When Interstate 81 was constructed within the Sixties, it sliced proper by Syracuse’s Pioneer Houses — one of many nation’s oldest public housing communities, which had been constructed some three many years earlier. However in just a few years, the federal government is ready to degree to degree a mile and a half of the freeway and reconnect a neighborhood.
Bishop Bernard Alex’s church is only a few miles from Syracuse, the place he grew up. He says the freeway stretch of I-81 sits over the place individuals from his hometown used to plant gardens.
“You took away a thriving, vibrant group,” he mentioned “You took away the hope and the house of a individuals.”
Alex mentioned he believes the freeway’s building in New York state was a deliberate try and drive sure individuals out of the realm.
To at the present time, the freeway casts a large shadow, separating Pioneer Houses from White and prosperous neighborhoods, hospitals and faculties.
A CBS Information evaluate of federal data discovered communities that sit within the shadows of main highways undergo greater air pollution charges. The individuals have greater bronchial asthma charges and the earnings ranges and property values are decrease.
Syracuse is one in every of greater than 130 communities nationwide that shared $3 billion in federal awards this 12 months to reconnect neighborhoods segregated by freeway planners within the 1900s. From Portland, Oregon to Philadelphia, cities are repurposing stretches of expressways with parks and inexperienced house planted over the roadways, a course of often called capping.
Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh mentioned his metropolis’s venture is among the many most formidable, calling the soon-to-be-demolished stretch of I-81 “a scar that goes by the center of our metropolis.”
At a value of greater than $2 billion, I-81 is being rerouted round Syracuse. The present stretch will then be demolished and changed with a pedestrian-friendly grid of floor streets with retailers, cease indicators and doubtlessly new life for Pioneer Houses
“We won’t undo the wrongs of the previous,” Walsh mentioned. “However we are able to attempt to get it proper this time round. We have now a chance to knit again the material of our cities and to carry individuals collectively.”
Alex hopes the demolition will immediate individuals to maneuver again to the neighborhoods close to Pioneer Houses
However in different traffic-choked cities throughout the nation, freeway growth goes on. Like in North Charleston, South Carolina, the place Interstate 526, which runs by many largely Black neighborhoods, is ready to be widened.
North Charleston Mayor Reggie Burgess mentioned the growth is “unavoidable.”
Burgess mentioned dozens of house owners will have to be relocated, however the state is providing affected residents housing help, employment assist and school grants
“In fact, we do not need to displace individuals. However when now we have to really enhance the infrastructure, generally now we have to make choices that aren’t accepted, however I believe that individuals perceive it,” he mentioned.
