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> 1. The construction of highways through poor (read: minority) urban areas, causing mass respiratory disease and premature deaths[1]. Isn't this kind of leap?

• avianlyric 6y ago
  The role of highways and red-lining of federal house building loans in segregating and suppressing black communities is well documented. (You can argue about intention, but the effect is pretty apparent) [1] Remember this happened in the 40s and 50s. Plenty has changed since then, including the gentrification of poor areas near highways. But that doesn’t change the history of the US highway system. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/03/role-of-highways-in-american-poverty/474282/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/03/role-of...
• woodruffw 6y ago
  > Isn't this kind of leap? No. Here are two specific examples: 1. The Cross Bronx Expressway, which basically created the South Bronx[1]. "The Power Broker" by Robert Caro is one of HN's most frequently recommended books, and covers this subject (as well as other racially-motivated planning projects by Robert Moses) extensively. 2. I-65 and I-165 in Mobile, AL cut directly through the historic "Africatown" neighborhood[2]. Residents regularly complain about both automotive and nearby industrial pollution, encouraged by ease of access by the highway[3]. Most of these effects are more visible on the East Coast rather than the West Coast, since the East's older and denser cities had fewer "paths of least resistance" when building the Interstate Highway System during the midcentury. But it wouldn't particularly surprise me if the areas that are now expensive in the cities that you mentioned were originally cleared for highways under "slum clearance" or similar laws. Edit: This is anecdotal, but I figured I'd mention it anyways: I grew up in Manhattan, and virtually everybody I grew up with has (or had) asthma. Some of that is to be expected from other pollution sources (in particular, NYC used to burn very dirty heating oil), but I also went to public schools that were directly alongside major state and interstate highways. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_Bronx_Expressway#Urban_decay_and_congestion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_Bronx_Expressway#Urban_d... [2]: https://www.npr.org/2019/06/19/733996699/alabamas-africatown-hopes-for-revival-after-slave-ship-discovery https://www.npr.org/2019/06/19/733996699/alabamas-africatown... [3]: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/26/africatown-site-of-last-us-slave-ship-arrival-sues-over-factorys-pollution https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/26/africatown-s...
  • owowow 6y ago
    Here in Seattle they bulldozed parks and diverse neighborhoods (parts of the International District, First Hill, Capitol Hill, Eastlake) where primarily queer and non-white people lived to build I-5. Portland's I-205 has much the same story, my father lived through that terrible process where many of his friends had their homes razed to build yet another freeway.
• SeanLuke 6y ago
  Virginia intentionally ran I-64 through Richmond's oldest historic black district, Jackson Ward, splitting it in two and effectively destroying it.
• dillondoyle 6y ago
  Big example here in Denver, cut off historically black/hispanic neighborhood straight down the middle. Plus added a big leaking chemical refinery, dog food plant etc. The smells and pollution and asthma have had generational health effects. Links to read below. #2 specifically has moving images/graphics. They're currently expanding... to be fair they will add a small amount of benefits to 'bridge the gap' like a small park over a new small lowered section (but i think like only a couple blocks wide). But it's still an expansion and the construction is bringing even more problems & nuisance. Plus mostly young, mostly white expensive new construction apartment buildings have been creeping north and displacing a lot of historically black low income families. I think infilling and repurposing some of the old warehouse type space is good but the inequity is undeniable. https://www.hcn.org/issues/47.22/in-denvers-latino-neighborhoods-a-fight-against-bigger-highways https://www.hcn.org/issues/47.22/in-denvers-latino-neighborh... https://denverite.com/2016/10/08/air-quality-legacy-issue-elyria-swansea-globeville/ https://denverite.com/2016/10/08/air-quality-legacy-issue-el... https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/denver-interstate-70-expansion.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/denver-interstate-70-e... https://www.denverpost.com/2019/06/30/asthma-elyria-swansea-i-70-project/ https://www.denverpost.com/2019/06/30/asthma-elyria-swansea-...
• acwan93 6y ago
  Los Angeles has several examples, which I personally attribute to red-lining in the 1930s that led to current transportation policy and infrastructure choices. -Boyle Heights was a predominately Latino community in east LA, which had the East LA interchange built right through it (I-10/I-5). -Communities along what is currently I-105 were opposed to the construction since the 1970s for the typical NIMBY reasons, and these communities were predominately Black. And the reverse: -CA-2 was supposed to route from Silver Lake to Santa Monica via Beverly Hills, but community opposition prevented the freeway from being built and is why there's large parts of LA (mid-city/Melrose) that are far away from a freeway. -I-710 was intended to connect Long Beach to Pasadena, but the city of South Pasadena protested heavily in preventing the freeway from being built and closing the gap. This litigation occurred up until the late-2010s when the CA State Assembly and Governor Newsom ended the 710 project once and for all.
• js2 6y ago
  Here in Raleigh, NC, Wade Ave was paved through Oberlin Village: https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article237167884.html https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article237167884.html Many other examples: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/03/role-of-highways-in-american-poverty/474282/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/03/role-of... https://www.dispatch.com/in-depth/lifestyle/2020/12/03/black-columbus-ohio-homes-impact-highways-east-side/3629685001/ https://www.dispatch.com/in-depth/lifestyle/2020/12/03/black... https://catalyst.independent.org/2020/04/02/how-the-u-s-government-destroyed-black-neighborhoods/ https://catalyst.independent.org/2020/04/02/how-the-u-s-gove... https://www.facingsouth.org/2020/06/bitter-history-behind-highways-occupied-protesters https://www.facingsouth.org/2020/06/bitter-history-behind-hi... https://archive.thinkprogress.org/top-infrastructure-official-explains-how-america-used-highways-to-destroy-black-neighborhoods-96c1460d1962/ https://archive.thinkprogress.org/top-infrastructure-officia... https://marketurbanismreport.com/blog/urban-renewals-shameful-legacy-destruction-of-black-communities https://marketurbanismreport.com/blog/urban-renewals-shamefu... etc
  • wlesieutre 6y ago
    New Haven’s https://downtowncrossingnewhaven.com/history/ https://downtowncrossingnewhaven.com/history/ It's that joke about how real estate developments are named things like "Shady Grove" after whatever they destroyed to build it, but taken one step further. Cut down the trees and name the neighborhood after them, then cut down Oak Street and name a highway after it.
  • wololo 6y ago
    "Wade" Ave... as in Wade Hampton III?
    • js2 6y ago
      > The road is named after Stacy Wilson Wade. He was the North Carolina Secretary of State from 1933 to 1936. He was also a member of the Board of Trustees for North Carolina State University. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wade_Avenue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wade_Avenue Fun tidbit: there's a house along the road that is not what it appears to be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QobxnFYhMos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QobxnFYhMos