Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is visiting Oregon to learn more about local transportation issues. The local advocacy group No More Freeways has sent him an open letter to provide some background for his visit.

Here’s what Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg needs to know about Oregon DOT’s proposed $800 million neighborhood-wrecking, climate-destroying I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project.

Under Buttigieg’s leadership, USDOT has set a new direction for US transportation policy.  He’s explicitly acknowledged the role that federally directed and supported freeway building played in destroying urban neighborhoods, especially neighborhoods of color.  And he’s called for measures to explicitly offset the damage done and restore those places.  The new administration is taking a decidedly different direction, telling TXDOT to call a timeout on its plans to widen I-45 through Houston, over concerns about civil rights.

This letter from No More Freeways tells how Portland’s freeway fight intersects with the key agenda items of the Biden Administration:  promoting equity and taking climate change seriously.