The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Biden economic plan designed to aid places hurt by long-term economic ills
Officials say 132 communities in 40 states will benefit.
President Joe Biden headed to Milwaukee on Wednesday to highlight an economic strategy aimed at revitalizing communities that for decades have been cut off from the nation’s growing prosperity.
Biden was scheduled to speak at a Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee in a largely Black and Latino neighborhood where 17,000 homes and 1,000 businesses were destroyed in the 1960s to make way for an interstate highway.
The president is scheduled to unveil $3.3 billion in federal grants to remove or retrofit highways that separate minority neighborhoods in many cities from jobs, entertainment centers, hospitals and other services.
“The very fact that American English has the phrase ‘wrong side of the tracks’ tells you everything you need to know about our awareness in this country of how infrastructure can divide just as sure as it can connect,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters Tuesday.
Milwaukee is one of 132 communities in 40 states that will benefit from the Transportation Department program, which is among a number of new federal initiatives designed to aid places suffering long-term economic ills, officials said.
Biden’s embrace of strategies aimed at spurring development in specific locations marks a significant shift in U.S. policy, part of the broadest government intervention in the economy in at least four decades — and one with significant political overtones. States such as Wisconsin are critical to Democratic hopes in November; Biden’s appeal to Milwaukee’s large number of Black voters may decide his fate there.
The administration’s “place-based” approach to economic development has multiple goals. Using a mix of spending and tax credits in three major pieces of legislation, the administration aims to spread prosperity more evenly, rebuild communities devastated by the loss of factory jobs and prevent blight in areas that otherwise would suffer during the transition to cleaner energy sources.
If it succeeds, the effort could help heal an economic divide that has fueled political resentment and convinced millions of Americans that Washington abandoned them to decay.
But in seeking to focus federal power on reviving downtrodden communities, the president is gambling on a set of policies with a mixed track record. Even its supporters acknowledge that the federal government may struggle with the mammoth decades-long effort some distressed areas require.
“This is just not something that happens overnight. We should be thinking of this in a multigenerational context,” said John Lettieri, chief executive of the Economic Innovation Group.
The political stakes for Biden’s visit also are evident. His campaign announced this week that it was basing its Wisconsin operation in Milwaukee, the most racially diverse city in the state, part of an effort to consolidate the coalition that helped Biden win Wisconsin by nearly 21,000 votes in 2020.
Biden has made addressing racial inequity a key aspect of his presidency — and of his reelection bid. He was elected in 2020 amid calls for criminal justice, education and policing reforms. But Biden has failed to deliver on several matters of widespread importance to Black Americans and other minorities. There has been no significant police and criminal justice reform, and efforts to codify voting protections into federal law died in Congress.
His aides say the administration has delivered other gains, including historic appointments to the Supreme Court and federal appeals courts, and selecting Kamala D. Harris as the first Black woman to be vice president. Biden also insists that equity is baked into laws like the Inflation Reduction Act.
Even as he battles for political support, he also is intent on cementing his economic legacy. His industrial policies, including the placebased efforts, have reoriented Washington toward a more active economic role.