A program was announced by the federal government to reverse the development of racist roads. A $1 billion grant fund was established by the Department of transportation. The money will be given out over the course of five years, with $195 million of it going directly to applicants.
"Transportation can connect us to jobs, services, and loved ones, but we've also seen countless cases around the country where a piece of infrastructure cuts off a neighborhood or a community because of how it was built," said transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg in a press statement. The first-ever dedicated federal initiative to unify neighborhoods living with the impacts of past infrastructure choices that divided them has been launched.
States, local and tribal governments, nonprofits, city planning groups, and transit facilities can apply for money under the grant program to try to remedy some of the inequalities brought on by discrimination. There will be a first round of pilot applications. Efforts like shoring up pedestrian and public transit pathways connecting neighborhoods cut off by existing roads could be included in eligible proposals.
The Reconnecting Communities pilot program is one of the initiatives announced by the Department of transportation.
Neighborhoods are made into islands by the highways. The neighborhoods that used to occupy the land are gone. Federal, state, and local leaders bulldozed homes and businesses in order to make way for the multi-lane car future. They were aware of how they did it.
Many of the areas targeted for urban road expansion and freeway construction were home to recent immigrants. The Cross-Bronx expressway was planned by an appointed, never-elected official to cut through Jewish neighborhoods.
The population that remained was poorer and lived near more pollution, noise, and unsafe or non-existent routes to other neighborhoods because those who could afford to leave did. There were waves of people who were marginalized. During the Great Migration, black Americans and Puerto Ricans were excluded from other parts of the city due to redlining.
The quality of life and health of people is hurt by freeways. The freeways are not nice. Children can be harmed by noise from traffic. The South Bronx has the highest rate of asthma in the country. Air pollution from cars is believed to be the cause of that disease.
The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway plan was masterminded byMoses. South Brooklyn was cut off from wealthier neighborhoods by the B QE. Across the country, these same stories are repeated. Similar focused development was enacted in Los Angeles. The construction of Highway 80 leveled a thriving black community.
The Reconnecting Communities budget may not be enough to address all of the wrongs. Biden had pledged 20 billion dollars for urban reconnection projects.
EartherEnvironmental Justice
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