Tuesday’s Headlines Go Biking With Blumenauer

• Slate interviews Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer, perhaps biking’s biggest advocate in Congress.
• Transit agencies will be allowed the keep the federal COVID relief funding they’ve already received, as part of a debt ceiling deal that claws back some other unspent funds. (Washington Post)
• The Biden administration claims to recognize the damage urban highways have done and continue to do to Black neighborhoods, but is giving cities and states billions to widen them anyway, while underfunding a removal program. (Fast Company)
• The reason why Baltimore doesn’t have a robust transit system can be chalked up to one word: racism. Maryland’s first Black governor, Wes Moore, has a chance to change that legacy if he can restore the Red Line. (The American Prospect)
• Suburbanites are fighting the removal of the I-81 viaduct cutting through a Black Syracuse neighborhood, while some who live there are wary of further disruption. (New York Times)
• Vehicle emissions are primarily to blame for Washington, D.C.’s poor air quality. (DCist)
• Both candidates for mayor of Denver, where traffic deaths are rising despite a Vision Zero plan, are in favor of finding new strategies. (Denver 7)
• Houston has identified two neighborhoods for a pilot program to repair and replace sidewalks damaged by Hurricane Harvey flooding. (Houston Public Media)
• Tucson is looking to establish a grid of bike boulevards. (Arizona Daily Star)
• The feds gave North Carolina’s GoTriangle transit agency millions of dollars to buy land for a light rail line that was never built, and now they want their money back. (Raleigh News & Observer)
• Did the Charlotte Area Transit System rig its ridership projections when deciding on a Silver Line route? (WFAE)
• Boise’s spending on transit is not keeping up with comparable cities’, mostly due to lack of support from the state. (Idaho Statesman)
• The Twin Cities’ Metro Transit will stiffen code-of-conduct penalties, hire private security and deploy social workers to address crime and lure back riders. (MinnPost)
• The streetcar level of a historic Cleveland bridge will briefly open later this month, giving residents a chance to weigh in on its future. (Scene)

source https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/06/06/tuesdays-headlines-go-biking-with-blumenauer/