RANTS

Rahm Emanuel Shouldn’t Be Biden’s Transportation Secretary — Or Hold Any Other Public Office

Miles Kampf-Lassin
Today 3:00PM • Filed to: RAHM EMANUEL

On June 14, 2018, Rahm Emanuel, then the mayor of Chicago, joined Elon Musk for an underground press conference in the bowels of the city’s downtown. The location was the site of an abandoned project from the mid-2000s that had been conceived to create a public transit “superstation.” ... Here, the two would announce what would become another high-profile transportation boondoggle.

Musk’s aptly named Boring Company had been selected by the Emanuel administration to use its unproven “technology” to build a high-speed transit link between downtown Chicago and O’Hare International Airport. At the press conference, Emanuel boasted that the project was a sign of the city’s foresight, saying, “Chicago is always on the cutting edge, Chicago is always looking over the horizon to see what’s next.”

But what came next would turn out to be a whole lot of nothing. This would be the last the city would hear from Emanuel and Musk jointly on the plan, and two years later, Chicago has been left with a huge chasm below the city streets and no Chicago Express Loop, as the project was to be called. ... The aborted scheme provides a window into how Emanuel governed during his time in public office — cozying up to billionaires, turning to private interests to provide public services and ultimately failing to deliver.

Today, Emanuel is reportedly under consideration by the incoming administration of Joe Biden to serve as a cabinet member, heading the U.S. Department of Transportation. The potential appointment has been met with outrage by progressives in the Democratic Party, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, as well as residents and elected officials in Chicago. Over 5,000 signatures have been gathered on a petition urging Biden not to select their former mayor. ... The animus is understandable.

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