U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg addressed regional transportation challenges and federal infrastructure priorities at a Cleveland City Club forum on Monday at the Mimi Ohio Theater, highlighting efforts to revitalize the industrial Midwest. Following the address, he met with a select group of the region's students, including four from Cleveland State University.

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb introduced Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, affectionately saying “once a mayor always a mayor."

Secretary Buttigieg first spoke at the City Club in 2019 while in the midst of his bid for the U.S. presidency. He then went on to become the first openly gay person to serve in a president’s cabinet and held a central role in developing and passing President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021. 

In his opening remarks, Secretary Buttigieg warmly described himself as a “creature of the Great Lakes,” having grown up in Northern Indiana and spent the majority of his life living in the Midwest region. 

He said that Cleveland is a city that “screams infrastructure” but at the same time acknowledged that the city has the least developed coastline in the country. He continually referenced the $60 million federal grant awarded to the city of Cleveland to connect downtown to the lakefront. 

“We have taken action to leave every form of American transportation better than we found it,” Buttigied said. “Not because we love transportation for its own sake, but in the name of people who are better off because of this effort.”

He continued his remarks by highlighting his achievements in his post like the passage of the Infrastructure Bill, issuing regulations to protect the rights of rail workers and new rules to protect passengers stranded by airline cancellations or flight changes. 

The forum was mediated by Cleveland Director of City Planning, Joyce Pan Huang, who asked Secretary Buttigieg questions about investing in Cleveland, transportation legislation and how he balances his political career with being a husband and father of two.

Secretary Buttigieg also discussed the climate crisis with Huang and acknowledged its links to the transportation industry. 

“Every decision you make about transportation is a decision about the future of our climate,” Buttigieg said.

He passionately discussed his views on taking equity into account when implementing transportation projects around the country saying, “many communities had transportation projects to them, rather than with them.”

Secretary Buttigieg noted that throughout U.S. history many federal transportation projects functioned to divide communities and contributed to racial and economic divisions, rather than bridge them. He said that through the Biden administration and his work in the Department of Transportation, the Democrat-led administration is providing funding to change the negative effects that previous decisions have had on communities.

As is tradition in City Club forums, the conversation ended with an audience Q&A with questions from attendees with diverse backgrounds including an Ohio State Senator. 

Buttigieg answered various questions with a common theme about continuing collaboration with the upcoming administration of President Donald Trump to continue the work he started in the transportation sector once he is no longer secretary.

Post-forum discussion with region's students

After the forum, Secretary Buttigieg and Mayor Bibb sat down with a select group of high school and college students from the Northeast Ohio area, including four from Cleveland State, for a small group discussion.

33 students along with the mayor and secretary sat in a circle for an open ended discussion about the issues pressing on young minds. Students asked the secretary about the possibilities of high speed rail travel in the U.S., climate impacts, the manufacturing economy and his time in local government. 

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I was privileged to be among the group after Dean Jill Gordon of CSU's Levin College of Public Affairs and Education included me as one of four Levin students invited to the discussion. 

I was able to ask the secretary one question. After introducing myself I asked Secretary Buttigieg, “in moments of tangible crisis like the East Palestine train derailment, what principles or values do you rely on to guide your leadership?”

It was the first time that evening that anyone had mentioned the 2023 train disaster to the secretary.

The incident occurred Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio when 38 cars of a Norfolk Southern freight train which was carrying hazardous materials derailed, resulting in severe chemical pollution of the surrounding area. 

The small Ohio community was gravely affected by the derailment and Secretary Buttigieg came under fire for his delayed action in the crisis. 

In response to my question the secretary started by stating, “The most important value is to remember what all of this is for, which is to make people better off.”

He said that something that his department could have done better in East Palestine was that it was slow to understand every side of the issue, but also said that it is not traditionally the role of the Secretary of Transportation to go to a derailment site with hazardous material. 

Secretary Buttigieg said that one of the biggest challenges with the derailment was the ways in which misinformation began to spread. 

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“Residents had legitimate questions about the health effects of the chemicals and the false information being pushed online about pets dying and other things terrified them and made it harder for them to decide what to do next,” he said. 

He discussed how his role in the crisis became to get factual information to the public while not interfering with the technical safety work being done at the site. 

“Once I got there, I could see that meeting with the residents and talking to the country about what was going on helped to refine the focus we brought to railroad safety reforms,” the secretary said. 

He said that railroad safety reforms are a bipartisan issue that his department is still pushing for and expects more reforms despite the incoming administration which rolled back train safety rules under President Trump in 2017, in part after lobbying by Norfolk Southern. 

After the discussion Secretary Buttigieg and Mayor Bibb stuck around to shake hands and take photos with the students in attendance.

A full recording of “A Conversation with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg” is available on The City Club of Cleveland’s YouTube channel.