Megan Kimble's book 'City Limits' offers a different vision.
When we think of what our communities need, we usually think of affordable homes, good schools, and grocery stores. Not wide towering highways. Yet, in the past 70-some years, highways have dictated community development in urban centers. They’ve torn through low-income communities of color, displacing families, homes, and businesses. As a result, people move farther away; we languish in traffic, get home from work later, and spend less time with our family.
By the time I-10 was opened in 1966, 1,220 structures were erased from the Fifth Ward, including 11 churches, five schools, and two hospitals. O’Nari started relying on car transport to get to school. Seven-hundred families left the neighborhood at this time. “When I grew up, it was just people everywhere. This used to be full of people, full to the brim,” Burleson says. But the “neighborhood grew quieter, streets emptier.
The history of the interstate highway system that Kimble unspools is a history of accumulated racist policies, flawed planning, and missed opportunities to make amends. Early on, Bragdon and transportation engineers noted the phenomenon of induced demand—meaning that when bigger roads are built, traffic increases to fill those roads, in turn reducing space for public transit. Yet successive federal and state transportation policies have only fueled this vicious cycle, committing money to highways over public transit at the behest of oil and auto industry lobbyists.
Many residents aren’t buying what the state agency is selling. Kimble follows community activists at door-knocking activities, protests, and numerous TxDOT hearings as they struggle to save their neighborhoods. In Houston, activists with Stop TxDOT I-45 won an agreement to address concerns around the loss of affordable housing and increase in air pollution.
Norge Siste Nytt, Norge Overskrifter
Similar News:Du kan også lese nyheter som ligner på denne som vi har samlet inn fra andre nyhetskilder.
Panhandle residents begin rebuilding, even as fight to contain fires continuesThe largest wildfire Texas’ history burned more than 1,500 square miles of rangeland in the Panhandle northeast of Amarillo in February and March 2024. Wildfires have become more frequent and severe in the Western United States because of warmer and drier conditions, factors that worsen because of climate change.
Les mer »
Rebuilding after the flood: San Diego family shares lessons learnedIt’s been exactly one month since the historic floods took place in San Diego County. Hundreds of families have been working around the clock to recover and…
Les mer »
Rebuilding the U.S. Industrial Base Should Be a Priority of Our GovernmentWe can meaningfully participate as a world leader as well as prioritize a common-sense balance of creating opportunity and security here at home.
Les mer »
Bills sign Taylor Rapp to a 3-year contract extension in rebuilding depleted secondaryORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — The Buffalo Bills began addressing their secondary needs by re-signing Taylor Rapp to a three-year contract extension on Friday, days
Les mer »
Renck: Sean Payton won’t say it, but Broncos are finally, mercifully rebuildingThey can put Sean Payton on HGTV with a sledgehammer in one hand, a hard hat on his head and a wrecking ball swinging in the driveway and he still will not say the word.
Les mer »
Congressional Republicans call Biden’s 2025 budget ‘a roadmap to accelerate America’s decline’President Joe Biden’s 2025 budget proposal is falling flat with Republicans, as they declare the request dead on arrival in Congress.
Les mer »