Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said living close to your place of work should not just be for people who have money.
“Living close to work shouldn’t be a luxury for the rich. It’s a right for everyone,” the former Texas congressman said, explaining how proposals to have people live closer to their work fits into his plan for fighting climate change.
“Rich people are gonna have to allow or be forced to allow lower-income people to live near them,” the Democratic presidential candidate told supporters. “We force lower-income working Americans to drive one, two, three hours in either directions to get to their jobs, very often minimum wage jobs, so they’re working two or three of them right now.”
“What if … we invested in housing that was closer to where you work,” he said.
O’Rourke also said they have proposed to invest more in high-speed rail systems in and around metropolitan areas.
“So having cities that are smarter, that are denser, that have people living closer to where they work and where their families are, to reduce our impact on climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, but also to just to improve the quality of life,” he added.
Living close to work shouldn’t be a luxury for the rich. It’s a right for everyone. pic.twitter.com/lohRdoFGrH
— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) September 10, 2019
O’Rourke has criticized the American lifestyle, which he alleges increases the effects of climate change in other parts of the world. He blamed “our emissions and our excess and our inaction” for Guatemala “suffering one of the greatest droughts in their recorded history.”
