually care about, you
know, green energy and moregreen transportation.
Economic opportunities Economicopportunities, all of this sort
(27:15):
of stuff, this High-Speed RailAct, like, if we don't do do it
now, it is only going to getmore expensive the longer we
wait for it.
Um, so, uh, major props to toseth moulton for pushing this
forward, getting folks on board.
Um, I think that it's, it'swhat we should be pushing for,
absolutely, and then he's also,uh, been a big advocate back
(27:37):
home in massachusetts as well.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
He's been a key proponent of the north south
rail link, um, which is a linedesigned to connect commuter
rails in Boston.
This is a huge potentialbenefit for the region.
I mean, we're talking like $30billion in economic benefit.
Yes, you know that could beused to create about 150,000 new
housing units.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Yes, so that would be huge for the area housing units
, so that would be huge for thearea.
It's cool to see a member ofCongress so excited about these
sorts of projects, because youdon't see that at the federal
level.
Very often it's mostly yourlocal politicians and whatnot,
which is a good message that weshould say here.
We're talking about nationalpolitics and whatnot and all
that's coming up in November.
Alongside those elections,though, you're going to have
(28:17):
city council elections, mayor'selections.
Alongside those elections,though, you're going to have
city council elections, mayor'selections.
And if transit is one of yourtop tier issues for voting,
those elections matter so muchmore frankly.
I mean these ones, the nationalones, are important, but, you
know, these local elections arereally where it can be like are
you getting a bike lane or not?
Are you getting a bettersidewalk?
Is your bus service going to beincreased better?
Will you get that transitexpansion?
(28:39):
So, while we've talked allsorts of issues surrounding who
the best VP pick would be, Ithink that's really important to
note.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Honest opinion.
What's your thoughts on KathyHochul?
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Man, Kathy Hochul could be a real great choice for
the car lobby.
She could help with fundraising.
I bet the car dealers wouldlove to continue to support
Kathy Hochul all the way to theWhite House.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Congestion Kathy for VP.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Yes, Congestion Kathy for VP.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
I think with that, that's a good overview of some
of our top picks for candidates.
If I had to choose one, mydream candidate is obviously
going to be secretary pete, butI think you kind of sold me on
on tim waltz, so yeah I think,realistic picks that might
actually get there.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
I am, I'm hoping for tim waltz.
Um, yeah, I think I think hewould do well as far as transit
goes, but also helping theticket win, yeah, um.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
But so there you go.
There's our very, veryimportant endorsement from
Transitangents.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Yes, Tim Welch has secured the Transitangents
endorsement.
Cue the breaking news graphicAll right.
With all that being said, weprobably made this episode a
little too long.
I'm not sure If you havethoughts on any of these
candidates.
If you think that somebody elseshould be the pick, let us know
in the comments below.
We love reading all of them.
If this is your first timeseeing us, please consider
(30:05):
subscribing, liking the video ifyou haven't done so already, or
rating us on your favoritepodcast platform.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yeah, absolutely.
If you go to our websitetransittangentscom, there's a
little link in there that sayssupport.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
If you click that, it'll take you to buy me a
coffee, and you can buy us acoffee absolutely and, with all
that being said, thank you allso much for watching.
We really appreciate it andenjoy the rest of your transit.
Tangents tuesday.
Doors are closing.
Public transit that's my way toroll On the metro.
I'm taking control.
Full throttle.
Bus stops, train tracks it's mydaily grind.
Daily grind.
Public transit it's the rhythmof my life.
On this episode of TransitTangents, we take a look at some
of the top contenders to joincurrent Vice President Harris's
(00:24):
run for the White House andserve as VP.
How do these candidates comparewhen it comes to issues
surrounding transit?
We'll break it down on thisepisode of Transit Tangents.
Hey everybody and welcome tothis episode of Transit Tangents
.
My name is Lewis and I'm Chris,and today on the show we're
going to talk about just theabsolute whirlwind of everything
(00:44):
that's happened in the last twoweeks, basically Like a year's
worth of worldly events Ageneration's worth of events in
two weeks.
Yeah, and this is going to beone of the most timely, relevant
episodes we've done.
We're going to be talking aboutwho the next VP could be and
which ones would be the absolutebest as far as transit goes,
(01:06):
which is obviously what we talkabout here on this program.
So, obviously, unless you'vebeen sleeping under a rock,
President Biden is no longerrunning for reelection Within a
couple hours.
Vice President Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
You think you just fell out of a coconut tree.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Is now the presumptive nominee, essentially
, Presumptive nominee yeah, yeahwe're not quite at the
convention yet, but all thingsare kind of pointing to Vice
President Harris At this point.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
has raised nearly $150 million since Biden bowed
out of the race, and then on topof that, has secured all of the
pretty much all the delegates,the vast majority of the
delegates for the democraticconvention.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
so when we say presumptive, we mean yes, she's
going to be the nominee, as wellas all of the support from
everything that matters is beingthe the first brat vp ever.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Um, yeah, yes, so we'll see who the, who, the, the
vice president now pick isgoing to be all of this also
follows the attemptedassassination on former
president Trump, which I don'tknow about you, but
unprecedented times are among usand I am tired of living in
unprecedented times.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yes, I would like things to get back to precedent.
Yes, yes, but before we getinto it, the most wild event
that happened among all of this,far, far more important than
assassination attemptspresidents stepping down.
Thanks to all of you, we're nowwell over it, but over 1,000
subscribers here on YouTube.
(02:34):
So thank you all very much,seriously.
Thank you for that.
Obviously not more importantthan any of those things you
said.
What you said, yeah, you knowwhat?
I don't take it back.
I don't take it back.
I don't take it back.
Way more important.
Um, but yeah, this is going tobe a little bit of a fun one,
but we are going to get intosome of the specifics of what
some of the actual vp candidatesare.
Uh, again, to serve as vicepresident under kamala harris,
(02:57):
uh, could be.
Uh, some of them are more funones that would just be like the
ultimate transit vp.
Uh of them are more realistic,but also a couple of the real
choices could be a majorpositive for for transit in
general in the U S.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
So and and just to preface this, there's, there are
over.
I think there's a dozen or morepeople being floated right now,
and vice president Harris isall over the country campaigning
with folks and really trying toget a feel for these different
candidates.
We picked sort of our favoritesand who we think is easier to
talk about when it comes totransit.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Totally so.
Without further ado, let's jumpinto the potential VP
candidates.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
All right, these are going to be in no particular
order, but first on our list isMichigan Governor Gretchen
Whitmer.
For those who don't know,governor Whitmer, she's the 49th
governor of Michigan.
Uh, for those who don't know,uh, governor whitmer, she's the
49th governor of michigan.
She's uh had a strong focus onhealth care, education and, most
importantly to us, oninfrastructure.
She's very active on tiktok.
If you have not seen her videoson tiktok, uh, she's a huge
(03:56):
advocate for a lot of thesetransportation projects in
michigan lots of veryenthusiastic bridge building
videos.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
There's a really nice bridge being built.
Someone I saw described it as afangirl video over this, like
beautiful international bridgeover to canada, um, all sorts of
stuff like that.
Um one of her slogans when shewas running also, uh, and I've
got a little qualm with this.
I'd like to see some otherinfrastructure being done, but
her campaign one of them was fixthe damn roads.
Um, so a lot of the attentionseemingly on a lot of car
(04:27):
infrastructure.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, um, in the state, but well, and she's
coming from a state where carsare the economy or cars were the
economy.
Yes, I mean, if you think aboutautomobile states, michigan's
kind of high up there.
But yeah, michigan, if youthink of michigan, it's this
sort of post-industrial state.
There's a lot of areas thatprobably fell into disrepair
when a lot of jobs movedoverseas.
Some of that's changing andthey're doing a lot of work to
(04:50):
try to reinvest in the economythere, which Whitmer's been a
big advocate for.
But fix the damn roads Kind ofmakes sense for a state like
Michigan.
That being said, maybe fix thedamn rails, right, yes, that as
well.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
A couple specifics here.
So they secured over $66million in RAISE grants for
projects in Detroit, menomineeand Kalamazoo to improve road
safety, connectivity and reduceair pollution the reducing air
pollution one.
There's a lot of mixed things.
Gretchen Whitmer is not greaton some of that stuff.
In my view, there's a couplespecific instances in Kalamazoo
(05:27):
that you can look into.
Beyond that that's unrelated.
Here Again, we talked a lotabout road infrastructure.
So there's road and bridgerepairs over 23,000 lane miles
of state-owned roads beingrepaired, 1,600 bridges and
supporting over 89,000 jobs.
There's kind of all sorts ofthings in the road department In
the road department there's alot of positives.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
It's not all roads and we're not trying to paint a
bad picture of Gretchen Whitmer,but there was also positives
for transit as well.
They secured about $6 billionin economic development.
$2 billion of that was fortransit-related projects and
mobility projects really aimedat enhancing public
transportation and economicviability in cities.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
But recently though there was this is a little bit
more on the downside.
This is just in the last coupleweeks, actually the budget for
public transportation, and Iwant to read this off here, off
here.
So the latest budget for thestate of Michigan this year had
(06:31):
$246 million for local busoperating expenses, which is
divided among 77 transitagencies statewide, and only $20
million of that is justone-time funding and likely will
not be available next year.
To compare that last year's was$261 million.
So that is a decrease ofroughly $20 million and maybe
another decrease of $20 millionafter that, because there is a
(06:51):
section of that that wasone-time funding.
So definitely a decrease inspending on local bus operations
, which definitely hits transitnetworks hard, because if your
bus is not running frequently,if you don't have the money for
drivers, buses are expensive tooperate.
So minus one point there.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, and it's kind of disappointing for a state
like Michigan where, like manystates in this region, they're
really trying to attract youngtalent.
The Growing Michigan TogetherCouncil, which is a group that
really focuses on trying toimprove cities and find a way to
attract younger people toMichigan to improve the economy,
they were some of the peoplewho really sounded the alarm on
(07:32):
the fact that money was beingtaken away from public transit.
So you know, the budget gotpassed.
There wasn't as much money aswe hoped, you know.
So if we're looking at apotential VP, I think Gretchen
Whitmer checks a lot of boxesand being, I think,
pro-infrastructure andpro-transit, but her record so
far has been heavily, heavilyfocused on private car ownership
(07:53):
and roadways over things likeimproved train service All right
.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Next on our list, again in no particular order,
here is the current governor ofPennsylvania, josh Shapiro.
He's on the short list as well.
A big part of the reason,obviously Pennsylvania is a big
swing state.
He won that state by a lot.
I forget the percentages, butif Kamala Harris can carry
Pennsylvania, everyone's sayingthat's why they're potentially
(08:18):
going for Josh Shapiro.
As far as transit goes a littlebit of a mixed bag.
I know you found a couplepositive things in this first,
and then I'll kind of get intobeing the negative Nancy a
little bit here.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, I think you negative.
Yeah, I don't know.
One of the things that stoodout to me was with the big
infrastructure bill we hadpassed in Congress he was able
to work with the stategovernment to secure grants for
passenger rail somewhere in thetune of about $140 million.
That is going to improvementssort of across the state.
(08:53):
But one of the big focuses ison the Keystone West Corridor
which connects Harrisburg andPittsburgh, so this train
service should see more regularservice improvements to it.
So that's a pretty big win, Ithink, for residents of sort of
that western side ofPennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Absolutely.
I also like to see too I meanjust like looking at how Josh
Shapiro talks about these sortsof things.
When you look at his Twitteraccount and even press releases
and stuff, he's happy to talkabout public transit and how
important it is and whatnot.
He's happy to talk about publictransit and how important it is
and whatnot.
It did look like they wereactually going to have a pretty
good funding mechanism set inplace to help some of these
(09:30):
transit agencies, includingSEPTA, which is the transit
agency running all of the publictransportation in Philadelphia.
It seems like it was close toactually having a pretty good
thing happening there.
I don't know all of theintricacies in it, but
unfortunately it seems like someof that has fallen apart or at
least the can has gotten kickedon the road.
Alan Fisher, who, if you'rewatching us or listening to us,
(09:52):
you've maybe seen some of hisvideos on YouTube.
He's a big transit urbanismYouTuber who lives in
Philadelphia follows this stuffvery closely On Twitter.
He was talking about you know,the VP stuff and he actually
said please, not Shapiro.
He absolutely dropped the ballon SEPTA funding and he feels
like he's trying too hard to beauthentic all the time.
I don't know about the secondpart, I don't haven't seen too
(10:12):
many clips of him, but I lookeda little bit further into that
and we'll have a link to thisarticle in here from Metro
Philadelphia.
But I'll read a little bit ofit.
So Governor Josh Shapiro'sproposal to increase
Pennsylvania's public transitfunding was heralded as a way to
overcome SEPTA's fiscal cliffand avoid what the authority's
general manager has referred toas a death spiral of cuts and
fair increases.
It did not happen, however.
(10:34):
When budget negotiationswrapped up last week in
Harrisburg, septa and other masstransit agencies in the
Commonwealth did get a pledgefrom the governor and
legislative leaders to revisitthe issue in September.
Governor and legislativeleaders to revisit the issue in
September.
So the plan to devote.
The plan was to devote a highershare of state sales tax
revenue to transit agencies andwould have netted SEPTA an
(10:54):
estimated $161 million a year tocover operating expenses.
Instead, the authority will endup getting less than a third of
that total under the currentplan.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
So I also don't love the tax mechanism for that,
though, either, because it makesit way easier for future
administration to cut funding.
I think when it's tied to taxesand also in times of economic
downturn, that also is going toaffect the amount of revenue
that comes in.
So I'm also not a huge fan ofthat particular method.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Right, although I will say it is better than
nothing.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
right now, when it like the.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
The issue is is like if, if this money does not come
through, you're going to seemajor cuts, uh, for service for
for folks in philadelphia, uh,as well as fair increases at the
same time.
So, uh, you know it's, it's notall the way over.
It seems like again, they're,they're.
Shapiro is pledging to revisitthis in september.
Um, but obviously people wouldlike to see things just like
happen now we want things tohappen faster.
(11:43):
We always do right, but as we'vesaid many times before, things
move at the speed of governmentyeah, and government could move
faster if we had, if we hadpeople who really stuck to their
guns.
But I don't know, maybe shapirocould go through and do it, but
if he gets tied up in this racefor vp, maybe he's gonna forget
about pennsylvania, I don'tknow.
No, but it's not all bad, it'snot all bad.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
One other thing I wanted to call out for Josh
Shapiro is his office was ableto invest about $50 million in
other types of transitinitiatives.
It was about $50 million in 58.
Projects or communities in 37counties around.
I know that's a lot of numbersin like 37 counties around
Pennsylvania and a lot of thatwork went into some urban
transit projects, road projects.
(12:33):
But a lot of it also went intobetter bike and pedestrian
infrastructure, which also we'dlove to see.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Totally right, and we've done a whole bunch of
content on that, relating toVision Zero and speeding and
traffic calming and all thatstuff.
So if you haven't seen some ofthose, we'll make sure that
those are linked.
You can check them out.
We're going to jump right backinto this episode in just a
second, but first, if you havenot liked this video, go ahead
and do so.
Also, leave a comment.
We love reading all of them andrespond to as many as we can,
and be sure that you aresubscribed so that you catch
(13:00):
every episode as they come out.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Please come out, please share this with your
friends and if you don't havetime to watch YouTube videos in
the future you can catch us onany of the podcast platforms
that are out there.
Just be sure to leave us arating and give us a comment.
Next on the list is MinnesotaGovernor Tim Walz, minnesota,
not a stranger to public transitprojects.
If you've ever been in the TwinCities area between Minneapolis
and St Paul, you know there'skind of a train that runs
between.
It's actually a really nicearea of the country, totally.
If you haven't been, I doencourage you to check it out.
(13:31):
He is a member of theDemocratic Farmer Labor Party,
which I'd never heard of before.
I actually haven't either.
Yeah, but that is what ishappening in Minnesota, I guess.
Yeah, he was also part of thefirst congressional district of
Minnesota, so he was in the USHouse of Representatives and
before that, before he enteredpolitics, he was a high school
(13:53):
teacher and football coach andwas also in the military before
then also.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
So he, as far as running for office goes, he
checks a lot of the boxes, ifyou will, which shouldn't matter
, but it does.
You know how things go.
But in general, he's actuallypretty solid on a lot of transit
stuff.
I am struggling to find thenegatives here.
I don't know I just saidnegative Nancy earlier and I
don't know what it is but yeah,quite a few positives.
(14:18):
So I'm going to run through acouple different things here.
This person on Twitter actuallypulled together a couple uh
positive bullet points here forfolks who are quote yimby, slash
climate, slash transit uhinterested, um.
So we'll go through a couple ofthem here, because this is high
level.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
That sounds like us.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yes, it sounds like us and probably sounds like you.
And if it sounds like you andyou haven't subscribed to us yet
, uh, consider hitting thesubscribe button down below and
liking this video.
All right, sorry about that.
So created new programs forfare enforcement with unarmed
folks.
So we're not having policeenforcement but just having
essentially folks to help attransit stations who are
(14:59):
checking fares, but are alsohelping folks navigate the
system.
Included e-bike tax credits, um, as well as connecting unhoused
folks to social services forall those people who are in the
the cult of the e-bike, yes wehaven't mentioned in a couple
episodes yeahum.
Uh also passed 650 milliondollars to erase transit funding
(15:20):
deficits.
Uh funded bus rapid transit aswell as new passenger rail from
the Twin Cities to Duluth,created a robust requirement to
require highway expansions to beoffset by climate-friendly
transportation, which isinteresting there's an article
here that we'll make sure islinked in the description for
more information on that as wellas committed $10 million for
(15:41):
the new Borealis line.
A lot of folks have probablyseen the new Amtrak line that
has opened in Minnesota.
It's actually been wildlysuccessful for having just
started.
Right now it's only like onetrip each day, but it's looking
like.
The will to make it intomultiple trips per day is
definitely there and underGovernor Walz's leadership they
added $10 million in funding forthat.
(16:02):
A couple of interesting thingsof note as well.
In previous episodes we'vetalked a little bit about the
gas tax and how in many statesthe gas tax has not gone up.
It's stayed stagnant whileinflation has obviously gone up.
So part of a recent bill thatpassed through Minnesota, the
gas tax is now tied to inflation, which is it might sound small,
(16:25):
but that's really important.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
No, it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, so that's an important here.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
It makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
A lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
A lot of sense off the gas tax, okay.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Another nice element to that, though, is some of that
funding is actually goingdirectly towards supporting
public transit networksthroughout the state, so the gas
tax is going to be increasing.
And also wow, you're reallylaughing.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
I'm still stuck on it , sorry.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yes, so yes, it does make a lot of sense.
I want to read a couple of thespecifics here, just to make
sure we've got it in here.
So Minnesota state lawmakerssay they've created a national
model for transportation fundingwith a new bill that creates
more stable financing for roadsand bridges, provides new
recurring funding for publictransportation, allocates $200
million for new passenger railline and forces state agencies
(17:16):
to make good on aspirationalclimate goals.
What's really impressive aboutthis entire bill also, and the
inclusion of all of these things, is that, yes, waltz was the
governor, uh, but they only hada one seat majority, uh, in the
congress and the in thelegislature to get this through,
and they still made it happen.
(17:36):
Um, frankly, I want somebodylike that who is even with a
narrow margin which whoever winsthe presidency is going to have
a narrow margin one way or theother.
I want somebody who can makethat happen to cross the finish
line.
So, right now, personally, I'ma Waltz fan.
At this point, is there anendorsement?
I don't know if I'm quite readyto endorse yet I might withhold
my endorsement, but I'mdefinitely a fan.
(17:59):
I also saw a really funny videoof him at like the Minnesota
State Fair with his daughterriding like the slingshot thing.
Think we're gonna go do theslingshot, which I don't know
what it is and they're keepingit from me, but then we're gonna
go get some food corn dog, I'mvegetarian, turkey then Turkey's
meat Not in Minnesota, turkey'sspecial and we will go do some
of those things and report back.
(18:20):
Oh my God, oh my God, and thatreally just won me over.
He just seemed like a realperson out there hanging out
with his daughter.
He seems like a good guy.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
A guy you could have a beer with.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Frankly yes.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yes, he does?
Speaker 1 (18:36):
He just seems normal.
So many of these people arejust not normal.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I want to see one of these governors stand up and say
public transit doesn't have tobe profitable.
I just need one person to standup and say get over it, it's
not going to be profitable.
Roads aren't profitable.
This is the closest on our list.
At least this is the closestsomebody comes to saying it.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
All right.
Next on our list is the one whoChris makes sure we get into
every single episode here.
I try, I try my best.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, our new best friend, soon-to-be best friend,
pete Buttigieg.
Sorry, secretary ofTransportation Pete Buttigieg,
or, as many people stillaffectionately refer to him as,
Mayor Pete.
He was appointed as Secretaryof Transportation by Joe Biden.
Before that he ran forpresident.
Before that he was the mayor ofSouth Bend, indiana.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah, and obviously, if you pay attention to any of
this, pete Buttigieg has beenpretty solid on public
transportation in general,pushing for things like
high-speed rail and all sorts ofthese different initiatives and
trying to kind of mainstreamsome of these conversations that
we have here.
He does have a decent shot atmaking this happen.
(19:45):
I know that this weekend he'sdoing some, uh, some funder
sorry, his husband is doing somefundraising with, uh, vp
harris's husband.
Uh, they're out on fire islanddoing some fundraising.
So, uh, that could be a signmaybe of things to come.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
But fire island, famous for being an lgbtq plus
uh place to go on vacation, andone of my favorite memes that
people have sent me over a dozentimes lately is LGBT stands for
let's go by train because,because queer people love
transit, for whatever reason.
Yeah, I know, I love people tojudge.
I like his record on a lot ofthe work that he's done in the
(20:22):
office of being thetransportation secretary.
If you ever listen to him, justget grilled at a Senate hearing
.
He's so good at responding.
If you haven't seen it, go backand watch his hearing about EV
adoption in the US.
He's so good about defendingthe current administration's
(20:43):
record on promoting EV adoptionTotally.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
And whether it be on things like EV adoption,
transportation or even just likepolitics in general.
One thing I really respectabout him is he's willing to
like go on.
He'll go on Fox News all thetime, even though that's, like
you know, not his territorynecessarily, but he'll go on and
like do a really good jobholding up the arguments and all
that sort of stuff.
So I think that that'sextremely notable and important
when thinking about a VP pick,even beyond the transit elements
(21:10):
of it.
But obviously, you know, peteButtigieg, the transportation
secretary, who we've seen be theone actually talking about all
these projects in the UnitedStates, would be a top tier pick
, probably the most top tier ifyou only care about transit and
the VP out there.
I don't necessarily know thathe's got the best shot at it,
but notable for sure.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Notable for sure, and I think if anybody on our list,
he's going to be like you said,he's going to be the best for
transit as a whole.
Yes, you know, out of thecurrent administration, we've
seen the infrastructure bill getpassed.
His department really ran withit and set up a lot of really
awesome funding mechanisms.
Out of that infrastructure billthat's $4 billion going to 14
(21:56):
major transit constructionprojects around the country.
It's the TI FIA 49 initiative,which works on transit oriented
development in cities all aroundthe country.
He's worked on BRT systems.
You've talked about high-speedrail networks.
Really, just Like we said, ifthere's anybody that knows
(22:17):
public transit, it's going to beMayor Pete.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, and if you had to find one qualm, I guess the
only qualm that I could think ofand this is minor in comparison
to everything else is, like alot of the funding that's been
put out there, there has been aton of money still for highway
expansions and even like some ofthis money involved in these
like reconnecting communities,grants and whatnot, can
literally still be used forhighway expansions, even though
(22:39):
you're putting a cap on it orsomething, if you had to find a
qualm.
But overall, I don't think thatthat's necessarily even
something that he personallywants to be pushing for, but
it's just like part of thegambit, unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
And a lot of the money is open to states to
choose what they do with it.
Like we looked at thediscretionary versus the
grant-based funding and theformula funding, so there's
various reasons why a lot of themoney goes towards roads.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
All right.
Up next we have Arizona SenatorMark Kelly.
He is heavily focused on issueslike health care, veterans
affairs, as well as renewableenergy.
Most notably for me, he's anastronaut, which is pretty
awesome, pretty awesome.
We could see the forefront ofspace travel, space
transportation.
I like space transit, spacetransit, front of space travel,
space transportation I like, Ilike space transit, space
(23:20):
transit maybe someday would bepretty cool probably not
happening under the nextadministration, um, but it's fun
to dream about it.
Um, uh, he also, uh, is wellknown, as his wife is former
congresswoman.
Uh, gabby Giffords and yeah, soalong with that, you know,
(23:43):
collectively they've advocatedfor more gun control measures,
all of that sort of stuff.
As far as transit goes, though,what do we know about Mark
Kelly's backing, or lack thereof, of transit?
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah, well, when you first think of Arizona, you
don't initially think of publictransit, although they did have
the new rail line outside ofPhoenix that opened up not too
long ago and that made a lot ofnews.
So you are starting to see morepublic transit efforts in
Arizona.
Some of the things that he hassupported in the past is the
Valley Metro Streetcar Extension.
He, along with Senator Sinema,were able to secure about $40
(24:20):
million in the RAISE grants toget that program really off the
ground.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
And some of those expansions I don't know if it
was necessarily tied to thisgrant happened in, like the last
year, even in Phoenix, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, so we see some progress there.
You have the Yuma MultimodalTransit Center as well.
He secured about $10.6 millionin funding for it, so really
supporting these sort oftransportation hubs in Arizona.
Also, we have the bipartisaninfrastructure law that did pass
, and he was a major, majoradvocate for it and one of the
(24:52):
big forces in helping get thatlaw through the Senate and the
House and then into PresidentBiden's hands.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Last on our list and, if I'm being totally honest, uh
, his name is not in contentionfor this at all.
But if we were going to pickthe like a tier top transit vp,
uh, to be serving alongside ourcurrent vp, harris, I think it
would have to be the congressmanfrom massachusetts, seth molten
(25:19):
are you ranking him above?
Our good friend pete budaj.
I am literally ranking him abovepete budaj disagree yeah, uh,
if anyone's got some weirdconnection to seth molten, he is
pete budaj.
Is your like dream guest on theshow right now?
Mine is seth molten.
Now, seth molten is in my toptier, all right, uh, a category
here?
Uh.
So seth molten?
Uh, for those of you don't knowanything about him, he's a
(25:40):
Harvard graduate, a formerMarine.
He served four tours in Iraq,earned the Bronze Star Medal for
his service.
He was elected to Congress in2014.
He's really been pushing forveterans affairs, mental health,
national security, generally onthe more progressive side of
things.
But on top of literally being awar hero, he is very much a
(26:03):
transit hero.
He is currently the mainrepresentative pushing forward
the High Speed Rail Act, whichhe's got several co-sponsors on
it, mostly on the Democraticside.
There might be one Republicanactually on board, if not.
He said he's working on tryingto get some Republicans on board
, but they're trying to spend$205 billion To get on board.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
To get on board.
Yes, on board.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
There you go $205 billion over five years to build
out the kind of backbone ofwhat could be a high-speed rail
in America.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yeah, we're talking about like $205 billion With a B
yeah, with a B that would bededicated to this high-speed
rail Right and, frankly, I thinkwe should absolutely be pushing
forward stuff like this.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
And do I think that this is going to happen in the
short term?
No, but I'm honestly verydisappointed in our members of
Congress for not getting onboard with this, Like if you
want to talk about modernizingthe country and having real
transportation alternatives andif you actually care about, you
know, green energy and moregreen transportation.
Economic opportunities Economicopportunities, all of this sort
(27:15):
of stuff, this High-Speed RailAct, like, if we don't do do it
now, it is only going to getmore expensive the longer we
wait for it.
Um, so, uh, major props to toseth moulton for pushing this
forward, getting folks on board.
Um, I think that it's, it'swhat we should be pushing for,
absolutely, and then he's also,uh, been a big advocate back
(27:37):
home in massachusetts as well.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
He's been a key proponent of the north south
rail link, um, which is a linedesigned to connect commuter
rails in Boston.
This is a huge potentialbenefit for the region.
I mean, we're talking like $30billion in economic benefit.
Yes, you know that could beused to create about 150,000 new
housing units.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Yes, so that would be huge for the area housing units
, so that would be huge for thearea.
It's cool to see a member ofCongress so excited about these
sorts of projects, because youdon't see that at the federal
level.
Very often it's mostly yourlocal politicians and whatnot,
which is a good message that weshould say here.
We're talking about nationalpolitics and whatnot and all
that's coming up in November.
Alongside those elections,though, you're going to have
(28:17):
city council elections, mayor'selections.
Alongside those elections,though, you're going to have
city council elections, mayor'selections.
And if transit is one of yourtop tier issues for voting,
those elections matter so muchmore frankly.
I mean these ones, the nationalones, are important, but, you
know, these local elections arereally where it can be like are
you getting a bike lane or not?
Are you getting a bettersidewalk?
Is your bus service going to beincreased better?
Will you get that transitexpansion?
(28:39):
So, while we've talked allsorts of issues surrounding who
the best VP pick would be, Ithink that's really important to
note.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Honest opinion.
What's your thoughts on KathyHochul?
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Man, Kathy Hochul could be a real great choice for
the car lobby.
She could help with fundraising.
I bet the car dealers wouldlove to continue to support
Kathy Hochul all the way to theWhite House.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Congestion Kathy for VP.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Yes, Congestion Kathy for VP.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
I think with that, that's a good overview of some
of our top picks for candidates.
If I had to choose one, mydream candidate is obviously
going to be secretary pete, butI think you kind of sold me on
on tim waltz, so yeah I think,realistic picks that might
actually get there.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
I am, I'm hoping for tim waltz.
Um, yeah, I think I think hewould do well as far as transit
goes, but also helping theticket win, yeah, um.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
But so there you go.
There's our very, veryimportant endorsement from
Transitangents.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Yes, Tim Welch has secured the Transitangents
endorsement.
Cue the breaking news graphicAll right.
With all that being said, weprobably made this episode a
little too long.
I'm not sure If you havethoughts on any of these
candidates.
If you think that somebody elseshould be the pick, let us know
in the comments below.
We love reading all of them.
If this is your first timeseeing us, please consider
(30:05):
subscribing, liking the video ifyou haven't done so already, or
rating us on your favoritepodcast platform.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yeah, absolutely.
If you go to our websitetransittangentscom, there's a
little link in there that sayssupport.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
If you click that, it'll take you to buy me a
coffee, and you can buy us acoffee absolutely and, with all
that being said, thank you allso much for watching.
We really appreciate it andenjoy the rest of your transit.
Tangents tuesday.
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