Progress Illinois

We noted last week that, despite our initial reservations, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood had begun to grow us.  Here are some more encouraging words found on his blog:

As I've said before, we need to promote strong and connected communities that provide safe and affordable access to work, medical services, schools, shopping, recreation, and other essential activities.

This is important stuff. Someone commented on these pages the other day about how owning a car was practically a requirement for success in this country -- to get to work, to a doctor, to a grocery -- and how that becomes a disproportionate burden to the poor. Well, we don't want to take anyone's car away; that's for sure, but we also don't want a transportation system where not owning a car threatens one's ability to get by. If we want to improve the quality of life for middle-class Americans, we have to affect them where they spend, and one of the biggest bites out of a household's budget is transportation costs. I want to do something about that.

"We don't want a transportation system where not owning a car threatens one's ability to get by."  Amen to that.

A few weeks ago, we cheered the news that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and the Department of Transportation would follow the White House’s lead in advancing President Obama’s climate change agenda. Frankly, we trusted Obama and White House energy and climate coordinator Carol Browner more than LaHood, who is not exactly known for his environmentalism or transit advocacy. But the more we hear from the former Illinois congressman, the more hopeful we are about his potential handling of the upcoming transportation negotiations.

Why the change of heart? Check out LaHood's two latest posts at the Fast Lane, his official blog. Yesterday, after addressing the National League of Cities, the Peoria Republican wrote that cities “provide energy, diversity, and the capacity to drive economic activity.” And today, before his testimony to the House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee, he had this to say about the importance of walkable communities:

[O]ne of my highest priorities is to work closely with Congress, other Federal departments, the nation’s governors, and local officials to help promote more livable communities through sustainable surface transportation programs. By focusing on livability, we can help transform the way transportation serves the American people—and create safer, healthier communities that provide access to economic opportunities.

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When former GOP Rep. Ray LaHood was initially tapped to run Barack Obama’s Department of Transportation, transit activists were a bit befuddled. Fans of LaHood lauded his bipartisan relationships and grasp of the legislative process while pointing out he had previously bucked his party’s aversion to Amtrak. But he was also on record as opposing high-speed rail in Illinois, had little transportation experience, and had garnered a meager 27 percent lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters. With the world facing imminent ecological disaster and a major surface transportation bill slated for reauthorization this year, the prospect of an anti-environmental Republican reshaping the nation’s transit and vehicle emissions policies was a bit disconcerting.

But it appears Obama isn’t letting LaHood deviate too much from the administration’s playbook. ClimateWire reports:

The Transportation Department will follow the lead of the White House’s top climate and environmental officials when it comes to meeting President Obama’s global warming agenda, DOT Secretary Ray LaHood said today.

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At a press conference in Chicago this afternoon, President-elect Barack Obama formally announced retiring Rep. Ray LaHood as the next Secretary of Transportation. During his introduction, Obama said few Americans understand the nation’s infrastructure challenges better than the seven-term Peoria Republican. Watch Obama’s remarks, as well as LaHood’s acceptance, below:

Two days after Obama’s pick was leaked to the press, Grist’s Kate Sheppard reports today that environmentalists and urban planners remain puzzled with the appointment. Illinois officials who have worked with LaHood, on the other hand, told the State Journal-Register that he’s well-suited for the job:

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Reactions and additional reporting on Rep. Ray LaHood’s apparent appointment as Barack Obama’s Transportation Secretary keep rolling in. Yesterday we noted his guarded support for rail funding as one potential asset the Peoria legislator could bring to the department. But the Peoria Chronicle’s C.J. Summers points out today that LaHood’s record on the issue isn’t all that pristine.

In 2004, LaHood said he was opposed to high-speed rail in Illinois because of cost and the fact that “people in rural Illinois … do not want a train traveling 120, 125, 150 miles per hour through the rural areas.” What was the expense for the upgrade between Chicago and St. Louis? Here’s Summers (via Peoria Pundit):

Nearly $200 million for track and equipment upgrades. Yet he then turned around and supported (nay, fought for) a $499 million project to upgrade I-74 through Peoria and East Peoria, providing us with ten times the capacity we need and literally walling off urban neighborhoods.

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I think I just ruined Jacky Grimshaw’s morning.

“Ray Lahood? Really?!?” That was the reaction from the transportation and community development coordinator at the Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology when I relayed the news that the retiring seven-term Republican congressman from Peoria was being considered as Secretary of Transportation in the incoming Obama administration. “You’ve left me totally dumbfounded. Ray LaHood?”

Since our last post noting the initial rumors, both the Peoria Journal-Star and the Tribune have heard from GOP sources that the president-elect will announce Lahood as his pick on Friday.

You can't blame Grimshaw for being caught off-guard. As she explained, she’s never “seen or heard anything he’s done” with regards to mass transit from his first election in 1994 until now, including the negotiations over SAFETEA-LU four years ago.

So what can we glean about LaHood's record on this issue?

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