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.
*Please note Friday news items will appear in next week’s edition
Freeway Fighters News
$1.5 million to study how to reconnect the Alief community divided by the Westpark Tollway
Houston Public Media April 6, 2024
A $1.5 million study will look into how to reconnect the Alief community that is currently divided by the Westpark Tollway.
Chicago awarded $113 million to reconnect communities on the West Side
Forest Park Review April 6, 2024
Illinois received two grants totaling $113 million in March through the United States Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program.
U.S. Transportation Department puts $80 million towards Dallas, McKinney freeway parks
NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth April 6, 2024
Thursday Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation Pete Buttigieg came to Dallas to unveil plans for four “pedestrian caps” — sometimes known as deck parks — over four segments of freeways in Dallas and McKinney.
Feds Award Haverhill $452K Grant to Begin Healing 60-Year-Old ‘Scars of Urban Renewal’
WHAV April 6, 2024
The area east of Main Street in Haverhill’s downtown was reduced almost 60 years ago from a huge retail shopping district to a difficult-to-navigate and “one of the lowest-income areas in the city” “cut off from the city’s many benefits.”
I-45 rebuild: What to know about the $10B Houston freeway project
Houston Chronicle April 6, 2024
There is an old adage that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.
Lawsuit Seeks to Stop Highway 1 Auxiliary Lanes in Aptos
Aptos Times April 6, 2024
On March 18, the Sierra Club and Campaign for Sustainable Transportation filed a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court alleging that Caltrans, in approving plans to widen Highway 1 in Aptos with auxiliary lanes, failed to conduct adequate environmental review.
Boondoggle: Oregon Highway Widening Gets ‘Reconnecting Communities’ Cash
Streetsblog USA April 8, 2024
A federal program known as Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods is meant to provide funding for neighborhood groups to begin the process of undoing the vast damage caused by urban freeways that created barriers to community connectivity.
Reconnecting Communities Grants to Study Minnesota Highway Removal
Streets.mn April 8, 2024
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Grants will bring $7 million in federal dollars to Minnesota, propelling highway removal campaigns in Minneapolis and Duluth.
Should Knoxville’s $42 million federal grant count as atonement for urban renewal?
Knoxville News Sentinel April 9, 2024
Should spending a newly secured federal grant of $42.6 million on reconnecting East Knoxville to downtown count as compensation for the lasting impacts of urban renewal?
The City of Philadelphia Secures Unprecedented Federal Grant for Chinatown Stitch Infrastructure
MyChesCo April 9, 2024
The City of Philadelphia has secured a formidable $158.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
Life is a Highway… in Texas, at least. But what have we traded off?
Houston Public Media April 10, 2024
Everything is bigger in Texas, including our roadways!
Could tearing up an Oakland freeway undo decades of racial injustice?
The Oaklandside April 11, 2024
More than 40 years ago, Interstate 980 sliced Oakland down the middle. Wider than a city block in some places, the freeway’s builders justified it as concrete progress—a pipeline for distant commuters and shoppers to glide conveniently into downtown Oakland.
Environmental Groups Join to Fight Adams’s BQE Reconstruction
Streetsblog NYC April 11, 2024
The city must scrap plans to shore up the deteriorating Brooklyn-Queens Expressway for another century, and instead work with the state to transform the entire highway corridor, environmental justice advocates demanded on Wednesday.