By now it is widely understood that urban freeways did little to solve urban transportation and mobility issues; it has become clear that cities cannot build themselves out of congestion with bigger roadways, but they can damage themselves considerably in the process of trying.
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| Kansas City freeway bisecting downtown (photo: ArchPlan) |
Most also recognize that mostly poor communities were impacted by the massive clearances for the construction of urban freeways and by the noise and pollution brought by increased automobile traffic, and that in America those injustices were inflicted most often on predominantly African American communities.
What dawns on most only very slowly is that the destruction of entire neighborhoods and communities was not only unintended "collateral damage" caused by a failed transportation policy, but that this damage was frequently an intentional part of a larger strategy of segregation, exclusion, control and plain old racism.
When President Obama appointed former Charlotte, NC mayor Anthony Foxx to the Secretary of Transportation position vacated by Ray LaHood, he chose somebody who not only came from one of those many neighborhoods that had been ransacked by freeway construction, but someone who is an ardent promoter of cities,equitable transportation and environmental justice.
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Anthony Foxx speaking about urban freeways at the
Center for American Progress last week |
Foxx has taken the issue of urban highway injustice and... FOR FULL ARTICLE CLICK THE LINK BELOW
Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects