{"id":23126,"date":"2022-07-30T13:36:50","date_gmt":"2022-07-30T20:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=23126"},"modified":"2022-07-30T13:36:52","modified_gmt":"2022-07-30T20:36:52","slug":"could-the-us-highways-that-split-communities-on-racial-lines-finally-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/07\/30\/could-the-us-highways-that-split-communities-on-racial-lines-finally-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"COULD THE US HIGHWAYS THAT SPLIT COMMUNITIES ON RACIAL LINES FINALLY FALL?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Traffic<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Traffic is diverted down the Esplanade Avenue exit following an accident on the elevated Interstate 10 expressway that runs above Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans. The expressway was built directly on top of Claiborne Avenue in the late 1960s \u2013 ripping up the oak trees and tearing apart a street sometimes called the \u2018Main Street of Black New Orleans\u2019. Photograph: Gerald Herbert\/AP<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The freeway removal movement is being boosted by $1bn in federal funding. Will it be enough to reverse decades of damage?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Edwin Rios<\/a> Fri 29 Jul 2022 03.00 EDT (TheGuardian.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A<\/strong>my Stelly can see the on-ramp for the Claiborne Expressway<\/a> from the second-floor porch of her childhood home, a block and a half away from the highway. She lives in Treme, a historic Black neighborhood in New Orleans. For decades, the highway has devastated her neighborhood. Stelly is an urban designer and co-founder of the Claiborne Avenue Alliance<\/a>, which is advocating for its removal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClaiborne has not been maintained at all,\u201d she says of the highway on the brink of disrepair. \u201cNot only do we have the dire economics, we have the actual physical atrocity. It\u2019s dirty. It\u2019s loud. It\u2019s polluted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\u2018There\u2019s<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, when the US transportation department recently announced<\/a> a $1bn five-year pilot program to aid communities racially segregated by US government-sponsored highway projects, Stelly responded with a mix of optimism and tempered expectations. Joe Biden singled out<\/a> the Claiborne Expressway when the program, known as Reconnecting Communities<\/a>, was first announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts and advocates question whether the initial investment is enough to reverse the devastation in Black neighborhoods in the name of connection. The amount unveiled by the transportation department is a far cry from the original $20bn proposed<\/a>. But advocates agree that it\u2019s an unprecedented and welcome step in pursuit of highway reparations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the beginning, not the end, of the process,\u201d Stelly told the Guardian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the department\u2019s program, announced in late June, cities, states, non-profits, tribal governments and city planning organizations can seek grants to conduct traffic studies, encourage public input on highway plans and pursue other planning activities \u201cin advance of a project to remove, retrofit, or mitigate an existing eligible facility to restore community connectivity\u201d. Communities can apply for $195m in grants in the first year, $50m for planning studies, the remainder for capital construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[W]e can\u2019t ignore the basic truth that some of the planners and politicians behind those projects built them directly through the heart of vibrant, populated, communities \u2013 sometimes in an effort to reinforce segregation,\u201d the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, said<\/a> during a speech announcing the program in Birmingham, Alabama. \u201cWhile the burden is often greatest for communities of color, Americans today of every background are paying the price of these choices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"North
Work on a section of North Claiborne overpass in New Orleans nears completion in October 1950. Photograph: Industrial Aerial Photos\/New Orleans Public Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The wreckage wrought by America\u2019s highways began<\/a> after the second world war, when President Franklin D Roosevelt approved the construction of 40,000 miles of interstate highways. By the time President Dwight Eisenhower took office, in 1953, just over 6,000 miles had been built. That accelerated after Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956<\/a>, which authorized $25bn to construct a \u201cmodern, interstate highway system\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deborah Archer<\/a>, co-faculty director of New York University\u2019s Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law, says that the federal program \u201cdestroyed vibrant Black communities\u201d and \u201ccut the heart and soul out of many Black communities by taking their homes, churches and schools\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back then, the US government provided little assistance to displaced communities, forcing people farther away from economic opportunity and toward already segregated and financially disenfranchised communities. \u201cOur highway system was a physical realization of the racialized norms and values in our country. So much of that was really intentional,\u201d says Archer, who wrote a paper<\/a> on the historical damage highways have done to Black communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time the Claiborne Expressway<\/a> opened in 1968, more than 500 houses had been cleared, according to the Congress for the New Urbanism, which supports \u201cpeople-centered places\u201d. The oak trees that lined Claiborne Avenue were replaced with concrete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only right that the federal government seeks to correct the mistake that it made decades ago. So I applaud them for doing it. But we have to follow through,\u201d Stelly says. \u201cThe key is to continue funding the efforts once this $1bn is exhausted, because we all know that it\u2019s not going to get us to the final goal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guardian graphic. Sources: American Community Survey 2019 five-year estimates; Richmond University\u2019s Mapping Inequality; Bureau of Transportation Statistics; OpenStreetMap contributors; photo from the New Orleans Public Library via AP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This map shows the current borders for New Orleans, Louisiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1930s, the federal government categorized each residential neighborhood by how \u201chazardous\u201d it would be to give loans to homebuyers in that area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The red areas<\/strong> were deemed the highest risk. But in reality it just meant that these were Black neighborhoods<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly thereafter, planning for Interstate 10 began \u2013 and residents in some of the oldest African American neighborhoods didn\u2019t have the resources or political power to have a voice in where it was constructed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A stretch of the highway, known as the Claiborne Expressway, cut directly through the Black neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This photo, taken in 1968 shortly before construction began, shows what was often called the Main Street of Black New Orleans. These trees would soon be replaced with the highway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even today, these neighborhoods are where Black people predominantly live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Freeway Fighters Network<\/a>, a coalition supported by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), estimated that more than 70 projects are under way to remove or revamp highways and prevent expansions throughout the US. The group started in 2019 when activists lobbied lawmakers in Washington to support infrastructure legislation. It has since grown to an informal network that meets regularly on Zoom to discuss their projects and share strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Crowther, who led CNU\u2019s advocacy for the reconnecting communities program, says it will take years of sustained funding to see how these highway removal campaigns play out. He says the funding is \u201cnot going to solve the inequities or the problems that we\u2019ve created with the highway system in one fell swoop\u201d. Transportation department officials have estimated<\/a> that the money could only support from three to 15 projects involving demolition and construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s unique about the new federal program, says Crowther, now advocacy manager of AmericaWalks, is that it gives non-profit organizations the chance to pursue funding to study what highway removal means for the surrounding community, which state transportation officials typically don\u2019t consider. He said it often takes public pressure to inspire change, like what happened during \u201cfreeway revolts\u201d in the 1960s and 1970s when communities blocked proposed highway projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s ultimately up to state lawmakers and governors to approve project funding, a prospect that often leads to even further delays, leading state transportation agencies to pursue this new pot of funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In St Paul, Minnesota, the group ReConnect Rondo<\/a> has advocated for turning a stretch of Interstate 94, which cuts through the historically Black neighborhood of Rondo, into a 21-acre land bridge<\/a> over the freeway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keith Baker, the group\u2019s executive director, described the Rondo neighborhood, where his family often visited, as \u201ca small town\u201d. But like freeways across the country, Interstate 94, built between 1956 and 1968, \u201ctore out the social, economic, environmental and cultural fabric of the community\u201d, he says. More than 300 businesses closed and more than 700 houses were demolished, according<\/a> to the group. Baker estimates that those houses represented at least $157m in lost wealth. \u201cThat equity never got realized for people who own those homes,\u201d he says. \u201cBefore the freeway came through, Rondo was the enterprise district of the African American community. The freeway ultimately destroyed them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baker says his group plans to pursue grant funding to conduct a study on what their proposal would mean for the surrounding areas. The land bridge, he says, can bring houses and businesses back to the neighborhood, cultivating a green gathering space for the surrounding neighborhoods. A feasibility study released<\/a> in June 2020 shows that the effort, which could cost an estimated $458m, could attract 1,800 jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The elevated highway over Claiborne Avenue. Photograph: William Morgan\/Alamy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Deborah Archer, who also serves as president of the American Civil Liberties Union, cautions that the transportation department funds, though unprecedented in scope and intent, would not fully rectify the damage in Black communities caused by the loss of wealth. Future removal projects need to ensure that anti-displacement protections are in place to guard families living by highways and ensure they are not replaced in the name of economic investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe conditions that the highways created have been built over decades,\u201d Archer says. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be easy to weave back communities that were torn apart by these highways. The funding recognizes that rebuilding is not just about the absence of these physical dividers. It\u2019s even more about creating the conditions for a community to flourish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Stelly, the funding would give the Claiborne Coalition the opportunity to conduct an updated study to see how a highway removal project would affect the surrounding community. It offers a chance to gather community input on what the future could hold, to examine ways to ensure people are not displaced by future highway projects and to forecast the economic impact of removing the highway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stelly reflected on what the community her family has called home for decades lost: the convenience stores, the small family businesses, the neighbors. A funeral home is one of the few businesses that survived the aftermath of the highway\u2019s construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen my family bought this property almost 70 years ago, this neighborhood was very different. It was beautiful. It was tree-lined. It had a host of professional services and had places to buy fresh food. It was clean,\u201d Stelly says. \u201cI would like to receive reparations for what my family has lost because when they made this initial investment, they didn\u2019t do it thinking that it was going to be derailed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Traffic is diverted down the Esplanade Avenue exit following an accident on the elevated Interstate 10 expressway that runs above Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans. The expressway was built directly on top of Claiborne Avenue in the late 1960s \u2013 ripping up the oak trees and tearing apart a street… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23126"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23127,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23126\/revisions\/23127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}