Freeway Fighters Digest (week 1/16)

Lauren MayerWeekly News Digest

Hi all,

Here is what is being said about freeway fighting this week. If you come across any articles, feel free to share and please let me know if you have any questions.

Join us next week for our first Freeway Fighters Monthly Meetup of 2023! The meeting is on Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 4:00pm ET. Join Zoom Meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84259004521

Freeway Fighters news
Building bridges to the future: Infrastructure, the climate crisis and the pandemic | Salon.com
Salon.com January 14, 2023
Over the next five years, all 50 states are set to get $350 billion for highway construction thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in 2022, which includes the biggest investment in bridge construction since the creation of the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s.

How Tulsa Highlights the Divide on Federal Highway Removal – Jalopnik
Jalopnik January 16, 2023
In recent years, infrastructure and racial equity have moved to the forefront of national discourse. 

Ruling: Oklahoma Turnpike Authority “Willfully” Misled Public to Force $5 Billion Expansion Project
Strong Towns January 18, 2023
The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA) has spent the last year embroiled in several lawsuits, with plaintiffs alleging its plans for an imminent turnpike expansion project not only lacked transparency, but were illegal. 

Freeway Revolt Podcast: The Freeway Fighters Network with Ben Crowther | The Urbanist
The Urbanist January 18, 2023
The Freeway Revolt podcast tells the stories of people who are working to remove or reduce the damage from freeways in their communities. 

Metro Finger-Wags Against Climate Change, Same Day as Metro Recommends $300M for …
Streetsblog LA January 18, 2023
Following Metro social media, one would hardly know that Metro spends hundreds of millions every year widening freeways.

Miami’s ‘Harlem of the South’ tries to heal from highway scars with green spaces
NBC News January 18, 2023
Miami’s Overtown neighborhood was once considered the “Harlem of the South” in the 1940s and 50s, but the interstate highway system split what was once a vibrant predominantly Black community.

A Citizen-Led Plan Would Revamp Salt Lake’s Transit and Freeway Mix | Planetizen News
Planetizen January 19, 2023
A pair of private citizens with engineering and design backgrounds have proposed a plan, called the Rio Grande Plan, to improve transit service and reduce freeway impacts in Salt Lake City.

Planning council urges parkway for Scajaquada corridor: ‘Clear that the expressway was outdated’
Buffalo News January 19, 2023
A recommendation for a once-in-a-generation chance to rethink the Scajaquada Expressway – eagerly awaited by those who decry the road’s impact on Delaware Park and surrounding neighborhoods, but met with concern by those fearing longer commutes – was unveiled Tuesday.

SF’s Central Freeway, Embarcadero eyed for changes – Bay Area Reporter
Bay Area Reporter January 19, 2023
Voters’ decisions last November to ratify two closures of major San Francisco thoroughfares to cars may prefigure further, more substantial changes to where drivers can rev their engines.

TxDOT hosts I-45 expansion meeting in Conroe as opposition continues to voice concerns
Houston Public Media January 19, 2023
The Texas Department of Transportation hosted a public hearing on I-45 expansion in Conroe on Tuesday, and will host another in Spring on Thursday.

Political Gumbo: It’s Not Hard to Find Local People Displaced by the Freeway – Pasadena Now
Pasadena Now January 19, 2023
Applications for the 710 Stub Working Group are now online.

Parson wants to expand I-70 lanes in Kansas City, St. Louis and Columbia
Fox 4 January 19, 2023
One of the biggest updates from Gov. Mike Parson’s State of the State address Wednesday is major updates to Interstate 70 in Missouri.

‘Cap and Stitch,’ an above-highway greenspace project, presented to Austin City Council
KVUE January 20, 2023
 The City of Austin’s Corridor Program and the Downtown Austin Alliance are looking into a “cap and stitch” proposal, a project in addition to the Texas Department of Transportation’s I-35 expansion and revamp project.

We mythologize highways, but they’ve damaged communities of color
The Washington Post January 20, 2023
Last year, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg unveiled new efforts to address the problematic racial legacy of interstate highway construction, dedicating $1 billion to “reconnect cities and neighborhoods racially segregated or divided by road projects.”