Will Pete Buttigieg fit some time in his calendar to visit Philadelphia after I-95 highway collapse?
Christopher Tremoglie
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Early Sunday morning, a section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia collapsed after a tanker truck caught fire underneath the highway overpass. Fortunately, no one was injured. It’s a devastating blow to the city’s main transportation corridor that linked the northeast section of Philadelphia to the downtown area, sports complex, and many entertainment venues. It was a vital section of the country’s East Coast interstate that connected two of the nation’s largest cities, Philadelphia and New York City.
The collapse, we are told, will take months to repair, and there doesn’t seem to be any urgency in speeding up the process. Given the significance of the infrastructure disaster, many are wondering if it is enough of an emergency for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to grace the area with his presence. Buttigieg was criticized for seemingly taking excessive vacation time and not prioritizing a visit to East Palestine, Ohio, after a train derailment in the area. It all lends credence to the assertion that Buttigieg, like many Democrats recently, lacks the kind of gravitas needed for the job.
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An infrastructure collapse of one of the country’s most traveled interstate sections should warrant a visit, especially given the importance the Biden administration has placed on infrastructure development. Incidentally, less than 24 hours before Philadelphia’s infrastructure disaster, Buttigieg celebrated the Biden administration’s infrastructure “accomplishments.” He lauded the number of projects nationwide and how they would lead to a “better quality of life.” He may have tweeted too soon.
“To date, President Biden’s infrastructure law has funded over 32,000 projects nationwide — delivering investments that many communities have waited to see for decades,” Buttigieg tweeted. “Where these projects come to fruition, opportunity and better quality of life follows.”
Nineteen hours later, his next tweet was about the failing infrastructure in Philadelphia.
But Buttigieg needs to do more than tweeting. The section of I-95 that collapsed is vital to the city, the region, and, more importantly, the country. It will have a monumental impact on traffic, commute times, and quality of life matters in the area for the foreseeable future.
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The collapse in Philadelphia wasn’t Buttigieg’s fault, obviously. However, the way he reacts to it will be. Clearly, there are now many infrastructure concerns in the area. There’s no reason he couldn’t have visited the city on Sunday, and there’s no reason he shouldn’t be there on Monday. It is an important matter that affects hundreds of thousands of people. It’s time for Buttigieg to do more than talk, tweet, or go on talk shows. It’s time for him to start acting like the transportation secretary and do his job.