White dudes. Cat Ladies. Trainspotters?
Meet "Train Lovers for Harris/Walz," the latest of the disparate groups that have formed to boost Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
The group, the brainchild of Green New Deal climate and transit organizer Saul Levin (who is organizing the effort in his private capacity), will hold its first big call on Thursday at 7 p.m. (Eastern time) to support the ticket while also demonstrating the "desire for new investments in sustainable transportation."
We chatted with Levin a few days before the call. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Streetsblog: Why did you want to even organize urbanists or transit people for Harris-Walz?
Saul Levin: I worked with some other folks for about two weeks trying to raise the profile of Tim Walz during the veepstakes because of the record of bills that he signed into law. And that came from organizers in Minnesota having really visionary ideas about the world we could live in, and organizing really effectively inside and outside to get those passed.
And so I and a lot of us thought, "Wow, this is really rare to have someone who's done really good urban policy joining a ticket." And, of course, obviously, Kamala Harris is much more positioned to do excellent investments on climate change and urban planning and environmental justice than Donald Trump. But we thought this even could really sweeten the deal. So we spent about two weeks just tweeting out all kinds of information about what happened in Minnesota.
On a broader level, people are really ready for a different transportation system, but because a lot of that policy happens at the local level, a lot of the advocacy is there. Wee wanted to show this is the advocacy that will help the Harris-Walz ticket get elected. And after that, we want to inspire them to be big and bold on how we can build a sustainable, safe and just transportation system that works for everybody.
Streetsblog: A lot of these politics are local, and we know in our heart and in our bones that the executive office has the ability to create sustainable transportation, but we don't always see that. For example, the Biden administration is really tripling down on electric cars, which still have a lot of the attendant flaws of cars in general. What do you want from the executive office in the next four to eight years?
Levin: We want equitable distribution of resources. For decades, maybe around 70 years, the overwhelming percentage of funds for surface transportation have gone to highways and highway expansion. And the bus systems and transit systems that are relied on by black and brown communities, have been chronically and critically underfunded, which really impacts people's livelihoods, which really impacts the climate crisis, it impacts cost of living and it needs to change.
And one of the biggest problems in this country is people say, "Oh, well, the train systems are bad." Well, it's not a mystery. If you actually put some money and effort behind something, it's good. The Biden administration has made some great investments in infrastructure, but at the end of the day, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law did not put the kind of historic investments in sustainable transportation systems like passenger rail and bus rapid transit that are needed to actually build a sustainable and equitable transportation system.
Streetsblog: One of the great challenges of urbanism is that we we have created a massive car-dependency problem. And as a result, the urban transit system is underfunded at the state or local level. Given that car dependency is now a part of the culture war, what will you stress to a future President Harris?
Levin: It's not helpful to say, "Oh, we're going to take away your car." But this is fundamentally about freedom. In the vast majority of this country, you don't have an option of how to get around. And if you're under 16, or you can't drive, or if you're older and you know your vision isn't as good as it used to be, or if you have some type of disability, your basic rights and freedom to move around are constricted because you don't have options. So it's just basically about people who aren't giving being given a choice. Wealthy lobbyists in the fossil fuel industry and the auto industry have created this reality. No one asked for this. People want choices so they can do what's best for them and their family.
So no matter if they're focused on BRT or just want their kid to have a safe sidewalk to get to school, people are united in saying, "This is enough." And you can come at it from a safety perspective, from a climate change perspective, you can come at it from a freedom perspective, but they all point to the same thing: we need a fair distribution so everyone can actually make choices.
Streetsblog: Let's talk a little bit about the various track records. How is the Harris-Walz record?
Levin: Harris has worked on zero emission school buses. It's the crown jewel of what she's done on transportation. There's just no reason why kids should be ingesting fumes from their school bus. It doesn't make any sense. It's not safe, and it's a problem all over, and it's unevenly distributed.
And we credit Tim Walz for signing Move Minnesota into law. We need options, we need clean air, and that made these things possible. The vehicle miles traveled law in Minnesota is a gold standard that everyone in the country should follow. It's just saying, "We need to check when we do a transportation project if it is going to actually help people to get around and still have clean air?" And if the answer is no, we need to look at a different project. I mean, that's common sense. Who amongst us would say that doesn't make sense — other than industry who want to build highways so that they can sell more internal combustion engines? I mean, come on.
We'd like to see more investments in Amtrak everywhere in this country. And as good as Minnesota was on investing in bus rapid transit, frankly, it needs to be even bigger.
Streetsblog: And the Trump-Vance record? Is there any specific thing that Trump did in his time as president?
Levin: (laughs) The constant pandering to the fossil fuel industry and the auto industry, openly pandering to the wealthiest among us in order to get donations and sort of political credit is disgusting.
It's not just about cities. We want excellent inter-city buses for rural communities and transit systems that work for people in small towns. But Donald Trump has been totally committed to defunding even those things that would really benefit a lot of people in red districts. They're talking about massively defunding environmental programs and getting ride of the Environmental Protection Agency. Let's make some decisions based on science and research so that we can reduce traffic, make sure there's clean air and water, and make sure people have basic freedoms and choices of how to get around.
Streetsblog: Who do you want on this call?
Levin: We shared the link for the first time on Friday evening. By noon on Monday, we had 440 people signed up. We need to get our constituency organized so we can defeat the far right in November and get some things done for regular folks. Everyone's invited.
"Train Lovers for Harris-Walz" organizing call, Thursday, Aug. 15, 7 p.m. Register here. And follow Train Lovers for Harris-Waltz on X.com at @trainlovers4HW.
