Mayor sylvester turner. This is about an hour and 25 minutes. [applause] secretary pete, no, its really great to have a secretary who is a former mayor because they get it right off the bat. So we know the department of transportation oversees everything from airports and railways and ports, street servicing, bridges, tunnels and all of those things. Up to ev charging stations and most important, mayors, potholes. Potholes of the most important thing that we hear about oftentimes in our community. So please tell me how your experience as a former mayor helps to inform the work that youre doing now as secretary of transportation. Thank you. First of all mayor thanks for your leadership and thanks for hosting me today. Im always glad to be in the company of fellow mayors and former mayors. When i i was married it was my view that the level of government that has the most immediacy and in many ways the most direct visible consequence for americans is local government. Thats what i believe when its in local government. Now that im an federal government i know that that is true. Because i see the most important things we do at the federal level is to empower local leaders and local residents to live lives of their choosing. And a lot of that happens through of course transportation and infrastructure. Every one of the issues that mayors are wrestling with right now ties in some way to transportation. Take housing what you knows one of the biggest things on so many mayors minds. Transportation is a Different Department than housing but we also know that so Many Americans live in either place they cant afford so they can have access to work, or they live in a place that is impossibly far away from work so they can be somewhere they can afford. If we can Work Together to make transportation more accessible more reliable more affordable we are actually also alleviating the housing pressure that so many are under. So on issue after issue what i find as a former mayor is the propulsion and the tools to do something about these issues that people face, and it has been a thrill thanks to the funding in President Biden bipartisan infrastructure law to be able to work with so many of you. Ive seen a number, a mayors here on the way in, and was going in my mind through some of the phone calls that weve had about the good news that your community has competed and one a discretionary grant, what youre doing as your commute is building bridges with the formula dollars coming in partnership with the states. And, of course, the many things that youre hoping to do in the future that we are hoping to Work Together on. I have been a mayor docking of the Drug Abuse Department of transportation and for the reason and determined to be a good partner to all of the leaders in this room and all of the 500 communities that you represent. Thank you so much. [applause] so what are the pillars of the Biden Administration has been justic40 and making sure that money is getting to underserved communities. And so whether you are in a rule, whether in suburbs or in urban areas the ability to get around your community and the metropolitan area like you said for work, for Services Come for family is critical. Can you talk to us will get about the Thriving Communities program and how you are utilizing this writing committees program to a disadvantage communities pgh yes thank you. This principle is very important to us and we know that often the smaller communities and the lower income communities who are almost by definition the kennedys that have the most to benefit from federal funding if they can access it are also the communities that are going to face some of the Biggest Challenges accessing that federal funds. Because it often cost resources given to put an in an applicn and then if you win to get through all the compliance and the different steps required to use federal dollars. And we want to make sure our process is more userfriendly. Thriving communities is an initiative which is partnering with a number of cities and towns and local governments to make it a little easier by getting folks on the ground to provide Technical Assistance on how to navigate our programs. There is more than 40 programs in transportation alone that were created or expanded to the infrastructure law. Everything from programs to get electric vehicle charging infrastructure to the places where it is not yet automatically profitable for the private sector to put in her where we know it would make a big difference for people who are hoping to get a benefit of the savings that come with using an easy. All the way through to programs to eliminate real ray Railroad Crossings. The best way to make sure you never have a safety problem at a cross is not to have the crossing at all and spatial as a look at the Rural Communities where people have to wait far too long for a blocked crossing. A lot of folks have experienced this, right . By the way, if you were ever having trouble with responsiveness from Freight Railroad companies be sure to give us a call. We want to be helpful on that. [applause] but one of the things we can do is, is just eliminate some of Railroad Crossings. Thats a program we have at navigating all that can be daunting especially for community that doesnt have an army of federal relations personnel on staff, and you shouldnt have to. We want to provide that support for you on the ground. Thriving communities is an example. We Just Launched the first few dozen of communities to participate. We will be setting up future rounds so definitely get in touch through our Government Affairs department if youre interested in participating or curious about what they can for your city. So i know many of our communities have spoken about vehicular deaths and pedestrian death. So safe streets for all i know is an initiative that come out of the department of transportation. Can you talk to us a little bit about safe streets for all and out our communities can become safer not just at the Railroad Crossing but many of our communities had have aging c light infrastructure. We dont have complete streets of what to lift them up for a few months. Yes, and i want to applaud you for thinking about how to make the design for your streets safer. Because thats a big part of how we can combat this rising tide of roadway deaths in the country. We had 40,000 people a year losing their lives in crashes onto roadways. Thats roughly equivalent to the amount of loss that we have because of gun violence. And i think the only reason were not up in arms about it is that were used to it, but we shouldnt be because these deaths are preventable. At the u. S. Conference of mayors earlier this year we highlighted three committees, a diana, jersey city and hoboken which are among the sizable communities that of gone at least when youre with zero traffic deaths pics we know it n be done. We also know that a onesizefitsall strategy is not going to work. The latest round of data has just cannot pick the good news is we seem to have stopped the right though have it reversed it yet. And if her going to do that, designing streets to be safer. With the safe streets and roads for all program we have funded hundreds of communities in planning work and handful of communities going already into construction. To design roads and streets in way that makes it less likely that these crashes will happen in the first place. And we are following a very datadriven approach. By the way, one of the things the data show is theres a lot of disparity in these traffic deaths. Some of the fastest rises and pedestrian as well as vehicular deaths were for black, latino rural and tribal americans. And onesizefitsall isnt going to be the answer we need to follow the data and apply the strategy we think are going to work but importantly were not sitting in washington say you want to do this, you ought to do that. We are Funding Community plans because we think the answers are not going to come from all of washington, all come from washington but more the funding should and thats exactly what we are doing. Partnering with communities on your vision, your plans and helping to become a reality. Being a former mayor makes the difference when you become a secretary because theres a different mindset, and so we have talked about infrastructure that he is cut across so many black and brown communities, whether they are rural, urban, suburban, metropolitan. In my community we have 1. 1mile railroad cut with 11 bridges that traverse it. And for years about seven of them were closed at any one time. And in of the first time i you i explained with senior citizens, it was easier for them to jump on a train, a true train and go to the bronx or to harlem sometimes and it was for them to walk ten to 15 blocks to cross an open bridge and then have to do the same thing all over again. As i wrap up can you talk to me a little bit about us about reconnecting communities and how important the program is . This is so important for so Many Americans. The idea reconnecting communities is that the point of transportation infrastructure is to connect, and yet in far too many places you have transportation infrastructure that serves to divide in the form sometimes over if we were, a Railroad Line and it actually as the specific reallife example that you have shared, and is to remember our first conversation about this, you have a resident who find it easy to go all the way into another borough into manhattan to the bronx that is to go less than a mile. Within their own Community Get groceries. Thats a problem. We talk about these problems not in order to beat anybody up but because we have a chance now to fix it and do something about it. The first rent reconnecting communities funding is not out. We announced projects from buffalo, new york, where our they were capped the kensington expressway that cuts one part of the community off from another, to tampa where theres an interchange that really wrecked the flow of the community that can be done in a whole different way. And were just Getting Started on this. We funded a number of grants including for a for a nums and leaders represented here. Detroit weve got a partnership to take i 375 which cuts like a gash to the community and when it was built really wiped out the neighborhoods of Paradise Valley and we found that can actually be reimagined as a boulevard that will still serve cars while also serve the neighborhoods. This is work that will make nobody worse off and will make many People Better off. Why wouldnt we be doing it . And thanks to the fund in the infrastructure law we have a chance to do just that. Whether you are still getting your communication together and one support for planning or whether youre ready to go on construction and just need the funds to make it happen, i hope you will examine the reconnecting Communities Program as an option. Now, two things i should mention. One, it is very competitive. Even with the historic amazing finding that weve been able to get, largely with help from the support of mayors and leaders in this room, there is always more demand and we can meet any given year. But it is also is a good idea to come in with an application. We can help you make the application stronger if the answer to the first is a yes. The second thing i want to emphasize are living this is that when you have an area, unity that has been divided or torn by a decision made two generations ago, it is no small thing to get community align an agreement on what to do next. And thats not something that the department of transportation can solve but that something may Rural Leadership template and enormously Important Role in guiding. As you know all too well, youre never going to get 100 100 agreement on anything in your community. Ive in my share to Public Meetings on things we thought were slam dunk and we all know how those can go. But the role you play the more authority you exercise, the listening you can make sure happens can help to inform visions that bring a community to get around what you want to go. Like what we saw in buffalo that was part of how we knew that that project was ready for the federal support. And when you can achieve that come not just to your official powers but to the authorities that only a mayor has to bring people to the table, that makes it much easier for us to be a good partner at the federal level. We are enthusiastic about the potential here and stand ready to work with everyone in this organization on making more decisions into a reality. So secretary pete i want to thank you. You were an amazing mayor and even a better secretary because you understand our needs. Thank you for reconnecting communities and Thriving Communities and safe streets for all, and the Technical Assistance that you are provided. We really appreciate you. Thank you for being a great partner, and know that aama stands and supports work thats being done under the Biden Administration. Into so much. Thank you. Iq grab me. I really appreciate it. [applause]