Political Quotes

“This week, people from dozens of cities around America are gathering for the annual Streetcar Summit. For the last 25 years, I've been working to reintroduce the modern streetcar to American communities. We started with a project in Portland, Oregon, over 20 years ago. It was a great pleasure for me to see this open in 2001 and watch how this streetcar investment anchored revitalization in the downtown, led to over $3 billion of private and public investment along the right-of-way, encouraged over 22 million people to ride the streetcar, and developed into a signature project for our community. More recently, when the new administration was sworn into office, I worked with the White House to implement legislation that I had in the last reauthorization that we called ``Small Starts,'' which somehow had stalled. Within 4 months, the new administration was able to help us figure out how to move it forward. In October of 2009, we were able to sign an agreement with the Obama administration and start the project. I'm pleased to report that this project--which has provided over 1,800 jobs, that is extending a 3\1/3\-mile line--will be open. In fact, we've invited President Obama to ride on the first official trip. He can ride this year on a project that started in the first year of his administration, now a completed project. As an added bonus, he would be able to ride the first American-built streetcar in 58 years.…”