Secretary Anthony R. Foxx
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
Charlotte, NC – July 14, 2015
This is my first time back in my native south since the unimaginable event in Charleston, South Carolina. Our community – and in fact all of America – was impacted by the tragedy. Let me say a special word of condolences to Malcolm Graham, his family and all the families who were victimized by that hateful act.
That horrible incident – coupled with Ferguson, Baltimore, New York, Cleveland, and other recent incidents – have invariably left our nation calling for a dialogue about race, class, criminal justice, and opportunity. We do need dialogue, but we need one rooted in actions that we as a nation and as communities are willing to take to turn the page on our history.
This project is an example of action-based dialogue. Nothing about it has been easy or will be easy. But in the process of making it happen, Charlotte has a chance to turn the page. This is not a streetcar to nowhere. If it is, then my hometown is Nowhere, North Carolina, because I grew up on the west end of the line. Like Project Lift, or like the community’s ultimate response to the Swann Case in the 1970s, this line is about building a new fabric and a new ambition for Charlotte – not just those areas that have been left behind, but the entire city and region. It is the beginning of a resurgence.
In that sense, today is also a milestone for the entire 2030 Transit Plan because it is evidence that the plan is still alive. We faced withering economic adversity during the Great Recession. We barely afforded the Blue Line Extension. But we kept plugging. And to keep the plan alive now we need to keep it moving. We need to keep chipping away at projects as the opportunity arises. Let me explain why.
First, nothing in the 2030 Transit Plan is just about transportation. The Blue Line isn’t. The Red Line isn’t. The Gold Line isn’t. This region decided long ago that transit is essential to managing Charlotte’s growth. As part of that effort, it was decided that linking this streetcar to smart development will help build up East and West Charlotte to help absorb some of that growth.
The Charlotte region is one of the fastest-growing regions in America. While the region is growing, that growth could concentrate in Charlotte or in surrounding counties like Iredell. My guess is that both Charlotte and Iredell County would prefer the bulk of it to come to Charlotte.
To do that, Charlotte is going to need more than University City and Ballantyne to attract new families and people. The teeth-grinding traffic in those areas will get worse if all of Charlotte’s growth goes to south Charlotte – it doesn’t matter how many roads you widen or build. The same is true of north Charlotte.
Second, the streetcar will deliver new housing stock, new jobs and new economic opportunities for parts of the city that badly need them if this community puts in place sound, community-sensitive development plans. The urgent need to manage growth and the powerful opportunities this project creates are both more important that how it is paid for. It will pay you back in economic capital and social capital if it is done right.
Which leads me to the third reason why today is important. If transit is key to Charlotte’s future, which I always believed it was, and if its benefits outweigh how it’s paid for, then another key factor is: it’s always cheaper to build today than tomorrow.
One of the stunning facts about the 2030 Plan I learned is that fully a third of the overall cost is inflation over time. This project’s cost estimate is upwards of $500 million, which means it could have $135 million knocked off the price tag if Charlotte had the resources to build it right now. Instead, the price tag has gone up more than $30 million for the next segment in just three years.
Los Angeles had the same problem. They had an ambitious plan and little money to build it. Los Angeles had home-rule – which Charlotte does not have – but they went to voters and passed a sales tax to accelerate their transit plan, and now they’re building like crazy.
You are now competing against cities like Los Angeles that have no doubts about their plans and are moving aggressively to implement them. With all due respect, it is easy to say that Charlotte should build future transit lines using the Blue Line model when there is no money and no state support for helping you do so. If you follow that logic, it effectively means the plan is dead. I had my fair share of backseat driving from Raleigh. And while you cannot ignore Raleigh, I can, and I will tell you, Charlotte: don’t ever stop building for the future.
Finally, and this is perhaps the most important point: this project has demanded and will continue to demand new conversations about how folks live together in Charlotte – black, white, Hispanic, young and old, rich and poor. This project takes that conversation from being an abstraction to being something more concrete. Talking alone won’t help us repair the fabric of Charlotte or America. Talking does not feed a family. Talking does not educate a child. Talking does not put a house over someone’s head. Talking does not get someone to a job.
We need dialogue but we need it in the course of doing something like this project. When we say so easily, “This is a project to nowhere,” I hope folks who say such things will consider what they’re really saying. What does that say about the people living and growing up on the city’s West and East sides like I did? When folks complain about the cost of this project, compared to hundreds of millions spent to put new water mains and sewer and streets in South Charlotte, what does that say?
My grandmother still lives in the house she and my grandfather bought in 1961 off Beatties Ford Road. She wants to age in place. In the rush to prove the merit of this project, are we going to plow over people’s homes and launch into a period of unmitigated gentrification? The many low-skill, unemployed job seekers who live in these vital corridors, are they going to have a shot at working on this project? How will Charlotte encourage housing stock and commerce to enter into these corridors in ways that do not conjure the images of failed urban renewal? How will Charlotteans live together in the 21st Century?
The dialogue we need is hiding in plain sight. It’s happening on the school board. It’s happening at the housing authority. It’s happening on the planning commission. It’s happening in newsrooms. It’s happening in the workplace. It’s all around us. And it is happening as Charlotte builds a 21st century transportation system.
A few weeks ago our Department launched a pilot called LadderStep. I’ve seen the recent Harvard studies showing where it is harder for low-income folks to reach into the middle-class, and I wanted our Department to do something. So we’re now working with seven cities struggling with upward mobility on projects that local leaders say will enhance opportunities for folks to lift themselves from poverty to the middle class. Phoenix, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Baton Rouge, Baltimore, Richmond and Charlotte are participating – and this project has been selected to be part of the pilot. And let me say a word of thanks to the Knight Foundation for stepping up to advance this important action-based community dialogue.
Lead the way, Charlotte. Keep advancing the plan. Lead the way and realize the economic opportunity. Lead the way and help build a new fabric of 21st Century America – folks living in Charlotte, North Carolina. Thanks very much.