U.S. CONFERENCE OF MAYORS PRESIDENT BALTIMORE MAYOR STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE COMMENDS TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY FOXX’S CONNECTING PEOPLE TO OPPORTUNITY INITIATIVE

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) President Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake issued the following statement on U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and his Connecting People to Opportunity Initiative.

“The U.S. Conference of Mayors commends U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx for his leadership in focusing public attention on how past investment decisions have harmed low-income families and neighborhoods -- people and places that too often have been asked to carry disproportionate burdens in the siting of major transportation facilities.

“As mayors, we still bear witness to the scars of these earlier decisions, as our citizens and city neighborhoods labor under the lingering effects of the missed economic opportunities and the disruption, dislocation and even destruction of community bonds and assets.“

All government leaders – at every level of government – must ensure that future transportation investments do much more to bring all families and neighborhoods into the economic mainstream. The principles being set forth by the Secretary Foxx today will help guide us in meeting this challenge.

“It is certain that directing so many federal resources to individual state transportation agencies has been a root cause of many past missteps. It is also certain that empowering mayors and other local elected leaders to have more say and control over how future resources are invested would yield better outcomes for all of our citizens, neighborhoods and cities.

“Secretary Foxx’s courageous words challenge us as government leaders to do better, and the nation’s mayors will certainly do our part.”