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Joe Biden Cares About ‘Reconnecting Communities.’ Right.
Andy McCarthy has an interesting post at National Review today. I think it’s in poor taste to simply copy and paste an entire post, but in this case, I don’t think Andy will mind:
No further comment necessary. I’ll just quote it:
Highways Have Sliced Through City After City. Can the U.S. Undo the Damage?
The Biden administration is funding projects around the country aimed at reconnecting communities that have been divided by transportation infrastructure.
Ok. So the Biden Administration is “funding projects around the country.” I wonder what those projects are, exactly?
They pretend to be concerned with “reconnecting communities that have been divided by transportation infrastructure.” For some reason, I find it unlikely that that is their true motivation in “funding projects around the country.” But I’d hate to sound cynical.
We’re trillions of dollars in debt. Our economy, culture, educational system, etc., are all rapidly disintegrating. Our formerly great cities have recently developed problems much, much more serious than the convenient transportation offered by interstates.
What is the Biden administration doing here? What do they really hope to achieve? Why does The New York Times consider this important enough to warrant a headline and a news story?
Are there any masochists out there who still have a subscription to The New York Times? I don’t, so I can’t read the article. Although somehow I suspect that the purpose of the article is to be sure that I don’t know what’s going on, rather than telling me what is going on. But I’d hate to sound cynical.
We could cut our federal budget in half tomorrow and the lives of Americans would improve. There is so much stuff like this.
But I’m curious – does anybody know what the true motivations and goals are here? I just can’t believe they care about reconnecting communities. But I’d hate to sound cynical.
Does anybody have any insight on this?
Thanks.
Published in General
To keep us distracted by problems that are barely problems so we stop asking questions about election security, inflation, the national debt, Afghanistan, Ukraine, how much dirt on how many powerful people the feds have illegally confiscated from a certain someone who didn’t kill himself, the Biden family illegalities and the Laptop from Hell, the Clinton email scandal, how Obama was involved in the Clinton email scandal, and how Russiagate was a total fraud perpetrated to distract from Obama’s involvement.
(There’s some Dan Bongino behind some of these ideas here.)
It’s about destroying suburbs, about which The Lightbringer is quoted as saying “I loathe the suburbs.”
The proggies see suburbs as “white” enclaves that purposefully separate themselves from the glorious multicultural urban areas by using “transportation infrastructure” as a separation mechanism. (Read: highways. Or in Buttigieg-speak “racist highways.”)
So what they’re trying to do is mingle and recombine suburbs and urban areas — that is, get their footsoldiers out into the suburbs more easily so the suburbs can enjoy urban blight, urban crime rates, drugs, homeless encampments, and all the other dysfunction that comes with urban areas. Destroy the suburbs and turn them into urban areas. That’s the goal. It was certainly on the list of Obama’s pet projects. I guess he ran out of time to implement it so now Joe Biden’s puppet masters (who may be Obama’s goons anyway) are going to continue in the Lightbringer’s quest.
Related: How Obama Is Robbing The Suburbs To Pay For The Cities
The true base motivations are payola to favoured parties for studies and so on. Largely, no changes will happen to the existing transportation system for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that long ago the Feds mostly paid for this dastardly transportation system for the convenience of the citizens moving around the cities. But now the major reason for the money is to redistribute wealth for non existent services looking at the various environmental, social Justice and equity aspects of having the dastardly transportation system. Studies, surveys and commissions all paid for by taxpayers.
But wait! a second thought is related to the other overarching goal of eliminating privately owned transportation. Maybe the secondary goal is to just demo all that infrastructure so no one can drive on it. An urban version of BLM , Interior and Forest Service goal to allow “conservation leases” of federal lands to take them out of the actually productive (ranching or mining) activities and make it unproductive and “conserved.”
I doubt they care about reconnecting communities. The various sex lobbies are working treble time with the Feds to promote behaviours which serve largely to discourage formations of stable families and communities.
One cannot be too cynical.
Pro tip: Use the archive.is service. It saves out copies of web sites, even those behind paywalls.
In this particular case: https://archive.is/dI8lr
The word “community”, as used by the Left, means an identifiable group which is defined either demographically (race, ethnicity) or by type of preferred sexual activity. It is attempting to capture the emotional resonance which is traditionally associated by the word “community” and apply it to something quite different.
It makes carjackings easier for his constituents.
I have an example: Buffalo, NY.
Many decades ago, in order to create a new expressway connection from downtown to the Thruway, they tore out a block or two wide path to put the road in. See Rt. 33 below.
To be fair, this did separate some existing neighborhoods into two parts. Reconnecting this is one of the projects that Pete B. was talking about. There was talk of this 10 or 15 years ago. The expressway was built below ground level, so it’s kind of conceivable that if you put a roof over the whole thing you could then reconnect many cross streets and I suppose put up new buildings on the cover. Turn it into a tunnel.
Nothing came of it last time around because it was crazy expensive. But why should that matter? And of course, it’s been so long that nearly all the original residents on either side are gone, and everyone there now has seen this arrangement their whole lives. It’s not really “reconnection” anymore.
Fun fact: this expressway was chosen as the place to film a chase scene for one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, so maybe you’ve already seen it! Local news report below.
And here’s the scene from the movie:
Bet you didn’t see this turn when you started the topic, Doc!
I respectfully disbelieve you. I have pie charts!
This one is from the Cato institute but I think this pie chart (which I can’t copy and paste) is better. 46 percent of the Federal spending of 2019 was devoted to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. Do you think that health outcomes would increase if those programs were slashed? I suspect that health outcomes would eventually get better but there will be many deaths in the near-term.
Wait until Biden and Pete discover all these little agricultural towns divided by railroad tracks. There used to be feed silos too, but those are mostly gone.
Of course it you want to promote public transportation, infrastructure that goes through the middle makes it more accessible. Maybe they haven’t thought this through.
Didn’t they tell us about Covid that some of those older people we’re going to die soon anyway?
I’d say its about destroying the interstate highway system … Those freeways that connect the suburbs to the city core, also connect the city to the interstate highways. IF they dont allow freeways to divide communities anymore, how could a new roadway be built? Are there no over passes?
They want to keep people close to home, high fuel costs, until electric cars with their limited ranges can be forced on everyone. Then destroy the interstate highway system forces intercity freight onto rails, and travelers onto jets. Points of examination and restriction. Opponents can be placed on no fly lists without notice or opportunity to appeal.
If you’ll notice totalitarian regimes have 2 things in common, gun controls and internal travel restrictions.
I can’t speak to the current motivations of the Biden Administration, but there is a legitimate debate to be had about highways through and near downtowns.
Like the Buffalo situation described above, Rochester (NY) had a below-grade expressway built in the 1950s that encircled the core downtown area. The objective of its building was to relieve traffic congestion on some of the primary downtown streets. Building it required demolition of a considerable amount of downtown-adjacent housing and mixed use buildings.
By the 1990s the “Inner Loop” had become less a thoroughfare to speed the flow of traffic, and more of a barrier between downtown (inside the loop) and nearby residential and mixed use neighborhoods (just outside the loop), interfering with the flow of employees and customers, because there were limited placed for pedestrians and even cars to cross the loop. So part of the loop has been filled in (at great cost, most of it national government money).
For example, the unsustainable choo choo train built in the Twin Cities that sliced through all sorts of neighborhoods, as well as causing traffic issues. But this is the GOOD sort of slicing because its goal is public transport.
No they haven’t thought this through. This is simply race-hustling by another name. And the money being spent will flow to the pockets of the well-connected and absolutely ZERO projects done under the auspices of this program will ever be completed. Or maybe not even started.
“Feel-good” proposals to solve invented problems are one way the money is laundered.
Proper urban planning can change a lot. What they are complaining about is silly – if you want stuff to get to an area, you need highways. Ironically, they are arguing in favor of the classic suburban subdivision, with no cross streets. They will never be happy
I don’t like streets that twist like someone’s colon or places built exclusively for cars, but that is a choice. You can have nice medium density homes on grid streets in a suburb just as well as a city .
Our city seems to have embraced the model of dense urban living. Which is silly for a small midwestern city of 80,000. But they’re gonna FORCE the issue.
I remember the Loop well.
“Nice place you got here. Be a shame if a federal project ran through it.”
Once they repaint ‘brought to you by the Obama stimulus bill’ signs, the genius of having the highway department pay for posting Biden’s name every few miles along constantly travelled roads will become apparent.
CoolidgeOccupantCDN @OccupantCDN 7:19 PM EDT ⋅ May 25, 2023
I’d say its about destroying the interstate highway system … Those freeways that connect the suburbs to the city core, also connect the city to the interstate highways. IF they dont allow freeways to divide communities anymore, how could a new roadway be built? Are there no over passes?
If you’ll notice totalitarian regimes have 2 things in common, gun controls and internal travel restrictions.
Great thoughts from both Dr Bastiat and Occupant.
In my State of California this argument is so sixty years ago. My State rarely builds a new freeway anymore and surely not through a thriving community.
Although yes there at one point was some sort of reasonable concern for this subject on the neighborhood destroying angle but as Occupant points out this subject does if left to those against progress destroy truly really necessary traffic improvements.
A couple little tidbits:
My uncle who was involved in the design of many of LA’s original freeways was also involved in the issue of trying to connect the Pasadena Freeway ( America’s first freeway) to what is now called the 210 freeway in South Pasadena. Land was purchased, part of the connection was built, houses were torn down and then the whole kit and caboodle was stopped dead in it’s tracks in the early 60’s. Yep the early 60’s! Nothing has changed since then, and many of the houses are still vacant or semi boarded up. The issue was never resolved and the key connection from the 210 was never made. And there is a scar in the beautiful neighborhood of South Pasadena to this day.
Then there is the issue of the Hollywood Freeway ( America’s second freeway!) through the Cahuenga Pass. The Cahuenga Pass Parkway ( the precursor and now part of the Hollywood (101) Freeway) sliced a big deep ravine in the 30’s and 40’s right through the then very beautiful,fashionable and hilly neighborhood of Whitley Heights ( the Hollywood Hill’s first celebrity neighborhood), cutting it in two and obliterated a lot of beautiful homes including Rudolph Valentino’s estate after his death in ’26.
This stuff happens and of course the blunt instrument of government progress could have done better but on balance these improvements were necessary. For instance the Hollywood Freeway is the only major connection between the northern portion of LA and the southern portion for a distance of over ten miles in either direction. Traffic, even as bad as it is now, would be at a standstill without it.
Reconnecting communities? Can anyone living close to a limited access highway remember a time when it wasn’t there? When you can’t find anyone doesn’t that permanently make them separate communities, that is unless you bring back the dead.
The real reason is to drag down wealthier communities in the hopes of increasing values of poorer communities, i.e. wealth redistribution.
Government is the customer for half of healthcare and it underpays so paying customers, the insurance companies, are charged more and they pass it on to the insured. Military spending for the services consumes only 3% of GDP. I wonder if all the billions sent to Ukraine count under defense spending when it is a foreign policy action. There is a lot of waste and fraud in healthcare spending. It should be cut. I have a specific beef about taking money from me when I was young then calling it wasteful spending when they give it back now that I am old.
The Babylon Bee had an article about Pete Buttgag adopting a highway, then taking 2 months of maternity leave . . .
Yes. I’m sure there are a variety of places where the placement of major highways was chosen poorly and inconvenienced more people than was necessary. But they are there, it would cost an immense amount of money to move them, and you would be making things worse because decades have passed and things have since evolved around things as they are.
Why are they even talking about this? It’s like all those California legislators voting to give out immense slavery reparations that cannot possibly be paid for. Not even close. But you vote (or talk about) something that is not going to happen so you can get street cred with the fools chasing their impossible dream. It’s the left’s version of “Let’s pass a federal law outlawing abortion in all 50 states.” It’s not going to happen but you get to be someone’s champion by proposing it.
It’s more than poor taste. It’s a copyright violation. National Review pays Andy to write copy for them, and they in turn try to monetize it. That helps them stay in business.
Occasionally you’ll see a site like powerlineblog quote a whole article from another site. They ask permission first.
And maybe Ricochet got on the phone with NR before they put this in the Main Feed.
I see that it’s a short Corner post. Never mind.
Fair enough.
The only reason I did that was that Andy copied his entire post from somewhere else as well, adding only two sentences of his own:
If that is considered to be plagiarizing Andy’s thoughts, then surely it is a minor infraction.
Although I don’t know for sure, of course. I’m not a lawyer.
Sorry if I goofed up. I meant no offense.
This bit of minor copying and pasting isn’t a problem. There have been times when someone has posted a much longer article in full, and a moderator or editor has edited it down. If someone wants to write a post about an article they read elsewhere, you can copy a couple paragraphs, mention where it came from with a link to the full article, then add your commentary.
I remember it being the smallest, tightest loop road I’d ever seen. Very strange road, and I wonder if it ever helped anything.
“Ma”ternity? Just sayin’