Public Pete and Policy Polly
With the former South Bend mayor and presidential contender, Secretary Pete, the prime promoter of President Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, his new deputy, confirmed by the Senate Tuesday, is Policy Polly. He’ll smoothly do the politics and pitch the people; she’ll have to do the work under the hood, smartly.
Polly Trottenberg, who we first came to know decades ago when she worked for Sen. Pat Moynihan before she shifted over to then freshman senator, and now majority leader, Chuck Schumer, is making a return trip to the U.S. transportation department, having served in top spots during Obama’s years.
Until a few months ago, she wasn’t just a Washington administrator, she was a rubber-meets-the-road doer as Mayor de Blasio’s transportation commissioner. Among her many achievements she fixed Citi Bike’s flat tire, set up Vision Zero to reduce traffic injuries and created dedicated transitways for buses and trucks free of cars. During COVID, when the new phenomenon of outdoor dining needed to be conjured, she helped restaurants move onto sidewalks and streets.
Her record wasn’t spotless, but Trottenberg was always about new ideas, better ideas and more efficient ideas.
Trottenberg must bring the same mindset to D.C., and we don’t just mean by greenlighting congestion pricing, which she championed as DOT boss and an MTA board member, or the fiendishly complex repairing of the BQE, another of her local projects.
One overripe target for trimming is Gateway, which Trottenberg must know spiraled into a $30 billion boondoggle under former Gateway maven John Porcari, who held her new job under Obama. She promised Sen. Dick Blumenthal a status report within her first month.
Her report should chart the course to permanently repair the damaged Hudson tubes immediately, while building a new tunnel and the associated bridges, byways and stations all for a whole lot less than $30 billion. The current bloated plan cheats the Federal Transit Administration’s Core Capacity and New Starts programs. Do Gateway honestly, saving time and money.