MEMO FROM THE MIDWEST: Buttigieg’s American Roots Might Make Him a Great USDOT Secretary

Finally, it’s time to meet the actual Pete Buttigieg.

Thirteen Republicans voted against the former South Bend mayor’s nomination for Secretary of Transportation on Tuesday on the grounds that Buttigieg is an urbanite climate radical who will leave rural America behind. (Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama told Fox News that he was “concerned Buttigieg would prioritize urban areas over the very real needs of our rural communities, while Ted Cruz of Texas said through a spokesperson that Buttigieg would work “in lockstep” with Biden’s “radical energy policy.”)

Meanwhile, plenty of left-leaning advocates have been worried for months that Buttigieg can’t possibly understand urban transportation because of where he comes from. He’s just a small-town hick who’s never even heard of a subway system, this line of thinking goes.

But perhaps no urban form better demonstrates why that binary is a false one than the micro-city and large town, which is neither urban nor rural – or, more accurately, is most notorious for marbling the two uses together to astonishingly deadly effect. And perhaps no DOT head in recent memory represents a solution to that historic problem than Secretary Buttigieg, a small-town mayor who’s experienced life in a whole lot of transit-rich cities. Say what you will about Buttigieg, but his track record in South Bend shows that he recognizes the power of small, inexpensive solutions like curb extensions and bike lanes — and his track record as a candidate shows that he also knows the power of transformative investments into transit. (Reminder: this was the guy who wanted to increase the budget of the FTA 13 times over while he was a candidate — something he can now pressure Congress to do in its next infrastructure package, if Biden doesn’t tamp down his ambitions.)

There are plenty of reasons to criticize Pete Buttigieg, from his rocky record on issues impacting Black Americans to his involvement in an effort to privatize a key element of our transportation landscape: the U.S. Postal Service. It will be essential for advocates who envision roadways free of traffic violence, state and vigilante violence against people of color, and car dependence itself to hold him to account, and expand his vision for what a great transportation network looks like.

But let’s put to bed the notion that our new Secretary is unqualified because his transportation vision was shaped by life in a small city. Because if anything, that experience makes him better attuned to what it will actually take to make American roadways more livable, equitable, and safe, in the places where most Americans actually live — and as a midwesterner, he knows how to do it, if necessary, on little more than a dime.