SPECIAL REPORT: Constructed inequality: The lasting repercussions of America's highway system. (1/10) NBCNewsThreads
NBC News recently recorded six minutes of sound at 10 a.m. from Dr. King Elementary School. During that time, 31 vehicles passed the school on I-81, including seven trucks.
“We rely on 81,” Emmi says. “I understand the wrong that was done 60 years ago. I am all for a solution that works for everybody in the region, and not one or the other. We don't need another loser.”One of the hotels managed by Carmen Emmi just off I-81 in Salina, N.Y. These days, Davis runs a liquor store on the north side, but dreams of returning to start a new business — maybe an event space or the area’s first yoga studio.
Over the ensuing half-century, many have called for the expressway’s removal so that the neighborhood can return to its former glory. Amy Stelly, an urban designer, who lives in Tremé, leads that fight now. Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes, the director of the Ashé Cultural Arts Center, which supports Black artists and educators, said that many community advocates were initially supportive of the highway’s removal, but it soon became clear that residents in the affected neighborhoods were not as enthusiastic.
Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said he came into office with the hope of taking down the interstate and reconnecting the neighborhoods. But Landrieu, who became known nationwide for his removal of the city’s Confederate statues in 2017, said he wanted to take a different approach and engage the community itself first.
It has drawn federal attention, however, with the Biden administration specifically naming this corridor in its plan to address racism and highway infrastructure. Advocates on both sides of the debate are now dusting off competing health assessments and interstate plans for another fight about the future of these neighborhoods.
Barbara Lacen-Keller under the Claiborne Corridor leaning against one of the pillars with a painted tree. Aerial photo showing construction of a stretch of the Pomona Freeway from Boyle Heights to unincorporated East Los Angeles. The freeways it didn’t build, such as Beverly Hills Freeway, would have cut through white neighborhoods. It built 100 percent of the freeways planned for communities in East Los Angeles, however.
Frank Villalobos attended the elementary school and saw the highway block his family’s path to Resurrection Catholic Church, where they attended Mass on Sundays and where his siblings went to school. Today, about 4 percent of the city of Los Angeles and 1 percent of the county is covered by freeways. In Boyle Heights, that figure is about 12 percent, and in East L.A. about 19 percent, Estrada said.
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