State officials announced $140 million for transportation projects to rectify long-term inequality.
South San Francisco’s historic downtown along Grand Avenue is separated from its modern business complexes to the east by an elevated Highway 101 and Caltrain railroad tracks. New state grants may fund ways to help the city connect communities separated by major traffic infrastructure. In the span of a mile, two highways and a rail line slice through the heart of South San Francisco, forming barriers that residents must navigate daily on their way to work, school or to visit family.
“It’s a physical manifestation of institutional racism,” said Randolph Belle, a local artist and real estate consultant helping with the plans. “It’s the other side of the tracks.” A few blocks away, Naomi Ruiz, 40, waited for a bus to Palo Alto, where she works as a skilled nurse. Ruiz doesn’t mind the hour-long ride south, but she complained that schedule delays constantly disrupt her commute.Patrick Gilster, director of planning and fund management with the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, said a new transit program could help the agency find more effective bus routes through the city.
It’s not yet clear how much of the $149 million in state grant money the years-long project will receive. Gilster said the transportation authority will seek input from community members on the plans.over Highway 101 in 2019 to connect residents with jobs and amenities on the more affluent west side of the freeway. Work recently started on another similar overpass at University Avenue., which runs south of Market Street before linking to I-80 on its way to the Bay Bridge.
The highway project destroyed more than 500 homes, nearly two dozen businesses and a thriving Black cultural district in West Oakland. It also contributed to the historic disinvestment in local schools and businesses, as well as the concentration of truck routes and heavy industry in the area, exacerbating patterns of segregation and poor health outcomes that persist today, Belle said.
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