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The Travelin’ Grampa Touring the U.S.A. without an automobile

Focus on safe, fast, convenient, comfortable, cheap travel, via public transit.

Vol. 12, No. 6, June 2019

Illustrations credit: Rolling Stone Dec. 3, 2015; The Week magazine May 10, 2019; Robert Sikoryak, The Nation magazine.

Three of the 24 candidates seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination to be President of the United States in 2001 are, left to right, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), former US VP Joe Biden, and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Public transit & the 26 bidding to be USA President in 2021 On the following pages is much exclusive up to date news on 26 folks hoping to be elected President

of the United States in November 2020 and their opinions and experience with public transportation. It’s

the result of exhaustive research by Grampa, a journalist with more than 70 years of experience as a

reporter, editor and publisher.

Based on what Grampa has learned about them, any one of these would-be presidents is qualified to

hold the job. One already is more or less doing it, though 25 challenge how well he is doing it.

New York magazine Apr, 15-28; Random House; Penguin Random House; University of Minnesota Press; Latino magazine Winter 2010.

Five more would-be presidents: Pete Buttigieg, Corey Booker, Kamila Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Julian Castro.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: 2021 USA PRESIDENT HOPEFULS . Illustration credits: Lady Pasifika magazine April 2918; New York magazine Nov. 4, 2013; Texas Monthly Jan. 2018; Women at Work magazine, Albany NY.

L to R: Sen. Tulsi Gabbard, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, NYC mayor Bill de Blasio and NY Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

CAMPAIGNING CURRENTLY to be elected or reelected President of the United States in November

2020 are the following 24 Democrats and two Republicans:

Michael Bennet, Colorado U.S. senator.

Joe Biden, former vice president.

Cory Booker, New Jersey senator.

Steve Bullock, Montana governor.

Pete Buttigieg, South Bend Indiana mayor.

Julián Castro, mayor of San Antonio.

“Bill” de Blasio, New York City mayor.

John Delaney, former Maryland U.S. Rep.

Tulsi Gabbard, Hawaii congresswoman.

Kirsten Gillibrand, New York senator.

Mike Gravel, former Alaska senator.

Kamala Harris, California U.S. senator.

John Hickenlooper, former Colorado governor.

Jay Inslee, Washington governor.

Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota senator.

Seth Moulton, Massachusetts congressman.

Wayne Messam, Miramar, Florida, mayor.

Beto O'Rourke, former Texas congressman.

Tim Ryan, Ohio congressman.

Bernie Sanders, Vermont senator

Eric Swalwell, California congressman.

Donald Trump, President of the United States

Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts senator.

“Bill” Weld, former Massachusetts governor

Marianne Williamson, author, lecturer.

Andrew Yang, Manhattan entrepreneur.

As of May 26, a total of 730 candidates had filed with the FEC to run for president, including 248 Democrats,

92 Republicans, 27 Libertarian, 14 Green, plus Socialist, Communist, independents, etc. Source: Ballotpedia. Illustration credits: The Daily Outdoor Retailer Feb. 12, 2019; Penguin Random House; NY Daily News June 15, 2016; Macmillan Publishers.

Left to Right: Sen. Michael Bennett; former Sen. & Gov. Mike Gravel; Rep. Seth Moulton; Rep. John K. Delaney.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: 2021 USA PRESIDENT HOPEFULS .

Photo credits: TWU Local 100; CNN political correspondent M.J. Lee’s Facebook video.

Left: Sen. Bernie Sanders campaigns at meeting of Transport Workers Union local in New York City, where he received its official endorsement. Right: Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s ride on a crowded Dulles International Airport Gate 35X bus to her American Eagle flight to Charleston, W.Va., later turned into a ‘mini town hall,’ after riders began tossing questions at her. See for yourself at: https://twitter.com/i/status/1126636284657721345

Sen. Bernie Sanders likes free public transit, clean electric buses

“Congratulations to Luxembourg for taking the important step of making their public transportation

free,” says Sen. Bernard “Bernie” Sanders (D-Vermont), who at age 77 is the second oldest guy seeking

to be the USA President in 2021*.

“Scientists warn us we must curb our carbon pollution emissions. Public transit is an excellent way

to get people out of their cars and into buses and trains,” Sanders adds. “By using electric buses instead

of fossil fuel burning buses, we reduce those emissions even further.”

The USA spends about $400-billion a year for oil from countries such as: Saudi Arabia, Nigeria,

Mexico, Russia and Venezuela. “Think what an incredible impact that same $400-billion a year could

have on our country” he says, “if that money were invested here in sustainable energies like: wind, solar,

geothermal, biomass, public transportation, and automobiles use no fossil fuels.”

Sanders says he advocates “an energy revolution that will substantially reduce greenhouse gas

emissions and enable us to address the global warming crisis that threatens our planet.”

He proposes a $1-trillion infrastructure program, about a tenth of it for public transport. “We need the

best mass transportation system in the world. It is essential to our economy,” he told a Transport Workers

Union Local 100 gathering. TWU 100 represents 42,000 workers in the New York region. Sanders said

his infrastructure spending plan could be paid for “by keeping the wealthy from stashing their fortunes in

tax havens.” For more: https://youtu.be/VuLgANYjB9Q and https://youtu.be/nNpxBkeBwbg

* Former U.S. Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska), age 89, born May 13, 1930, is oldest, so far, running for the

presidency. Sen. Joseph Biden Jr., aka “Joe” Biden (D-Delaware), age 76, born November 20, 1942, is third oldest.

Former Massachusetts governor William Floyd “Bill” Weld, age 73, born July 31, 1945, is fourth. President Donald

Trump, also age 73, was born June 14, 1946, is fifth.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS .

Elizabeth Warren didn’t intend to run for president job Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren didn’t intend to run for the presidency. Asked by a

newspaper reporter in April 2018 about the possibility, she answered, “I'm running for the United States

Senate … I am not running for president of the United States. That's my plan.”

As the old saying goes: The best-laid plans of mice and women often go awry.

Warren’s ‘millionaire tax’ would fund education, transportation

Asked by a reporter about Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Warren replied, “You get

what you pay for.” Investment in the state’s key public transit system has lagged for decades, she noted.

While federal funds she helped get for an MBTA Green Line extension project “were a big help,” she

declared: “But that's not nearly enough.” Asked if this means she wanted a “millionaire tax” to fund

education and transportation question on the state’s 2018 ballot, Warren said emphatically: “Yes!”

Warren advocates an annual wealth tax on fortunes greater than $50-million. She also wants to roll

back the GOP's 2017 tax cuts.

Photos credit: Elizabeth Warren via Twitter; Nik DeCosta-Klipa , Boston.com; Elizabeth Warren via Facebook.

Left: Sen. Elizabeth Warren delivering Dunkin Donuts to fellow Democratic lawmakers staging a 22-hour sit-in trying to pass gun-control legislation in the House of Representatives. Center: Warren’s favorite: a strawberry frosted sprinkles donut she calls “a pink Homer Simpson.” Right: Warren delivers donuts to the offices of Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), after he spoke more than 15 hours on the Senate floor. Duncan Donuts HQ is in Canton, Massachusetts.

Warren confesses: doesn’t drink coffee; she’s a tea drinker

Dorchester Reporter news editor Jennifer Smith, a coffee connoisseur, asked Warren what coffee

brand she prefers. “Is it really Dunkin?” she asked. “Uh,” Warren replied, “I'm going to have to come

clean on this. I don't drink coffee.” She prefers tea.

Boston Save America podcaster Tommy Vietor tweeted Warren: “Senator I am preparing tough

questions about your favorite Dunkin Donuts order, as we speak.”

Warren tweeted back: “That's an easy one! I like the pink Homer Simpson donuts.”

Her answer appears to refer to Dunkin’ Donuts’ strawberry frosted sprinkles donut, which are eaten by

cartoon character Bart Simpson on The Simpsons, a popular Fox Broadcasting Co, TV show.

Warren supports Amtrak, high speed rail, regional railways

Warren is a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Subcommittee on

Housing, Transportation & Community Development, playing a key role in legislation and oversight as

regards safe, efficient and effective public transportation. To wit: https://youtu.be/h7DoGF7II3M

She has supported efforts to get $500-million federal-state funding to cut Northeast Corridor Amtrak

and regional commuter railroads’ repair backlog. These RRs haul about 800,000 passengers daily.

She also has pushed for high-speed rail connecting Massachusetts cities. “We need a train that runs

from Boston to Worcester to Springfield,” she has said.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS .

Photo credits: CBS-TV, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert; TMZ reporter Adam Glyn.

Left: Stephen Colbert interviews Elizabeth Warren. Right: TMZ reporter Adam Glyn interviews Warren at Penn Station.

Sen. Warren’s run for train reminds Grampa of good ole days

While working for a daily newspaper in New York City, Grampa often ran into Penn Station and

down its stairways to catch a homeward train to Philadelphia. Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently duplicated

that feat, to catch a Boston train at that same station, after an interview by CBS-TV’s The Late Show host

Stephen Colbert at the Ed Sullivan Theatre at West 53rd Street & Broadway in Manhattan. See for

yourself at: https://youtu.be/zMl4nrIqDII and https://youtu.be/YjOm8h4MSoo

Warren supports east-west and north-south railroads As did other wannabees and President Trump, Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) favors an impressive

national transportation infrastructure plan, including east-west passenger rail service. It starts out looking

promising,” Warren said of the Trump latest proposal. “The problem is where he's gone with it. What he's

describing is a lot of tax breaks, rather than real money going into infrastructure projects.”

Warren wants any grand plan to fund north-south as well as east-west rail routes.

Meanwhile, she has helped Massachusetts public trans systems gather:

► $21-million in federal grants to install positive train control on all MBTA commuter rail lines.

► a $20-million federal grant to expand its MBTA’s Ruggles station, including a new 800-foot

commuter rail platform, allowing at least 40% more morning commuter rail trains to stop there. A dozen

MBTA bus lines, its Orange Line subway, and private bus shuttles also stop there.

► a $4.3-million federal grant to fund partly a new Quincy Center bus terminal, served by Red Line

subway, MBTA commuter rail trains, and National Park Service shuttle buses.

Grampa published 16-page Travelin’ Trump Extra in Dec. 2016

President-elect Donald Trump was featured exclusively in a 16-page Travelin’ Trump Extra we

published in December 2016, contents of which focused on what a Trump presidency would mean for

senior travelers. You can access it at travelingrampa.wordpress.com

Feds cancel $37-billion for in-limbo rail projects on both coasts Trump’s DOT has cancelled $929-million of federal funding for California's Jerry Brown high-speed

rail project and seeks the return of $2.6-billion already spent. Gov. Gavin Newsom said his state will

appeal this decision. In response, a Trump tweet called the high-speed rail plan a “disaster.”

Fortune magazine reported in February the Trump Administration said federal funds can’t be used

to pay for any of a proposed $30-billion Gateway Project that includes a second Hudson River passenger

rail tunnel between New Jersey and New York. The present 92-year-old tunnel needs major repair.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS .

Illustrations credit: Andrew Yang, Twitter and Facebook.

. Left: Andrew Yang riding in a truck near Altoona, Iowa. Center: Andrew Yang. Right: Yang rally in Seattle, Washington.

Yang foresees automation eliminating 687,200 bus diver jobs

A third of American workers are at risk of permanent unemployment” due to “robots, artificial

intelligence, and automation,” warns Andrew Yang, age 44, who calls himself “an entrepreneur and

author running for President as a Democrat in 2020.” During a stop-over at a train station in Jefferson,

Iowa, he foresaw: “Between 2.2-million and 3.1-million car, bus and truck driving jobs in the U.S. will be

eliminated by self-driving vehicles.” Currently, there are 687,200 bus drivers in the USA, says the Bureau

of Labor Statistics. For more: https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1126300017197584384

‘There are solutions, but almost nobody is talking about this.’ “We need to implement a plan for how to handle the loss of these jobs, and we have to do it soon,” he

warns. “Some estimates have the mass production of these (automated) vehicles as occurring within the

decade. … Cars and trucks can already drive themselves down the road to deliver pizzas … We're going

to have a quite a crisis when the majority of fast food, retail, and professional driving jobs are gone in the

next 10-20 years. There are solutions, but almost nobody is talking about this.”

Yang seeks to discourage airlines from bumping passengers “No one should be physically removed because the airline wants to make more money,” says

presidential hopeful Andrew Yang. “The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) should prevent this

activity and force airlines to continue to offer a larger amount of money until someone accepts.”

Yang’s $1-trillion infrastructure plan includes public transportation Andre Yang proposes a Rebuild America’ $1-trillion 5-year infrastructure investment initiative he

expects will “create more than 13-million jobs and generate $1.5-trillion-plus in increased efficiency and

productivity.” He calls the USA’s current infrastructure “a dangerous embarrassment” whereby our nation

is “still living off of the investments of past generations.” In particular, he seeks to “modernize … power

plants, sewer and water systems, and public transportation systems.” Illustration credits: Walking My Talk, Facebook; Motivational Quotes; Marianne Williamson, Facebook.

Quote from Marianne Williamson, right, author and lecturer, among those running for the Democratic nomination.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS . Photo credits: Laura Cruz-Acosta, Mktg. & Public Affairs, Sun Metro; Americans for Transit.

Left: Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Tex.) “mobile town hall” mini-meeting on El Paso Sun Metro transit bus. Right: O’Rourke on San Antonio bus during near-successful 2018 U.S. Senate campaign. For more: https://youtu.be/8imP9DHiO58

Beto O’Rourke likes to campaign on transit buses

Former Texas U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke enjoys getting up close with voters, shaking their hands,

answering their questions and hearing their gripes and suggestions. This got him elected congressman

twice and almost got him elected U.S. senator in 2018. Among his favorite campaign methods is meeting

face-to-face with voters on public transit buses. This gives him “a chance to sit down and introduce

myself to each rider, and ask if there is anything we can help them with,” he says.

Stranded at Los Angeles airport, Beto yearns for high-speed rail One a Sunday in mid-April, due to a lengthy flight delay, Beto O’Rourke was stranded on a Los

Angeles airport tarmac, instead of being at San Francisco’s Irish Cultural Center for a scheduled midday

campaign rally. “All I could think about was high-speed rail,” O’Rourke quipped to a reporter, referring

to the much touted but nowhere near reality 500-mph railroad linking the two California cities.

Beto faults city of Arlington for lacking public mass transit While campaigning to replace Texas U.S. Sen, Ted Cruz last year, a race he narrowly lost, Beto

O'Rourke criticized the city of Arlington for being “the largest city in America without a mass transit

system” In fact, Arlington had no local public transport until its recent experiments with seven driverless

vehicles, including a goofy automated one resembling an office-building passenger elevator on wheels.

“It's so much cheaper than building light rail or developing a system with big diesel buses,” declared

Arlington mayor Jeff Williams. Supplying the vans is Drive Ai, a Silicon Valley startup, with five similar

vans in Frisco, Texas. Actually, they aren’t driverless; a remote human operator monitors each and can

take control if necessary. Both Arlington and Frisco are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Photo credit: City of Arlington; Beto O’Rourke; Drive Ai.

Mayor Jeff Williams of Arlington, Texas, and city’s experimental self-driving vehicles. City has no real public transit.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS .

Photo credit: Eric Swalwell, Facebook & Twitter; Rep. Eric Swalwell official web site.

Left: BART congrats tweet on Rep. Eric Swalwell Twitter page. Center: Swalwell pours coffee into cup held by a daily morning commuter at BART’s Castro Valley railway station. Right: His district office in Castro Valley.

Rep. Swalwell is Congress’ watchdog re transit safety & security Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) is Congress’ top watchdog regarding public transit safety and security.

As such, he recently led 96 congress members to reject President Donald Trump’s latest proposal to slash

funding for transit security*. “I have no greater priority in Congress than the safety of the American

people,” declared Swalwell. “The President’s plan to gut funding for transit security puts American lives

at risk. In Brussels, Madrid, and London, terrorists have targeted mass transit to carry out deadly attacks.

To ensure an American city is not next, we must invest in the security of our public transit systems. No

one should feel unsafe riding our rails, buses, and ferries.”

Every spring, Swalwell leads House of Representatives members in a bipartisan call for strong funding

of safety and security in America’s mass transit systems. While current budget concerns make funding

choices difficult, a “small amount of money spent now could be dwarfed by savings in lives and damage

by preventing a horrific attack,” he said. * Trump’s budget proposed cutting by almost two-thirds the FY 2020 U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security transit

security grant program, from $100-million to only $36.4-million, beside a 25% non-federal cost share requirement,

to discourage transit agencies from seeking such grants. Instead, Swalwell and his fellow lawmakers proposed

boosting funding “to at least $105-million” along with rejecting the non-federal cost share requirement.

Swalwell from transit-friendly San Francisco Bay area

Rep. Swalwell helped Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in 2017 get an $8.8-million Federal

Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) transit security grant, fifth-highest such grant in the nation.

Of that, $7.5-million went to protecting the Transbay tunnel linking Oakland and San Francisco.

Eric Swalwell, age 38, has represented since 2012 California’s 15th congressional district, in the

heavily public transit* using San Francisco Bay area. Born in Iowa, he considers Dublin, Calif., his home

town. His California office is in Castro Valley. Nine miles apart, each has a BART station. * Servicing the 15th congressional district are Amtrak, Amtrak Capitol Corridor, and Altamont Corridor Express

trains and AC Transit, County Connection, MAX San Joaquin RTD, Stanislaus Regional Transit (StaRT), Early

Bird Express, and Livermore Transit Authority (Wheels) buses.

Seeks BART-ACE trains connection & ‘mobile Congress’ Rep. Swalwell strongly supports linking BART and Altamont Commuter Express, a commuter

railroad between Stockton and San Jose, as well as a BART extension to ACE’s Livermore station, the

latter connection for the time being rejected by the region’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

He has proposed a “mobile Congress.” with members able to cast votes remotely, while spending

more time in their districts. They’d attend Capitol Hill via Skype-type conference call. “It’s time for

Congress to learn to be more mobile and adapt to the times in which we live,” says Swalwell.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS .

Photo credit: Office of Rep. Tim Ryan.

Left: Reps. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and Ro Khanna ( D-Calif.) host a group of investors on a bus tour of Akron. Right: One of the best little handy guides to Washington DC for tourists and other visitors is on a web page of Hawaii’s U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, pictured here on the Mall in front of the Nation’s Capital buildings. Rep. Gabbard is the first Hindu and first American Samoan member of congress and Democratic Party candidate for the presidency.

Rep. Ryan, President Trump both hopeful about electric vehicles Presidential wannabe U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) hails from the state’s 13th Congressional District.

This includes: Akron, Alliance, Cuyahoga Falls, Lordstown, Niles, Warren and Youngstown.

A big General Motors assembly plant is in Lordstown. This plant has been made infamous by wild

promises by President Trump about its future expansion. In fact, it has laid off most of its 1,400 workers.

Trump says Workhorse Group, a Cincinnati-based electric van, mini-bus and pickup truck builder, will

take over the plant. He tweeted on May 8: “Just spoke to Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, who

informed me that, subject to a UAW agreement etc., GM will be selling their beautiful Lordstown Plant

to Workhorse, where they plan to build Electric Trucks.”

Trump “wants to go back to the old economy,” reopening “old steel mills and old coal mines,” Ryan

said on ABC-TV’s The View show, where he officially announced entering the presidential race. He then

seemed to express hope for his area to “dominate the electric vehicle markets, creating jobs.”

Ryan’s congressional district usually elects Democrats. It flipped to Trump in 2016. Ryan, however, a

native son born in Niles, won with 61% of votes cast, with strong support from labor unions, including

the Machinists/Aerospace Workers union and Sheet Metal, Air, Rail & Transportation Workers union.

Ryan is an active member of the Transportation, Housing & Urban Development subcommittee of the

House of Representatives’ Committee on Appropriations.

Rep. Ryan an effective federal transit grant getter ► $10.8-million U.S. Dept. of Transportation BUILD grant* to help fund Youngstown’s ambitious

$26.3-million Eastgate multimodal transportation project, including autonomous shuttles and pedestrian

walkways connecting Youngstown State University, Mercy Health, the Youngstown Business Incubator,

Eastern Gateway Community College and various popular downtown destinations.

► $5,715,600 to the city of Akron to construct two bridges over CSX railroad and Akron Metro

Regional Transit Authority (RTA) train tracks, accommodating ten RTA passenger rail transits daily,

while removing two potentially dangerous street/rail crossings.

► $4,015,174 funding from the Federal Transit Administration for Youngstown-based Stark Area

Regional Transit Authority (SARTA) for new zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell buses.

► $418,500 in Federal Aviation Administration funding for Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, to

improve airport drainage and rehabilitate runway and lighting.

* Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development (BUILD) grants, formerly known as a Transportation

Investing Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS .

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard web page handy Washington DC tourist guide One of the handiest guides to Washington DC for sightseers and other visitors is Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s

Washington, DC Tourism Information web page. Grampa should know. He worked for years for a daily

newspaper there. With the click of a mouse or tap of a finger, you can get helpful info about: Capitol Hill,

National Mall, Smithsonian and other museums, the White House, historic homes, theaters, sports, and

other attractions. Tapping on Getting Around takes you to city and suburban public transportation web

sites. To wit: Metrorail and Metrobus, Arlington ART bus, DC Circulator bus, Fairfax Connector bus,

MTA Maryland commuter bus, VRE (Virginia Railway Express) train, MARC commuter and Amtrak

trains. To get it: https://gabbard.house.gov/services/resources/washington-dc-visitors/washington-dc-tourism-information

Oh, no! Birthers back! Question Gabbard’s native citizenship Born in American Samoa in 1981, at age 2, the Gabbard family moved to Hawaii in 1983. American

Samoa is a unique USA territory in the Pacific Ocean, about 2,600 miles southwest of Hawaii*.

Someone born in American Samoa usually is considered not a USA citizen but, instead, a “non-citizen

US national.” Our nation’s Constitution says to be president, he or she must be a “natural-born citizen.” It

doesn’t define this term. Being born in one of the 50 states obviously isn’t necessary. U.S. Sen. John

McCain (R-Arizona), who ran for the presidency in 2008, was born in the Panama Canal Zone. U.S. Sen.

Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who ran in 2018, was born in Canada. In fact, our 10th president, John Tyler, was the

first born in the USA. All our presidents before Tyler were born in a British North American colony.

Gabbard’s mom Carol’s birthplace: Decatur, Indiana. Her dad is Hawaii U.S. Sen Mike Gabbard, a

U.S. citizen born in American Samoa. Her grampa, Benjamin Harrison Gabbard, was born in Kentucky.

So, Tulsi Gabbard is definitely a natural born citizen.

* Hawaiian Airlines flies between Honolulu and American Samoa’s Tafuna airport twice a week. Usual flight

time: 5 hours 40 minutes. Jitney bus 16-mile ride to/from town of Pago Pago $1. Taxicab fare about $15-$20.

Hawaii, islands connected largely via air transport As a former state legislator and Honolulu city council member, Sen. Gabbard is quite public transport

savvy. Honolulu has an excellent public bus system, as Grampa can attest from its use during his trips to

the islands. It also has an excellent international airport and several fine local airports.

☺ “Highways, bridges, airports, transportation safety, and public transit projects should be a critical

priority for federal investment, Gabbard says. Among ways she suggests these could be paid for is

“cutting costs from counterproductive regime change wars abroad.”

☺ Coming from a state consisting of five counties that are islands, it’s logical Gabbard seeks to

“ensure the federal government prioritizes its investment in infrastructure, especially at our airports.” In

2016, she helped international flights resume at Kona airport, on Hawaii, the state’s biggest island.

☺ “Given Hawaii's unique reliance on air travel,” she says she also has sought to have its local

airports exempt from cuts in federal funding.”

☺ She has introduced a Passenger Fee Restructuring Exemptions Act to limit the passenger security

fee for Hawaii, Alaska, and rural populations that rely on air travel.

For more: https://www.tulsigabbard.org/tulsi-gabbard-on-infrastructure

Major Gabbard served in Iraq combat zone and again in Kuwait Like Grampa, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is a military veteran. While a state legislator, she

enlisted in the Hawaii Army National Guard in 2003, a year later doing a 12-month tour in Iraq, assigned

to a field medical unit in a combat zone. In 2009-09, she was deployed again, in Kuwait. Currently, she

continues her service as a Major in the Army National Guard. Since 2013, Gabbard has represented

Hawaii's 2nd congressional district. She presently is serving her fourth term in Congress.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS .

Photo credit: Julian Castro, Facebook; Brent Johnson, NJ Advance Media.

Former San Antonio mayor Julian Castro, with daughter Carina, on VIA Metropolitan Transit Route #3 bus en route to Plaza Guadalupe, not far from where he and his twin brother rode a VIA #68 bus to/from school. Right: U.S. Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), after a terrorism explosion in a subway corridor beneath Port Authority Bus Terminal in NYC, suggesting the US Transportation Safety Administration issue rules for passenger rail transport similar to those now at airports, although not necessarily so severe as “having water bottles taken away.”

Julián Castro longtime rider on transit buses Julián Castro, mayor of Texas’ 7th largest city in 2009-14 and U.S. Secretary of Housing & Urban

Development in 2014-17 (after declining the Secretary of Transportation post), is a lifelong user of public

transit. He even rode a VIA Metropolitan Transit #3 bus to the West Size plaza where he announced his

campaign for the presidency. As mayor, he strongly supported VIA, including a $280-million light rail

project. Twin brother U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) helped VIA get a $6-million U.S. Dept. of

Transportation grant to help pay for a new operations center and maintenance facility for its paratransit

vehicles. As boys, they rode to/from school on a VIA #68 bus.

Grampa has visited San Antonio often. His brother, who ran for congress on the Libertarian Party

ticket, was a VIA Citizens Advisory Committee member.

Jersey’s Booker books federal $$$ for NJ public transport U.S. Sen. Corey Booker (D-New Jersey), ranking member of the Senate Environment & Public Works

Committee subcommittee on Transportation & Infrastructure, played a key role in passage of the Fixing

America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act signed into law in 2015.

Mayor of Newark in 2006-13, Booker has introduced bipartisan legislation to give mayors and local

leaders more control over local and regional transportation planning. He helped the city of Camden get a

$1.5-million USDOT grant to pay for new zero-emission and low-emission transit buses, and seeks

federal funds for a new Hudson River NJ-NY rail tunnel for Amtrak and NJ Transit trains.

► Booker’s web page gives directions on how to reach his local (i.e. Newark) office via public

transport from a dozen New Jersey locations plus from New York City. Next, it lists driving directions.

► For Booker’s 2013 Senate special election campaign, President Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and her

husband, Jared Kushner, hosted a fundraiser for him at their Park Avenue home.

► Trump has tweeted: “If Cory Booker is the future of the Democratic Party, they have no future!”

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS .

Sen. Gillibrand: ‘loudest, most aggressive’ transit advocate Sen. Kristen Gillibrand has run against President Donald Trump since at least his first 100 days in

office, when she complained at a Staten Island “town hall” gathering that he was failing to fulfill his big

transportation infrastructure promises. “I’m 100% committed to being the loudest, most aggressive

advocate on investing in infrastructure, particularly transportation infrastructure,” she said.

Since then, she has pushed the federal government into funding New York public transit, e.g.:

☺ $11-million to Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, in Erie and Niagara counties, for new

clean air friendly compressed natural gas (CNG) buses. Almost a third of NFTA buses were beyond their

useful life, with more than 40 out of service each month for repairs. Maintenance was gobbling up all

NFTA’s money, eliminating new bus purchases. “With this funding from the Federal Transit

Administration, NFTA will finally be able to modernize its bus fleet,” said the senator.

☺ $2-million to Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (RGRTA) for a new Advanced

Environmental Service Building’s electric bus charging stations and bus-cleaning water reclamation.

☺ $2-million to Broome County Transit for new hybrid-electric buses, replacing old diesel fueled

buses, “making service more efficient for commuters while reducing air pollution," she noted.

“Bus transit is a vital form of travel for many New Yorkers,” she is frequently heard to say.

Photo credits: Zach Hirsch, North Country Public Radio; Herb Jackson, NorthJersey.com; Evan Semón, Colorado Independent.

Five running for the presidency. Left: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D.-N.Y.) announces her Manufacturing Universities Act of 2015 at Nova Bus factory in Plattsburgh, N.Y. Center: Sen. Cory Booker (D.-N.J.) chats on U.S. Senate subway with Sen. Kamala Harris, (D-Calif.) Right: Colorado’s Gov. John Hickenlooper and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) at 2016 opening of Denver RTD’s “A” Line connecting downtown Union Station and Denver International Airport.

Senior-friendly Gillibrand also big tourism supporter “From the bright lights of Times Square, to the natural beauty of Niagara Falls; the world class

vineyards of the Finger Lakes, and the high peaks of the Adirondacks, New York’s tourism has much to

offer,” says Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). So, she’s pushing a federal Travel Regional Investment

Partnership Act to help domestic tourism “flourish.” Coincidentally, tourism provides jobs for more than

660,000 New Yorkers. She also is senior-friendly. To wit: www.gillibrand.senate.gov/issues/seniors

Gillibrand fought ‘draconian cuts’ in transit funding “Mass transit is the lifeline by which millions of New Yorkers get to work every day,” says Sen.

Gillibrand, who adds that she is working to ensure that Congress “continues funding critical upgrades for

repairs to our aging transit systems” and “ensure that mass transit riders are not shortchanged through

draconian cuts that would eliminate dedicated federal funding sources for transit projects.”

She also notes that she is “fighting to extend the federal tax benefit for commuters.”

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS . Photo credit: Liz Smith, Pete for America; Kamila Harris for President campaign.

Left: South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg rides New York City subway en route to appearance on MSNBC TV show hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton. Right: Kamala Harris, in yellow coat, with younger sister and mom at a bus stop in Berkeley, Calif., where her mom was a U.C. Berkeley grad student. Pictures of Harris as an adult are on pages 1 and 9.

Sen Kamala Harris is a longtime bus rider U.S. Sen Kamila Harris (D-Calif.) is an alumnus of Howard University*, Washington DC, later

getting a law degree at the University of California’s Hastings College of Law** in San Francisco. She

was born in Oakland, a 14-minute Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train ride from Hastings’ high-rise

campus, mostly via a tunnel beneath San Francisco Bay.

Her immigrant Indian mother and Jamaican father both were U.C. Berkeley graduate students. She and

her parents lived in an upstairs duplex on Bancroft Way near Browning Street in southwest Berkeley, a

short walk from an ●AC Transit #72 and #72R bus stop on San Pablo Ave. and ●#6, #52, #65, # 67 bus

stops on University Avenue. Grampa has awaited buses at both these stops.

As a child, Harris rode a school bus to/from Thousand Oaks Elementary School on Colusa Ave. in

Berkeley. At age 12, she and her mom moved to Montreal, where Kamila graduated from high school,

prior to attending Howard University, which has its own Metrorail station. Also, Howard is adjacent to

Georgia Ave., along which regularly ply routes #70 and #79 Metrobuses. (Yes, Grampa has used both.) * Grampa’s son is a graduate of the university’s Howard Law School.

** 11 transit bus routes have a stop adjacent to Hastings College of Law, on Hyde Street, Between McAllister

Street and Golden Gate Avenue. It is 0.6-mile from the SFMTA (Muni) operations center Grampa has visited.

Harris big Caltrain supporter, long leery of bullet train plan

To meet the challenges of climate change, Sen. Kamila Harris (D-Calif.) says “it’s vital that America

invests in clean energy, smart grid upgrades, and public transportation.” To wit: She worked hard to get

$647-million in federal grants to electrify the Caltrain commuter railroad between Oakland and San Jose

that Grampa rides whenever in the San Francisco Bay Area, For more: https://youtu.be/T_UkhGqlFDc

As state attorney general, Harris sided with San Diego County public transit advocates against freeway

widening advocates during development of a regional transportation plan.

Also, as attorney general, she was skeptical far back as October 2013 about former Gov. Jerry

Brown’s ambitious Los Angeles to San Francisco Bay Area bullet train project recently scuttled by

present Gov. Gavin Newsom, after a state superior court judge ruled it violated state law. US DOT has

cancelled $929-million federal funding and seeks return of $2.6-billion already spent. President Trump

has called the project “a disaster,” a term he has given to hundreds of people and incidents.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS .

Sen. Bennet holds Planes, Trains & More meetings U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), pictured on pages 2 & 12, is well known for his so-called

Planes, Trains, Automobiles & More “mobile town hall” gatherings. For example:

● On a Roaring Fork Transportation Authority rapid transit bus to Aspen Airport from Glenwood

Springs with local civic, business and transit leaders aboard, he cited it as “a perfect example of the

innovative infrastructure development in our state that is boosting regional economies and creating new

jobs.” He didn’t have to remind them how hard he had fought to get federal funding to complete this first

rural bus rapid transit service in the USA. Bennet also got a change in US DOT’s rural transit funding

formula to get Colorado and RFTA additional rural transit $$$.

● Aboard a Denver RTD (Regional Transportation District) light rail train with its chief Phil

Washington, mayors Bob Murphy of Lakewood, Marjorie Sloan of Golden and Jim Gunning of Lone

Oak, and other officials, Bennet emphasized the importance of maintaining transportation infrastructure

and its federal and state funding sources. For more: https://youtu.be/q3AdoWAch24

Until appointment as senator in 2009 & election to a full term in 2010, he never held elective office.

Bennet supports Amtrak, FasTracks, Eagle Project, etc. Among Sen. Bennet’s recent pro-transport moves:

● support for the Southwest Chief and other Amtrak long-distance trains,

● continued Amtrak stops in rural communities and, of course,

● the Denver region’s famous FasTracks rail system’s Eagle P3 public-private partnership for

designing, building, partially financing, operating and maintaining two commuter rail lines, i.e., the

Denver Regional Transportation District and Denver Transit Partners.

“Despite dwindling resources for infrastructure projects, Colorado has found innovative and

collaborative ways to finance critical, forward-thinking projects like FasTracks,” Bennet points out.

Bennet sought to prevent Denver RTD airport train shutdown

Bennet has “done handsprings” to help head off shutdown of Denver RTD's “A” Line between Union

Station and Denver International Airport due to crossing gate problems. Federal Railroad Administration

regulators long have said that unless its crossing gates work properly, the line must be shut down. Not

only the “A” line is threatened. The FRA says it will refuse to okay RTD’s new “G” Line to Arvada and

Wheat Ridge unless its similar crossing gate problems are solved. For more: https://bit.ly/2El0ZXk

Photo credits: Paul Danahar, Twitter; Chuck Gomez for Amtrak; Adam Gercak, Flickr.

Left: Just hours after announcing his presidential campaign online, Joe Biden is not at a huge launch party but sitting quietly on an Amtrak train to New York. Center: Biden in the cab of new Amtrak Siemens ACS-64 diesel locomotive at Philadelphia 30th Street Station. Right: VP Biden in May 2014 talks about infrastructure at Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority maintenance facility. President Trump recently quoted North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un as saying Biden is “a fool of low-IQ.” Agreeing Biden “probably is, based on his record,” Trump called him “a disaster” as vice president. Responded Biden: "I'm not going to get down in the mud wrestling with this fellow. I'm not going to do it.”

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS . Photo credit: Cable News Network.

Joe and wife Jill heading home on Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington, Delaware, after attending President Donald Trump's inauguration. This was the first time in eight years Biden rode the train with a ticket in his name. For security reasons, he usually rode with a ticket that had no name on it.

Grampa opposed Sen. Joe Biden’s 2008 presidential bid

Though liking Sen. Joe Biden (D-Delaware) and having met him several times, Grampa and his

Democratic Party activist sister, Dotty, supported Sen. John Edwards (D-North Carolina) in the 2008

presidential race. Biden then was 66 years old; Edwards 55.* “It’s time to turn things over to the younger

generation,” Grampa told Dotty in 2007, as the candidates began competing for the nomination.

Today, Biden is 76. In January 2021, when sworn in as president, he’d be 78, oldest new USA

president ever. If he won a second term, he’d be 87 in his final year in office. Grampa is 86½.

What’s the oldest someone should be? George Washington was 57 when he took the job. Ronald

Reagan was 73 when he did so a second time, making him oldest to win a USA presidential election.

Donald Trump was 70 when he won in 2016. Candidate Mike Gravel is 88. See pages 17 & 18.

House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi is 79, born in 1940 and still going strong.

* Barack Obama won in 2008, with Joe Biden as his vice president, taking office Jan. 20, 2009, defeating

Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) and Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Obama & Biden were reelected in 2012.

Nobody probably is more public transport savvy than Biden. ► Sitting in the driver’s seat in a Metro Transit bus at Union Station in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Biden

told onlookers: “Close the door, I’m driving. I used to drive a bus. You think I’m joking, but I’m not.”

► As senator and vice president, Biden made 8,200 round-trip Amtrak train rides – often daily –

between his job in Washington DC and his home town in Wilmington, Delaware, he calculated during his

final commute day in January 2017. “Over 2-million miles on Amtrak, 259 miles round-trip a day. Not

every day, but on average, 217 days a year,” he said.

► Instead of spending Earth Day 2009 out in the wilderness, Vice President Biden held an event at a

bus depot in Maryland announcing a plan to spend $300-million for clean-fuel buses.

His campaign website headlined Joe’s Story. From Scranton to Wilmington to the White House has a little

passenger train linking all its components. See for yourself at: https://joebiden.com/joes-story/

► Joe Biden’s biggest gaffes: www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-gaffes-quotes-2020-election-1323905

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS . Illustration credit: Ward Sutton, The Boston Globe, April 25, 2019.

Prize-winning cartoonist Ward Sutton sums up the current presential race in this Boston Globe cartoon. His work has appeared in: The Village Voice, GQ, The New Yorker, The New York Times, New York magazine, Rolling Stone, Variety, Entertainment Weekly, and MAD magazine. How many of these candidates can you name? Answers on page 2.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS . Photo credit: WNDU, South Bend, Channel 16; WMUR-TV Channel 9., Manchester, New Hampshire.

Left: South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and seven city council members on a Transpo bus. “It's nice to be in the same bus, going in the same direction,” said Councilman Oliver Davis. Right: Rep. John Delaney (D-Maryland) wraps up his 17th visit to New Hampshire since becoming a presidential candidate.

Maryland Rep. Delaney seeks Metro wage & board reform In July 2018, Rep. John Delaney (D-Maryland) became the first Democrat to formally declare his

intention to run for president in 2020. He is best known for introducing his for Washington Metropolitan

Area Transit Authority Improvement Act of 2017, to provide for 10 years $75-million a year additional

federal funding, in exchange for a series of wage and other labor reforms and some changes in its

governance structure. It also would have required Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia each

provide $75-million a year for 10 years. Transport Workers Union president Larry Hanley denounced

Delaney’s bill, which been introduced and rejected in a previous session of Congress.

Likewise, his unpopular WMATA Governance Reform Act of 2016 requiring that the authority’s

board members have certified expertise in certain areas, such as: safety, transportation, management or

finance. It also would have cut Metro’s board from 16 members to nine and give the general manager a

seat on the board. This Delaney bill, too, was introduced and rejected in a previous session. Delaney said

that in developing the legislation he had surveyed more than 1,700 people about how best to upgrade the

regional transit authority’s beleaguered Metrorail and Metrobus system,

Congress already provides $150-million per year for Metro’s capital budget.

Illustration credits: David Oks, Wikipedia; The Railroad Conductor, Aug. 1, 1890; Thomas Harvell-DeGolier and The Tundra Times.

Maurice Robert "Mike" Gravel in 2019 and as Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives in 1965. He became a U.S. senator in 1969, a job he held until 1981. Born May 13, 1930, now age 88, he is the oldest candidate ever to run for USA president. Center: Engraving on cover of Aug. 1, 1890 issue of The Railroad Conductor magazine, pictures a railroad brakeman, a job Gravel held in 1956 before entering politics.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS .

Teenagers asked Mike Gravel, age 88, to run for president

Alaska governor in 1969-1981, Mike Gravel is running for president because a bunch of teenagers

think it’s a good idea. “They asked me if it was okay, I said they could do what they wanted, as long as

they were doing it and not me,” he joked in an interview with Politico, a political news journal.

Is he too old for the job? “It's not a matter of age. It's a matter of whether your ideas are old," he told

The Young Turks, a YouTube video news program: https://twitter.com/i/status/1127692558849708032

When the teenage students first approached him, he responded, “Do you know how old I am?”

Gravel ran for president in 2008, back then sharing a campaign stage with Barack Obama, Hillary

Clinton, Joe Biden and John Edwards who Grampa supported until he dropped out due to a scandal.

New York City cab driver and Alaska Railroad brakeman Like Grampa a U.S. Army (1952-55) veteran*, Mike Gravel got a B.S. in Economics in 1956. During

his stay in New York City, he also worked as a cab driver, later that year traveling to Alaska where he

became a brakeman for the Alaska Railroad, working a snow-clearing train on the Anchorage-Fairbanks

run. Almost penniless when he arrived, Gravel saved enough money to subsequently open a small real

estate brokerage in Anchorage (which then was a territory, not yet a state).

Gravel was first elected Alaska’s U.S. Senator in 1968. He lost his Senate seat in the 1980 Democratic

primary, ironically to a grandson of the senator he had toppled in 1968.

* Gravel was in the Army during the Korean War, but served as a lieutenant in Germany. Grampa, in during the

Korean War, was a corporal in Panama. Like Grampa, Gravel became a strong opponent of that war. He attained

notoriety in 1971, when he entered into the Congressional Record thousands of pages of the now famous but then

highly classified Pentagon Papers, secret documents detailing U.S. involvement in Vietnam and its predecessor

French Indo China.

Mike Gravel 2008 presidential candidate a decade ahead of his time Mike Gravel, when he ran for president in 2008, listed his positions on items he felt were important.

To name a few: climate change, crumbling national infrastructure, wind power to replace fossil fuels, how

to get rid of gasoline within five years. Unfortunately, they were not the issues of most concern to 2008

Democrat primary election voters nor the 2008 Democratic National Convention attendees. They are,

however, issues of growing concern to many, probably most, Democrats today. Thus, Mike Gravel was a

presidential candidate a decade ahead of his time.

See for yourself at: https://www.ontheissues.org/2020/Mike_Gravel_Energy_+_Oil.htm

Photo credits: Gov. Jay Inslee Twitter; Mayor Hickenlooper, YouTube video.

Left: Washington governor Jay Inslee at podium with Sound Transit University-Capitol Hill Line train in background. Right: John Hickenlooper, then mayor of Denver, later governor of Colorado, on FasTracks light rail train in 2004.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS .

Illustrations credit: South Bend Public Transportation Corporation, aka Transpo.

Left: Transpo student summer free pass. Center: Transpo offers free rides to/from athletic events. Right: Transpo bus.

South Bend’s Transpo generous with free rides K-12 Students ride free all summer on South Bend Public Transportation Corporation, aka Transpo

buses, including free rides on the Interurban Trolley serving Elkhart and Goshen. Adults enjoy free rides

on Transpo shuttles to/from the on the city’s popular First Fridays events downtown. Special occasions,

such as the city’s Paddy Party pub tour on St. Patrick’s Day also enjoy free Transpo shuttle rides between

5:30 pm and 12 am. Transpo also provided free rides on all fixed routes on three consecutive days this

past January when the city was hit with extreme cold and snow.

Buttigieg seeks Chicago-South Bend commuter trains Mayor Pete Buttigieg is trying to get the South Shore Line commuter railroad into downtown South

Bend. It presently runs between the Windy City’s Millennium Station and South Bend Airport. A South

Shore train from Chicago’s McCormick Place Station to the airport typically takes about 2½ hours. South

Shore trains from 1908 to 1970 did stop downtown. Doing so now might cost $100-million, Buttigieg

said, $25-million of which the city already has committed to its construction.

How does someone pronounce Buttigieg correctly?

His campaign website sells T-shirts reading BOOT-EDGE-EDGE. Last December, his husband,

Chasten Buttigieg, tweeted that the name also can be pronounced Buddha-judge or boot-a-judge. “My

surname, Buttigieg (Boot-edge-edge), is very common in my father's country of origin, the tiny island

of Malta,” the mayor wrote in 2016. Language expert discusses it at: https://youtu.be/NT36PvjxbRA

Pedestrian friendly downtown South Bend wasn’t always that way “Before Buttigieg’s tenure as mayor, there wasn’t a lot of ‘there’ there when it came to downtown

South Bend,” writes Curbed.com blogger Patrick Sisson. “Underdeveloped and sometimes abandoned

buildings, and a series of four-lane, one-way roads – more highways than city streets – made it more of a

place people drove through than visited.”

“You could shoot a cannon downtown and not hit anybody,” said South Bend Tribune columnist

emeritus Jack Colwell. “It was really a desolate place after work hours.”

Thanks to a successful $25-million Smart Streets project, downtown now is walkable, with former

one-way roads now two-way streets lined with trees, bike paths, and decorative brickwork.

“We’ve restructured our streets and downtown to make for a more vibrant city life,” he wrote.

South Bend wins $1-million Bloomberg grant South Bend is one of nine innovating cities winning a $1-million each grant from Bloomberg

Philanthropies, funded by the family of former New York City’s mayor Michael Bloomberg. About

$110,000 of South Bend’s grant will pay low-income South Bend resident workers use of ride sharing

vehicles such as Uber and Lyft vehicles to/from work.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS .

Inslee sees fossil-fuel-free electricity as wave of future

“This is a moment of great peril, but it’s also a moment of great promise,” tweeted Gov. Jay Inslee

on May 17. “Climate change is a threat to our economy and our world, but climate solutions give us an

incredible opportunity.” He then issued a 38-page $9-trillion 10-year climate strategy Grampa has yet to

review. Inslee, governor of the state of Washington, likes public transit in metropolitan areas. But in

suburban and rural areas, he foresees electric vehicles as the wave of the future.

He recently said that by 2030 all new cars sold in the USA should be fully electric, with 100% of the

USA’s electricity coming from “power sources that release no greenhouse gases at all, such as wind

turbines, solar panels, hydroelectric dams and nuclear plants.” Easy for him to say. About 75% of his

state’s electricity already is carbon free, mostly from its hydroelectric stations.

● Inslee foresees 50,000 electric vehicles on Washington’s roads in 2020.

● Sound Transit’s Seattle and Tacoma Link Light Rail system is electrified, though its Sounder

commuter railroad uses diesel-electric locomotion.

● Inslee has asked for $117.5-million to buy to new electric powered ferry boats and to convert two

existing ones to electric-hybrid power.

● King County Metro, the Seattle area’s big transit system, has battery-powered electric buses on its

Redmond and Bellevue routes, with plans to add at least 120 more system-wide. It also has 174 electric

trolley buses in Seattle that get their power via a pole from overhead power lines.

● Spokane Transit, Everett Transit, Pierce Transit, Walla Walla Valley Transit, and Kitsap Transit all

have electric buses.

Photo credits: Washington State Department of Transportation; All-American Marine Inc.

Left: This is not a gasoline pump; it’s an electric vehicle charging station. Right: Kitsap Transit's two newest ferries, the electric powered Reliance and Waterman at All-American Marine in Bellingham, Washington.

Electrified light rail system links popular Seattle destinations Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, aka Sound Transit, serves the Seattle-Tacoma

metropolitan area. Gov. Inslee tweeted in March 2016: “Sound Transit is connecting our region on time

and under budget. Congrats on today's opening!” He was referring the agency’s Link Light Rail line that

links SeaTac Airport with the University of Washington adding two new stations at Capitol Hill and at the

university. Completion was six months ahead of schedule and $200-million below the $1.9 billion budget.

Inslee sees 250-mph trains linking Seattle, Portland & Vancouver Inslee wants Washington to partner with Oregon and the Canadian province of British Columbia on a

new 250-mph light rail railway linking Vancouver, Seattle and Portland, using public and private funding.

Among its main aims: speed up commutes, and sharply reduce road congestion and vehicle emissions.

He’s called for $3.25-million to get the project started. The rail line would be on any replacement of the

current Interstate 5 highway bridge spanning the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington.

Several legislators and some local leaders prefer a bus rapid transit lane across the bridge, as less

costly and more flexible. While not absolutely ruling that out, Inslee says he prefers light rail because it

would connect to Oregon’s rail network.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS .

Hickenlooper largely responsible for Denver’s FasTracks John Hickenlooper, as Denver mayor 2003-11 and Colorado governor 2011-19, shepherded the

Denver Regional Transportation District’s mammoth FasTracks public transportation project. He rode

herd on it from its birth in 2004, when voters okayed a sales tax to partially pay for it, and kept doing so

through April 2013, when its first new rail line, the W Line, opened for service, and continued his

unrelenting support for FasTracks until he left office as governor as its sixth, the G Line, a rail line to

Arvada and Wheat Ridge, prepared for its April 2019 opening.

Also included: A Line rail service between Union Station and Denver International Airport that

includes a University of Colorado station, B Line to Westminster, and R Line through Aurora.

The G line brings faster, more frequent service to Denver, Arvada and Wheat Ridge. The 11-mile,

seven station end-to-end trip takes 27 minutes. The trip from Wheat Ridge to Union Station takes about

27 minutes, where riders can connect to C, E or W light rail lines, A Line to the airport, B Line to

Westminster, a local or regional bus, or a free MallRide or free MetroRide shuttle.

► FasTracks is a misnomer, in that the project includes bus rapid transit service.

Hickenlooper did it while eliminating a budget deficit When Hickenlooper became mayor in July 2003, he inherited a $70-million budget deficit, worst in

city history. During his first term, the deficit was gone, thanks to greater government efficacy, bipartisan

tax increases, including $4.7-billion for light rail transit. A YouTube video from 2004 shows a young

Mayor Hickenlooper urging a “yes” vote on FasTracks. He never speaks. He’s merely pictured getting on

a train and reading a newspaper, like any typical commuter. See it at: https://youtu.be/zuB37xe1lZ4

Alas, Hickenlooper failed to get a transportation tax passed in the 2018 midterm voting s and departed

the governorship in January with about $10-billion in backlogged road and bridge projects.

Denver airport line especially impressive Especially beneficial for travelers like Grampa is the new 22.8-mile A Line to/from Denver

International Airport, two dozen miles from the city. Trip to downtown takes about 40 minutes, where a

rider can connect to trains to 68 stations along 10 different spurs, covering maybe 100 miles.

Photo credit: Amy Klobuchar, Twitter. Photo credit: Amy Klobuchar, Twitter.

Left: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) at a November groundbreaking for a new Minneapolis-St. Paul Metro light rail line connecting downtown Minneapolis and Eden Prairie, a $2.3-billion investment, says the Metropolitan Council, the reginal public transportation agency. Right: Klobuchar announces her run for the presidency during a snowy, freezing Minneapolis event on Feb. 10, 2019.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS .

Sen. Amy Klobuchar big public transit supporter Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) was among 83 senators who in December 2015 voted for the

first long-term transportation bill in a decade. Under this Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act,

aka FAST act, appropriating $303-billion over a five-year period for roads, bridges, transit., etc. Senate

vote was 83-16; House of Representatives 359-65. President Barak Obama promptly signed it.

She is an active member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation’s Subcommittee on Transportation & Safety. As such, she is intimately involved with public transportation

matters. She frequently meets with voters and others concerned with public transit, such as a recent

roundtable discussion on commuter rail travel in Manchester, New Hampshire.

See her on ABC-TV’s Jimmy Kimmel’s show: https://youtu.be/PMKYajsUTTQ

Klobuchar seeks $1-trillion for roads, bridges, transit Klobuchar proposes a $1-trillion to build and fix roads, bridges, transit and the Internet. Klobuchar's

infrastructure plan contains the following main components: ● Repairing roads, highways, and bridges,

modernizing airports and seaports, ● beefing up dams, levees, and ports to protect waterways against

extreme flooding, and ● investing in public transportation infrastructure, including ● “forward-looking

public transportation” and ● high-speed rail. She wants to leverage $650-billion in federal funding

through public-private partnerships, bond programs and clean-energy tax incentives. Of that, $400-billion

would come from increasing corporation taxes.

Airline safety and ticketing among her top concerns At a recent Senate committee hearing on commercial airline safety, Sen. Klobuchar questioned

officials and experts about two tragic airplane crashes of Boeing 737 Max aircraft. They included the

chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), acting administrator of the Federal

Aviation Administration (FAA), and inspector general of the U.S. Dept. of Transportation (DOT).

“We must figure out our safety approval process and get it right so we can prevent similar tragedies in

the future,” Klobuchar said. Recently, she and several other senators reintroduced a Safe Skies Act, to

require that American cargo plane pilots have the same rest requirements as passenger pilots.

The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 was signed into law last October contains a key amendment

by Klobuchar to provide consistent consumer protections regardless of where tickets are purchased.

In 2012, she included language in the FAA reauthorization prioritizing aviation related construction

projects in cold-weather states to accommodate their limited construction season.

Seeks to strengthen safety & security at airports & train stations “We must continue to do everything we can to strengthen security at airports and at train stations,”

says Sen. Amy Klobuchar. “We need to continue to focus our attention on enhancing aviation security,

ensuring that our mass transit and rail systems are prepared for new, changing, and more sophisticated

threats. We must also ensure that our airports are safely screening passengers in an efficient way.”

Trains, planes, buses, ferries part of Rep. Seth Moulton’s life Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) announced he is running for president while on an MBTA commuter

railroad train that runs between Newburyport/Rockport and Boston. It’s the same train he often rides.

During the hour-long trip, walking up and down aisles, he introduced himself, shaking hands and chatting

with the passengers. Moulton resides in Salem, which has an MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transit

Authority) commuter rail station, with trains to Boston, bus service to Haymarket, Downtown Crossing

and Wonderland MBTA “T” stations, and ferry boats to/from Boston.

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. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS . Photo credit: Ken Yuszkus, Salem News; Things to do in Salem.

Left: Rep. Seth Moulton (D.-Mass) chats with railroader before boarding MBTA “T” commuter train from Rockport to Boston, locomotive of which is in background. Right: Salem ferry to/from Boston.

Moulton seeks more $$$ for transportation infrastructure “While not perfect” the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act “is a step in the right

direction,” says Rep. Keith Moulton (D-Mass.), quickly adding: that he intends to “continue to work with

my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure that continued investments are made to repair and

rebuild our aging roads, bridges and railways.” Wikipedia calls him “driving force” behind a project to

unite Boston's north and south-side MBTA commuter railroads, linking to Logan International Airport via

its Blue Line. A resident of Salem, it’s no surprise the ferry operations there recently got a $3.4-million

federal grant allowing more frequent trips to/from Boston, including a new ferry boat. At the same time,

the south shore town of Hingham got a $6-million for a new ferry dock. Moulton grew up in Marblehead,

four miles from Salem, where public transport use is said to be 28% higher than the national average.

Headed company proposing 250-mph Dallas-Houston train After four tours of duty as a U.S. Marines officer in Iraq and three degrees from Harvard University,

Seth Moulton, in 2011, became managing director Texas Central Railway Co., a would-be high-speed rail

project linking Dallas and Houston in as little as 90 minutes. Originally chartered in May 1879 to run a

short line between Ross and Waco, it was acquired in 1910 by Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway Co., aka

Katy. By 1967, much of its traffic had dwindled away. Katy’s last train left Waco on Nov. 29, 1967. Next

day, a new independent Texas Central Railroad Co. was organized to operate a mere 25 miles of trackage.

Fast forward to 2015: Texas Central Partners LLC took over, proposing a 250-mph bullet train between

Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston, using Alfa-X technology developed by Central Japan Railway Co. and

JR East, which would make it among the few fastest commercial passenger trains in the world.

Photo credit: Texas Central Railway Co. Illustration credit: Howdyyall.com.

Left: Texas Central Railway Co. 21st Century proposed bullet train. Right: Actual 19th Century passenger trains at Waco, Texas, from where, in 1879, Central Texas Railway opened a 14-mile line from Ross in McLennan County. In the 1890s, the railroad planned extensions westward to Las Vegas and New Mexico, and eastward from Waco to Louisiana. They were never built.

24

. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS .

Photo credits: Robert Kearns, Massachusetts DOT, Twitter; Wayne Messam; Bill Weld, Facebook.

Left: Republican Bill Weld and Democrat Michael Dukakis, both Massachusetts former governors, at joint DOT- MBTA board meeting in November 2018. Center: Mayor Wayne Messam poses in front of Spirit Airlines plane. Spirit Airlines headquarters is in Miramar. Right: Libertarian Party 2016 vice presidential nominee Bill Weld. See story below.

From football star to mayor to 16th Democrat in contest

“The promise of America belongs to all of us,” tweeted Wayne Messam. “That’s why I’m going to be

running for president. To be your champion.” He is mayor of Miramar, Florida, with 140,328 residents.

That’s more than 102,245 in South Bend, Indiana, where Pete Buttigieg is mayor. See pages 13 & 19.

Messam enthusiastically supports mass transit; for example, tweeting that folks should ride public

transit to/from a July 4 grand opening of a new amphitheater and fireworks afterward.

His main claim to fame: Being a star football player at Florida State University, and briefly National

Football League player. Son of Jamaican immigrants, he advocates canceling the nation’s $1.5-trillion

student loan debt, none of which he owes. He won an FSU full athletic/academic scholarship.

Miramar’s four free Mon-Fri. community bus routes – Green, Orange, Red and Yellow -- smoothly

connect with four Broward County Transit (BCT) bus routes: #5, #28, #995 Express and #28 weekend.

One-way adult BCT cash fare is $2, express one-way $2.65 Senior $1, express $1.30.

. REPUBLICAN 2021 PRESIDENT HOPEFULS .

Former governor Bill Weld 2nd Republican in contest Former Massachusetts governor William Floyd “Bill” Weld announced in April he's officially running

for president, becoming the first Republican to mount a primary challenge against President Trump, who

on inauguration day told the Federal Election Commission he planned to run for a second term.

“I'd be ashamed of myself if hadn't raised my hand and said, 'Count me in,” Weld told an ABC News

reporter shortly after his declaration. “I think that the President is a very divisive force and that's just not

my style, and it's not what Americans deserve.” Read more about President Trump on page 5.

“It seems he (Trump) would prefer an Aryan nation,” that is “a nation with no immigrants,” Weld

recently told ABC News. “I celebrate that America has always been a melting pot.”

► Bill Weld, along with former Massachusetts Democrat governor Michael Dukakis and former

Guggenheim museum director, are advocates for a proposed new Railroad & Architecture Museum in

North Adams, Mass. For more: https://youtu.be/Stuvfn2e8sw

► Last November, Weld and Dukakis made a last-ditch effort for a new MBTA commuter train tunnel

linking both Boston’s South and North stations. Dukakis was 1988 Democratic Party nominee for USA

president. For more: www.facebook.com/GovBillWeld/videos/445193799551088/

While governor, Weld’s attempts to privatize MBTA’s bus system brought strong opposition from

union leaders and city officials. Private companies originally operated many Boston area bus routes.

25

. SPECIAL REPORT: DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS .

Photo credits: Michael Appleton, N Y Mayor’s Photography Office; NY State Gov, Cuomo’s Office; NY Mayor’s Office.

Left: Mayor Bill de Blasio chats with riders on a NY subway #4 uptown train. Center: Artist drawing of new Penn Station East End Gateway entrance at 33rd Street & 7th Ave. escalators to underground Long Island RR concourse. Right: Mayor de Blasio on subway to City Hall from Franklin Avenue stop in Brooklyn.

Mayor of its largest city seeks USA presidency

Two weeks after Bill de Blasio became New York City’s 109th mayor in January 2014, he issued a

report dedicated to “better transit for New York City.” Among its proposals: rebuild Penn Station, more

rapid transit bus routes, more bicycle racks, less traffic congestion and much safer streets. This month, a

$600-million renovation of Penn Station is slated to begin, including a new Penn Station 7th Ave. & 33rd

Street entrance and widening of the station’s Long Island Rail Road concourse. All his other proposals

more-or-less also have come true. Four weeks after announcing May 16, 2019, he’s running for president,

he unveiled a plan to increase New Yorkers’ “mobility,” including a 25% increase in transit bus speeds by

the year 2020, while improving subways and increasing pedestrian safety, ahead of new NYC traffic anti-

congestion fees and taxes coming next year. For more: Https://youtu.be/x4G1vQuABMk

Takes time, but de Blasio eventually seems to get his way Recently, de Blasio unveiled these transit improvements: ● expanded ferryboat service to Staten

Island and other outer-borough neighborhoods, ● new bus lanes, ● 20 more bus routes, ● traffic signal

priority for buses at more intersections, ● street redesigns to make bus service better and more efficient,

● more tow trucks keeping lanes clear, ● better camera enforcement of bus lanes.

“In 2019 alone, we’ll help 600,000 New Yorkers actually get to work on time,” de Blasio promised,

pointing out that nearly 2-million people ride a NYC bus on a daily basis.

Mayor and governor agree on NY MTA revamping

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio have agreed to reorganize the New York Metropolitan

Transportation Authority (MTA) to improve efficiency and funding*, and centralize common functions

of MTA’s six basic divisions. ** * For capital planning, transit fares, tolls, etc., a new Regional Transit Committee will replace the current MTA

board, where the mayor has had more influence. Beside from anti-congestion pricing of tolls, parking and other fees,

etc., additional MTA revenue would come from new marijuana and internet sales taxes.

** New York City Transportation Authority, Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroads, MTA Capital

Construction, MTA Bus Company, and Staten Island Railway.

De Blasio calls longtime foe Donald Trump ‘Con Don’ “Who better to beat Donald Trump than someone who knows his every trick, his every game, his

every strategy? Because I’ve been watching him for decades,” Mayor de Blasio told an Iowa crowd.

Taking a cue from Trump’s insulting nicknames book, he referred to him a few times as “Con Don” and

urged other Democrats to do likewise. In his initial campaign video, the mayor says: “Don’t back down in

the face of a bully. Take him on.” … “I know I can take him on.” … “I beat him before and I can do it

again.” For more: https://youtu.be/ziCOtedVxbk and https://youtu.be/GHDhsPyJzvk

26

. SPECIAL REPORT: 2021 USA PRESIDENT HOPEFULS ..

.

Photo credit: Thom Bridge, Helena Independent Record. Illustration credit: Amédée Joullin painting, Montana State Capitol main stairway.

Left: Hard-hatted Montana Gov. Steve Bullock in a DOT lift truck “bucket” mounts an 80-mph speed limit sign along Interstate Hwy 15. Right: Painting in Montana State Capitol building pictures President Ulysses S. Grant.

Famous transcontinental railroad mural near Bullock’s office Among the USA’s best old railroad artworks is a large mural in the Montana State Capitol building’s

rotunda, entitled Driving the Golden Spike, 1903* showing former President Ulysses S. Grant holding a

sledge hammer, ready to drive the last spike in Northern Pacific Railroad’s transcontinental trackage at

Gold Creek, Montana on Sept. 8, 1883. That’s when its last steel rail across the state was completed.

Surrounding Grant are Northern Pacific’s president, three ladies, miners, railroad men, and a delegation

of Crow Indians, whose land the railroad crossed. Absent are any obvious Chinese, Irish and other

unpopular-ethnic track workers, who actually laid the tracks across Montana.

“For his services painter Amédée Joullin was paid a sum of $500,” says Wikipedia.

* “The golden spike used in the ceremony was not actually gold at all but a working iron spike that reputedly was used to

begin the transcontinental project in Minnesota in 1872,” says Montana Moments blogger Ellen Baumler.

Public transit not a big topic in Montana governor’s speech

In his February 2019 State of the State message, Gov. Steve Bullock proposed $290-million in

infrastructure investment to improve “water, sewers, schools, bridges and broadband” more than once but

never mentioned tourism or public transportation. Grampa read his entire speech very carefully.

A Google search indicates last time Bullock sought to improve passenger rail transport was in 2013,

after city of Missoula officials urged him to press Amtrak to restore its North Coast Hiawatha train.

Illustration credits: Mr. Trump’s 757 on YouTube; Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority; Donald Trump, Twitter.

Washington DC Metro issued this SmarTrip fare card on Nov. 2, 2018 to honor military and veterans in connection with Veterans & Military Family Month. It originally was designed for issue on Nov. 11 Veterans Day, in connection with a big military parade President Donald Trump hoped-for but never happened. Photos picture President Trump on his private Boeing 757 airliner that were in our 16-page Travelin’ Trump Extra published, after his election, in December 2016. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ © 2019, all rights reserved. The Travelin’ Grampa is published monthly as a hobby by John A. Moore, 112 E. Greenwood Ave., Lansdowne PA 19050. One-year (12 issues) by email: $99. Special discount available to U. S. residents ages 65&+.