Hi all,
Happy New Year everyone! Freeway fighting made significant gains this past year thanks to all your efforts. Here’s to even more wins, both collective and individual, in the new year.
Here is what is being said about the Highways to Boulevards movement this week. If you come across any articles, feel free to share and please let me know if you have any questions.
Highways to Boulevards news
Schafer: There won’t soon be another opportunity to rethink the I-94 corridor
Star Tribune December 18, 2021
When talking with people who advocate for ripping out rather than rebuilding Interstate 94 in St. Paul, there’s always a nagging thought running through my head: “Can they really be serious?”
How equity isn’t built into the infrastructure bill—and ways to fix it – Brookings Institution
Brookings Institution December 18, 2021
By all measures, the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) signed into law last month is a massive, once-in-a-generation outlay.
A highway expansion created a food desert. Sanger leadership hopes the new highway will also fix it.
Denton Record-Chronicle December 18, 2021
For Holly Bourquin’s family, the demolition of Sanger’s only grocery store meant more than the loss of a convenient place to shop.
One State Is Showing Us How to End America’s Addiction to Highway Expansion – Curbed
Curbed December 18, 2021
At the last meeting of the year of Colorado’s transportation commission, sitting in a bedroom in front of an array of ornately wrapped Christmas presents, chair Kathy Hall introduced the final motion as “the biggest thing this commission has ever been asked to do.”
USDOT Pressures States To Spend New Infrastructure Funds Sustainably – Streetsblog USA
Streetsblog USA December 18, 2021
For the first time, U.S. DOT will actively pressure states to spend their federal infrastructure funds on projects that will help end the climate and roadway death crises — and discourage them from pursuing highway expansions.
Colorado to require greenhouse gas assessments on all transportation projects | FOX31 Denver
KDVR December 18, 2021
Beginning in 2022, all transportation projects around Colorado will have to comply with a new greenhouse gas rule.
Bronx Highway May Get Capped: Here’s Why It Matters – TriplePundit
TriplePundit December 20, 2021
South Bronx residents may soon be able to breathe again. Nearly six decades after the first drivers entered the Cross Bronx Expressway, the city has received $2 million in funding to devise a plan to “cap” the highway with green spaces, pedestrian walkways and air filtration systems.
Proposed state law seeks to ban freeway expansions in underserved communities – News …
News Nation USA December 20, 2021
A state lawmaker from Los Angeles County plans to introduce legislation that would block freeway expansions in underserved communities across California.
New infrastructure law can Build Back Better for Philly communities divided by highways …
The Philadelphia Tribune December 21, 2021
Philadelphia’s neighborhoods could finally be reconnected, thanks to President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion Infrastructure and Jobs Act.
Infrastructure law may spike CO2 — report – E&E News
E&E News December 22, 2021
The bipartisan infrastructure package signed into law last month could lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions depending on how its transportation funding programs are implemented, according to a new analysis.
Transforming Olson Memorial Highway Into the Commercial and Cultural Hub of Its Past
MSP Mag December 22, 2021
Built in the 1940s, the Near North highway replaced 6th Avenue, the “Beale Street” of North Minneapolis’s early Black community, displacing businesses and residents.
Study: Spending infrastructure funds on highway expansion could increase emissions | TheHill
The Hill December 23, 2021
The recently passed bipartisan infrastructure bill could increase carbon dioxide emissions from the transportation sector, according to research from the nonpartisan Georgetown Climate Institute.
Houston Advocates Slam TxDOT For ‘Deliberately’ Ignoring Highway’s Racist Impacts …
Streetsblog LA December 23, 2021
The Texas Department of Transportation is allegedly threatening retaliation against the whole Houston region because advocates continue to fight a highway expansion that the agency knows will have a harmful impacts on communities of color — but if the advocates successfully get the initiative shut down, it could be a model for other communities fighting bad road projects of their own.
Best of 2021: There’s a new plan for realigning Hartford’s highways. Is the third time the charm?
The CT Mirror December 26, 2021
The interstate highways that were jackhammered through Hartford six decades ago may have increased vehicular mobility, but they did so at great cost to the fabric of the city.
Why do advocates want to stop I-45 expansion? This Fifth Ward school is full of kids it could harm
Houston Chronicle December 27, 2021
Principal Shawn Nickerson can see the highway connector from Bruce Elementary’s basketball court.
South San Francisco coalition aims to prevent highway expansion | Local News | smdailyjournal.com
San Mateo Daily Journal December 29, 2021
A 9-mile stretch of Highway 101 north of the Interstate 380 interchange could soon be the next span of the thoroughfare to get carpool or toll lanes — but opposition to the potential expansion is already mounting.