April 1, 2021

"I’m floored. I’m thrilled to hear President Biden would call out the Claiborne Expressway as a racist highway."

Said Amy Stelly, an architectural designer, who is "part of a growing movement across the country to take down highways bored through neighborhoods predominantly home to people of color."

From "A woman called for a highway’s removal in a Black neighborhood. The White House singled it out in its infrastructure plan" (WaPo).

175 comments:

stevew said...

Ugh, paywall. Was it a black neighborhood when the Claiborne Expressway was built? If not I'm not getting the "racist highway" angle.

tcrosse said...

Is it paved in Blacktop?

Jupiter said...

Is the gravel racist, or just the top layer?

stevew said...

Ok, google provides the answer:

"Unfortunately, citizens located along North Claiborne Avenue, some of the oldest African American neighborhoods in the country, did not have the resources or political power to prevent the I-10/Claiborne Expressway from moving forward."

Claiborne Expressway

I'm Not Sure said...

"part of a growing movement across the country to take down highways bored through neighborhoods predominantly home to people of color."

Cue the whines of "racism" due to loss of highway access in 3... 2... 1...

narciso said...

My good the stoopid burns down to the root.

narciso said...

If you're across a city, how you do it.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Amy is an artist, designer, activist and teacher who has studied with some folks. That is in itself impressive. Not like the pipefitters and welders and equipment operators thrown off the pipeline. Lets start tallying up the diesel, (not all low sulfur), for these grandiose sub plots of this "New Deal". We are, after all, talking 'replacing' everything. We can buy it all from China! Hunter has some contacts there. Lumber for homes? Oh we can get that from China too. We revere our forests. Love it when a plan comes together!

stevew said...

Soon it will be as they say in Maine: can't get there from here. With a Bert & I accent, of course.

Narayanan said...

Q: for people with knowledge of US road system history >>>

Atlas Shrugged has Railroads as infrastructure backbone ...
Would the premise work in America of Interstate system of roadways?

Q: is Warren Buffett = Midas Mulligan or just a scavenger beneficiary of pull peddling?

Owen said...

So what will replace this? Or has traffic flow so altered over the years that it’s not needed?

Maybe they will put I-10 on a ring road and leave this historic neighborhood to enjoy its newfound seclusion. If no travelers stop there and leave their lunch and gas money behind, so be it.

The important thing is to give them whatever they want. Good and hard.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Hey the downtowns are gonna turn to dust cause everybody works from home. Only poor folks will need highways then. Turn those racist office buildings into urban gardens, natural spaces.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

BUMBLE BEE said...

We are, after all, talking 'replacing' everything. We can buy it all from China! Hunter has some contacts there. Lumber for homes? Oh we can get that from China too. We revere our forests. Love it when a plan comes together!

Shovel ready projects! I'm sure the populace of Mexico will be thrilled!

Paul Snively said...

I'm Not Sure: Cue the whines of "racism" due to loss of highway access in 3... 2... 1...

Heck, any even lightly informed person can already make a cogent argument: statistically, we know that low-income minorities have longer commutes than their wealthier counterparts, and so really would be first, and most adversely affected, by highway removal in their neighborhoods.

But the gentry leftists apparently really do believe that poor people whose skin color isn't pink would all suddenly have high-paying sustainable green jobs at the company down the street and eat very locally-sourced fresh fruits and vegetables (no meat, of course) which they would buy by riding their bicycles the few blocks to the store, if only they could destroy those god-awful highways those horrible pink people did the political heavy lifting and spent the tax dollars to provide, and got rid of those god-awful manual labor jobs at those companies geographically located where a combination of zoning regulations, infrastructure availability, and accessibility by the broadest swath of labor dictate they must be.

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

I am all for tearing down the interstate highway system. That's the primary means by which liberals escape the hellholes they have created and spread the infection to new states. Vermont used to be one of the most rock ribbed conservative states in the Union before those highways up from Boston and NYC trip-state area were built.

Narayanan said...

Robert Moses was born in New Haven, Connecticut, to assimilated German Jewish parents, Bella (Silverman) and Emanuel Moses.

Claiborne Expressway was brain child of Robert Moses ...

Robert Moses at one point held 12 titles simultaneously (including New York City Parks Commissioner and Chairman of the Long Island State Park Commission),[4] but was never elected to any public office (he ran only once, for governor of New York as a Republican in 1934 and lost to Herbert H. Lehman in a landslide). Nevertheless, he created and led numerous public authorities that gave him autonomy from the general public and elected officials. Through these authorities, he controlled millions of dollars in income from his projects, such as tolls, and he could issue bonds to borrow vast sums for new ventures with little or no input from legislative bodies. This removed him from the power of the purse as it normally functioned in the United States, and from the process of public comment on major public works. As a result of Moses' work, New York has the United States' greatest proportion of public benefit corporations, which are the prime mode of infrastructure building and maintenance in New York and account for most of the state's debt.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Wait... traffic down? Poor folks won't miss the highway systems. Save a bundle there.

Just some rando on the interwebz said...

I'll give you a preview of the follow up 10 years (or maybe 20) when the highway move is completed. "New Racist Highway causes minorities to have longer commutes."

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

BTW, I updated to "Big Sur" on my MacBook here, and now the auto-malaprop feature has been enabled, so the browser decided I really meant to say "trip-state" instead of tri-state. Ooh, just then I had to type it multiple times to prevent it from saying "try-state"

Leland said...

Yeah, take away easy access to motorways available to poor and minorities. Make them drive further! Also, have the heavy trucks carrying cargo from the Port of New Orleans either drive further or drive through the surface street neighborhoods of the minorities.

BUMBLE BEE said...

This plot is one for Rod Serling.

Rabel said...

Odd that the Post's story never mentions that the Claiborne Expressway is a simply section of Interstate 10 with a local name.

That's important if you want to understand the history of this particular stretch of highway.

Does it sound less racist if you call it an Interstate?

Jupiter said...

But isn't the idea that there are "Black" neighborhoods racist?

MarkW said...

I think this is a great idea. Ann Arbor is one of the only mid-sized Michigan cities that wasn't bisected by an expressway in 60s (the proposed project was blocked), and the downtown is SO much the better for it. Traverse City (another healthy MI city) doesn't have expressway access at all, and that's working out fine too.

Amadeus 48 said...

Come on, man! Who is kidding whom, here? Everybody knows you put highways along the edges of neighborhoods to keep people in their places. Don't believe me? Look at the Chicago expressways.

The Dan Ryan? It goes along the edge of Bronzeville and nicely separates it from Bridgeport, Canaryville, Pilsen, and Back of the Yards. The Eisenhower? It goes along the north edge of Little Italy and the south edge of Garfield Park and Austin and Oak Park. The Stevenson? Right along the south edge of Heart of Chicago and the south edge of Lawndale. The Kennedy? Along the edge of the "Park" neighborhoods to the Slavic Promised Land of the northwest side.

These neighborhoods have changed since the time when the expressways were planned after the war, but the roads were intended to draw lines. People moved out--often FAST!--and other people moved in. If you wanted to wreck a neighborhood, you turned the city planners loose. They know how to rip things up in the name of progress.

Narayanan said...

Owen said...
So what will replace this? Or has traffic flow so altered over the years that it’s not needed?

Maybe they will put I-10 on a ring road and leave this historic neighborhood to enjoy its newfound seclusion. If no travelers stop there and leave their lunch and gas money behind, so be it.

The important thing is to give them whatever they want. Good and hard.
------------==========
my advice to you Sir :
at least get knowledgeable b4 commenting - the people there got it good and hard years ago from Yankee do gooder
...
Yet the North Claiborne district received something in addition to its declining atmosphere: the Interstate-10 Claiborne Expressway, a massive, elevated highway bisecting the town that further devastated the existing structure, character, and vitality of many surrounding neighborhoods.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Build all new shiny Section 8 housing in the highway's place, for the poor people to move back into. Call them 'The Projects II', that glamorous Hollywood appeal.

Rabel said...

"Claiborne Expressway was brain child of Robert Moses"

I don't think that's correct.

Carol said...

Good, they can tear down the one that went through Boyle Heights too.

Like it or not, the interstates were designed people who did not gaf about poorer neighborhoods and would have been happier to just raze them.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Can use stealth equipment, keep the construction noise to 115db.

Amadeus 48 said...

When Eisenhower saw how his Interstate system (inspired by the German autobahnen) was being implemented, he was shocked. The interstate highways were supposed to take people (and perhaps troops and tanks) from city to city, not through the cities.

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...
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Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

The worst we did was raid the neighbor's strawberry patch.

Ken B said...

Can we get this woman to call for tearing down all the bridges in New Orleans? Because that would be hilarious.

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

Why not just call it a prime example of brutalist architecture and tell them they should feel honored to gaze upon it every day?

Paul Zrimsek said...

Removing highways through inner-city neighborhoods will free up valuable space for more vacant lots.

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

In my hometown we got an expressway right from the Dog-N-Burger to the scrap metal dealer and they flattened a lot of beautiful old architecture to do it. Mostly it was poor whites who got forced out. It was more of a class thing than a race thing. Oddly, they didn't disappear from the face of the Earth, and just found new neighborhoods nearby to blight.

Rory said...

"and eat very locally-sourced fresh fruits and vegetables"

The defunct highways can be turned into very long community gardens.

Both my neighborhood and city were rendered obsolete by planners who tried to prettify and rationalize everyone's living spaces back in the 60s. So I'm not unsympathetic to the position. On the other hand, I wouldn't trust current planners at all.

Amadeus 48 said...

One of the great scenes in Philip K Dick's The Man in the High Castle in the moment when the time-traveling Japanese man thinks he sees a a highway on the waterfront in San Francisco. Not many things have gotten better in San Francisco in the last 40 years, but the removal of the Embarcadero Freeway is one of them. Same with the Fitzgerald Expressway in Boston.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Paul Zrimsek said...

Removing highways through inner-city neighborhoods will free up valuable space for more vacant lots.

And make plenty of new open areas for homeless encampments, thereby killing two birds with one stone! Win, win!

Tim said...

Every God Damned rural Interstate routes through every balanced rural town in the country. We like it that way, because it really is not a huge issue to go under and around it, and it brings business to town, and it makes it easy to get where you need to go because you are never far from the Interstate. Racist my ass.

I'm Not Sure said...

"Mostly it was poor whites who got forced out. It was more of a class thing than a race thing."

I imagine it's like that pretty much everywhere (the class thing, that is). The road's going through somewhere, somebody's going to be displaced. Will it be rich people or poor people? Let me get my Magic 8-Ball...

Mike Petrik said...

@tim in vermont
I hear you. My daughter married a gent from Stowe. Family is old Vermont and therefore very conservative. His Dad (RIP), a carpenter, contractor and true outdoorsman, referred to the newcomers simply as "the hippies."

Paul Snively said...

Amadeus 48: Not many things have gotten better in San Francisco in the last 40 years, but the removal of the Embarcadero Freeway is one of them.

Thanks, Loma Prieta earthquake!

R C Belaire said...

MarkW said...
". . . Traverse City (another healthy MI city) doesn't have expressway access at all, and that's working out fine too."


Traverse City in the summer months is a royal pain to get around in. However, once one learns the side and back roads that the locals know well, it's not so bad. This is where a hard-copy map comes in very handy.

tim maguire said...

We like to talk about peak stupid a lot ("have we reached peak stupid yet?"), but I don't think there is a peak stupid. After we tear down this highway, will the old neighborhood magically spring back into existence? Who are they imagining will benefit? And how will those hurt cope? Will we see this program replaced by another program of reparations for black highway users?

Gahrie said...

After we tear down this highway, will the old neighborhood magically spring back into existence?

I'm willing to bet that six months after they remove the highway there will be complaints about gentrification.

Amadeus 48 said...

" Thanks, Loma Prieta earthquake!"

It was God's judgment on that damned thing.

Amen.

n.n said...

"people of color" (i.e. identity defined by skin color) diversitist or racist verbiage.

Claiborne Expressway - "Elevated Highway"

How often does this happen in high density urbane spaces? Chicago? New York City? Was there a diversitist motive at its construction?

n.n said...

I'm willing to bet that six months after they remove the highway there will be complaints about gentrification.

The highway was motivated by progress in an urbane space. With its presumptive cancellation, the novel complaint will be about accessibility.

tcrosse said...

What Robert Moses rightfully gets thr blame for is the damage done by the Cross Bronx Expressway.

n.n said...

Can we get this woman to call for tearing down all the bridges in New Orleans?

And structures that block Green energy progress. Tear down the trees!

Also, urbane heat islands are a first-order forcing of [catastrophic] [anthropogenic] climate heating... change.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Hold the phone... We'll have need of lots of homes. Biden Admin is giving 1 year renewable amnesty and social security cards to the southern invaders. Jobs and bennies galore. Good thing those yuppies ain't having kids cause we'll need the room!
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/border-crossers-get-1-year-renewable-amnesty-social-security-card
After the economy stalls, those college degrees will come in handy for driving the recycling trucks through the new neighborhoods. May I suggest VDH's "Mexifornia" available through the portal. Kinda get you newbies used to the new sociology.

unknown said...

What neighborhood in New Orleans isn’t predominantly “people of color”? Joking aside, it’s true that urban planners purposely chose to use eminent domain and build public works and so forth on cheap land. It would have been derelict of them to not target cheap, blighted, dilapidated properties.

KellyM said...

Blogger Amadeus 48 said...
"One of the great scenes in Philip K Dick's The Man in the High Castle in the moment when the time-traveling Japanese man thinks he sees a a highway on the waterfront in San Francisco. Not many things have gotten better in San Francisco in the last 40 years, but the removal of the Embarcadero Freeway is one of them. Same with the Fitzgerald Expressway in Boston."

Agreed. It is much improved. But it took ages to get the Embarcadero Freeway dismantled, with a great amount of pushback coming from the political players in Chinatown. The merchants' association fought forever because one of the main offramps from the skyway was a direct funnel into Chinatown.

And speaking of Boston, when I-93 and the Central Artery were rammed through downtown Boston in the 50s, it had the direct effect of cutting off the North End/Waterfront from downtown and the Financial District. The neighborhoods that got bulldozed were mixed ethnic working-class, and filled with old small businesses. It started the ball rolling on the eminent domain takeover of the West End (which no longer exists, for all intents and purposes) and the flight of Italian and Irish families for the suburbs.

Skeptical Voter said...

It's going to make it harder for those good folks along the Claborne Expressway to get to work---asumming that they would still have jobs to go to after Shufflin Joe Biden's "surge" of undocumented future Democrat voters takes over all the low paying ow skilled jobs that the Claiborne folk used to have.

And of course the need for people to get from say Houston to Florida via I-10 will continue.
So the question is what will replace the Claiborne and when? California High 2 was originally planned to run from La Canada in north south towards downtown Los Angeles and then make a right turn and run along the south face of the Santa Monicas out to the ocean. That was the plan some 65 years ago--the portion from La Canada to near downtown Los Angeles was finished about 20 years later--the portion running the Santa Monicas still isn't built and never will be. The NIMBY reflex is strong in Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Brentwood and Pacific Palisades.

There are other freeways in the Los Angeles basin that were built 40 years after they were first planned (and 35 years after the houses along the right of way were condemned) and yet others waiting for almost 50 years to be built--and they are still waiting.

The wokesters of this world have a severe case of cranial rectal insertion and it's not going to get cured.

Static Ping said...

The weird thing about highways is they are sometimes more trouble than they are worth. There are known incidents where closing a highway or a road actually improved traffic generally because the particular route encouraged suboptimal routing. For a lot of drivers it made more sense to use the highway than not, but collectively the majority of the drivers ended up worse off than if the route wasn't there. It is quite possible to encourage people to do the logical thing that proves to be against their interests.

I have no opinion on this particular highway. Also, whenever I hear the word "racist" I immediately assume the speaker is an idiot and knows nothing without further evidence to the contrary. If Biden is for it, I'm assuming it is a terrible idea as he a fount of terrible ideas and has been for his entire life.

Gravel said...

Just look at a map, for pete's sake. There's not a great deal of options on where to route a freeway through New Orleans, since it's bounded on the north by a big damn lake and on the south by a big damn swamp, and a big ass river runs right through it on its way to the Gulf.

If you don't want I-10 to run through a lower income neighborhood in New Orleans, you are going to have to shut it down entirely. Of course, that will have a dramatic impact on the thousands of jobs in the tourist industry there - mostly held by POC, of course - but that's okay, we'll just teach 'em to code.

Ann, you sure find some stupid people to quote on your blog.

Static Ping said...

tim maguire: We like to talk about peak stupid a lot ("have we reached peak stupid yet?"), but I don't think there is a peak stupid.

Oh, there is peak stupid. At some point the stupid become "too dumb to live." It's just a matter of who they take with them and what is left behind.

chuck said...

At some point we are going to need all that money for something real, and we won't have it.

I'm Not Sure said...

"If you don't want I-10 to run through a lower income neighborhood in New Orleans, you are going to have to shut it down entirely."

Shut it down from Baton Rouge to Slidell and renumber I-12 as I-10. Good to go.

Jersey Fled said...

How about we just close the damn thing down.

All you would need is a few hundred of those orange cones.

Much cheaper.

Browndog said...

Everyone thinks in racist terms.

Everyone.

You've been conditioned.

From watching tv/comercials reading any article news related you'll wonder how someone will construe it into something somehow related to racism.

Search your feelings, you'll find an underlying fear, a voice that says "watch, someone will call this racist".

Dance around it all you want--argue the facts behind a bridge, a statue, a building, a road...

...you still spend your time arguing you're not a racist...without even realizing it.

Stop it.

Joe Smith said...

Tear everything down...better yet, throw a George Floyd memorial block party and your guests will tear it down for free.

Big Mike said...

A woman called for a highway’s removal in a Black neighborhood.

Female activists can tear things down, but are not so good at building things up. The pedestrian bridge at Florida International University that collapsed and killed eight people was designed by a woman-owned firm. It collapsed when only a single person was standing on it.

BUMBLE BEE said...

I Think this applies...
https://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/2021/04/01/the-10-radical-new-rules-that-are-changing-america-n1436637
Fundamentally transform America. No Border No Wall No USA At All. The election promises kept.

narciso said...

Crazy me i just want to get from a to b, preferably without getting car jacked anyone know the answer to that one.

Joe Smith said...

"Amadeus 48: Not many things have gotten better in San Francisco in the last 40 years, but the removal of the Embarcadero Freeway is one of them."

This is the correct take.

But replace 'many' with 'any.'

n.n said...

Everyone thinks in racist terms.

Everyone.

You've been conditioned.


Diversity dogma (e.g. CRT). That said, whereas bias is intrinsic, prejudice is progressive.

Yancey Ward said...

Well, I looked at the map, and the best I can tell, I-10 that goes south of Pontchartrain is solely there so that the city of New Orleans can be serviced by the interstate highway- in short, you wouldn't take this route unless you wanted to get into or out of New Orleans itself. Otherwise, you just take I-12 and go along the north side of Pontchartrain.

I guess, if the city wants it gone, it can be eliminated, but I expect there to be tons of complaints afterwards.

Yancey Ward said...

You will hear lots of people complain about how it is too hard to get to I-10 and I-12 in the future.

Yancey Ward said...

The first hurricane approaching NO after the highway's removal should prove interesting.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

tim maguire said...

We like to talk about peak stupid a lot ("have we reached peak stupid yet?"), but I don't think there is a peak stupid.

Maybe, but we seem to be getting pretty close these days.

farmgirl said...

https://www.wcax.com/content/news/Vermont-to-remember-man-who-took-his-life-fighting-progress-563967551.html
Boo-fecken-who

Retail Lawyer said...

Freeways need to be conveniently located for people of color to shut them down during BLM protests.

n.n said...

Vermont-to-remember-man-who-took-his-life-fighting-progress-

Progress is an unqualified, monotonic process: one step forward, two steps backward.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Idem Vetus Longe Reliquit Amentia

farmgirl said...

Exactly, n.n.
The media framing the message-

Browndog said...

Of course, it's not really "racism"-

It's just a moniker attached to anything whites use, like, invented, prospered by, hold dear, identify with.

Diversity means less white people. Period.
Why the attack on whites?

The only demographic, on whole, that hasn't been bought and paid for, forced to submit, or dependent.

Born and raised to believe, to know, they are free. Immigrants tend to see freedom as a gift; the gift of America.

We see it as a natural right no man or government can take, forgetting freedom must be constantly defended.

I think Ronald Reagan said something about how fast freedom can be lost.

gilbar said...

wouldn't the Sensible Thing be;
To use Eminent Domain, and Just BUY UP the Whole City of New Orleans;
and bulldoze it, and turn it into a wildlife sanctuary?

I mean; What has New Orleans EVER done, for ANYONE?
Or, just tell the Corps of Engineers to Stop trying to stop the Atchafalaya River,
And let nature take it's course

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

That guy who burned himself alive in protest of I-91 was right to fight it. Where does it go exactly? From Springfield Mass to Sherbrook, Quebec? It's always empty. Don't miss your exit or you will add twenty miles to your trip. it just tore up some of the. most beautiful country this side of the Mississippi for no real purpose. The only reason I ever use is is that I have a brother in the Berkshires.

alfromchgo said...

Well, in Cook County/Chicago there were more than 300 rolling gunfights on the Interstates flowing through. Don't know the dead count from these. But rerouting the expressways from the black neighborhoods would cut down on the shootings, I guess. Then residents can use the bus to get in and out. Rosa Parks was not consulted for this post.

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

There were similar struggles against the NorthWay in New York State, which is also pretty deserted the vast majority of the time, and which also tore up some beautiful country for no real return. It's mostly travelled by Canadian truckers carrying American hardwood north for their mills and Canadian softwood south. Rail would have been so much less disruptive and more efficient. Route 9 was great. Read "The Spy Who Loved Me," it took place on the old Route 9. OK, maybe don't, but Route 9 was a real treasure, the NorthWay is just blight on a six million acre wilderness area that could have done without it.

Chick said...

Why are the roads black? Why are the lines white?

alfromchgo said...

Do something about those ugly levees while your at it. At least they built Vicksburg and natchez on high ground.

Josephbleau said...
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Josephbleau said...
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Howard said...

Most toxic dump sites I worked on were in poor POC neighborhoods. Breathing interstate brake and tire dust is a blessing on top of the engine exhaust. But you people are right, it's G_d's will for us to shit on them because they don't know how to use bootstraps.

n.n said...

Born and raised to believe, to know, they are free. Immigrants tend to see freedom as a gift; the gift of America.

Including colored people, before there was progress under diversity [dogma], and the "people of color" prejudicial convention. Well, diversitists used to be the exception, but now they are overt and proud. It's a Pro-Choice, Pro-Choice, Pro-Choice, Pro-Choice minority, maybe, hopefully.

narciso said...

any stupid notion, howard is straight on, I recall it was the corrupt white parish chief, that had stolen levie funds, sorry reallocated funds who was screaming all day and night after katrina, he went to prison I think but he's probably out,

n.n said...

I recall it was the corrupt white parish chief, that had stolen levie funds

Was that the mayor? Didn't he take a knee following due process, trial, and conviction?

Wince said...

Shouldn’t we tear down the highway under which the racist Biden administration is detaining unaccompanied illegal immigrant children, just like in Scarface?

Michael said...

Wait, I thought all roads running through peoples of color neighborhoods were named MLK Blvd. did someone miss a few? Perhaps they should be renamed George Floyd Ways.

gilbar said...

Splanky said...
Why are the roads black? Why are the lines white?


Do you All SEE? That the CONTROLLING white lines, are ON TOP of the Black roads?
That's Right! the Road (the BLACK road) is carrying All the load, and is UNDER the white lines
The white lines (the CONTROLLING white lines) are aided and abetted, by the Yellow lines

The Black road does ALL the work, but the white (and yellow) lines make THE LAW!

It just Does NOT get More Racist than a highway!

Browndog said...

Howard said...

Most toxic dump sites I worked on were in poor POC neighborhoods. Breathing interstate brake and tire dust is a blessing on top of the engine exhaust. But you people are right, it's G_d's will for us to shit on them because they don't know how to use bootstraps.


Oh, fuck off.

While we're at it--define "POC neighborhood".

KellyM said...

@Tim in Vermont: I agree with you re I-91. It's always empty and the stretch between Newport and St. Johnsbury is downright nasty in the winter. Anyone trying to make time to Montreal is crossing on the western side of the state. But, I guess it makes sense from a border standpoint, since there are only a couple of legitimate customs crossings in the state. Still, it's a shame so much beautiful countryside was ruined for it.

Known Unknown said...

None of this will matter if the media/government complex keeps stoking the fires of racial animus.

tommyesq said...

Not many things have gotten better in San Francisco in the last 40 years, but the removal of the Embarcadero Freeway is one of them. Same with the Fitzgerald Expressway in Boston.

One problem with the removal of the Fitzgerald Expressway was that they replaced it with "green space," which effectively is like a scar upon which nothing grows, and the otherwise-adjacent neighborhoods continue to have no continuity. This is what would otherwise be highly valuable property that sits largely idle, but for some food trucks.

Browndog said...

In most northern cities, it was/is the part of town relegated to where blacks live.

That was my point. Just says blacks.

MadisonMan said...

What are they replacing it with?

Joe Smith said...

"Wait, I thought all roads running through peoples of color neighborhoods were named MLK Blvd. did someone miss a few? Perhaps they should be renamed George Floyd Ways."

When visiting an area unknown to you, this is the best way to avoid being mugged...avoid all areas named MLK anything.

But don't worry...it will be replaced with a huge mural of bright colors depicting civil rights heroes by some untalented artist of color.

Btw, usually another way to tell if you're in the wrong neighborhood...look for the poorly-painted murals on public and private buildings.

Ray said...

Highways are like the rivers of old. They represent arteries for economic growth. They allow people to live in more affordable housing while still working in cities. They also allow for commercial development near the crossroads, reducing the cost of shipping. This may be different in economically declining areas. The increase in work at home may change these dynamics.

I'm Not Sure said...

Nobody puts dumps (toxic or otherwise) in the middle of cities. What happens is- cities grow and eventually expand to include areas that were previously not inhabited. And who is going to choose to live in a less desirable location, such as near a dump? Poor people.

It's not rocket surgery.

Tarrou said...

Once we're done tearing up every highway to black neighborhoods, we can deal with the racism of not having any highways near black neighborhoods. Damn wypipo.

Michael K said...

Most toxic dump sites I worked on were in poor POC neighborhoods.

Howard fit right in, if not with the "poor POC" at least with the toxic dump.

n.n said...

And who is going to choose to live in a less desirable location, such as near a dump? Poor people.

A correlation with economic class, not diversity class (e.g. "people of color"). The claim is two-fold: diversity and representation. Is this before Democrats discovered allegation of diversity were politically congruent weapons to secure profit and leverage?

n.n said...

Meanwhile, they are constructing high-density residential units in suburban neighborhoods. Diversity, profit, or retributive change?

Humperdink said...
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Caligula said...

I usually view calls for highway destruction as bargaining chips: give us some money for what we want and we'll let you keep it.

It's sorta like paying a lawyer to go away (aka "settling").

Only this time the fanatics are beginning to believe their own lies, and they just might not mind destroying whatever they can target with their rage-tantrums, the ones against Western Civ and all that. But after you tear/burn it all down, what will you then replace it with?

BTW, there's an interstate highway one-third of a mile from where I live; it's visible from upstairs windows, and I can usually hear it when I'm outside. Yet although the neighborhood seems to have some racial variety to it, and although it's not upscale, mostly it's well kept-up and very far from slummy.

Which means, before you blame the highway for the decline of your neighborhood, perhaps you should consider other possible causes?

And, if you do succeed in removing it and the neighborhood doesn't get any better (as measured by crime rates or median income, perhaps), will you pay to have it rebuilt?

Mike Sylwester said...

The Democrats need practically all the Blacks to vote Democrat.

Humperdink said...

This post reminds me of Clark Griswold (aka Chevy Chase) in the movie Vacation where Clark wanders off the interstate and winds up in the inner city. Leaves the city with a few car parts missing.

Skipper said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Skipper said...

Those highways were placed and built by Democrats as part of urban renewal. E.g., see Chicago, Mayor Daley.

bagoh20 said...

Does anybody really doubt that if the freeway wasn't there, that would be racist too?

The racism charge is now just a tool, like a hammer, used to fix all types of problems, delicate or not, and mostly effective at crushing things.

It's also the perfect gift for the nihilist in your family. Give them a "call-me-a-racist" gift card at Christmas. Guaranteed to never be returned or re-gifted. It's just too valuable.

bagoh20 said...

Why isn't there a line of casinos, gift shops, fast food, roller coasters and tourist fleecing businesses there? You could sell antiracist t-shirts and hats that say "I went broke being woke".

bagoh20 said...

It's working really well too:

"Murders have tripled from July 2020 to February 2021 in Portland, where city commissioners last May voted to cut nearly $16 million from the police budget in response to complaints about police force and racial injustice. Seventeen people have been murdered in Portland in the first two months of 2021, a 1,600 percent increase from the one murder reported during the same time period in 2020."

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/crime-police-defund-georgefloyd/2021/04/01/id/1016085/

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

It will be interesting to see what they come up with as an alternative.

effinayright said...

bagoh20 said...
Does anybody really doubt that if the freeway wasn't there, that would be racist too?
*************

True dat. the activists would be whining that the neighborhood was "underserved".

bagoh20 said...

My link above is not acceptable to the NYT-sucking likes of Althouse. You might get facts that are too hard to digest.

China, Iran, and North Korea are all suddenly sword rattling, and Russia is testing our Alaska border, laughing at the American people for their inept and corrupt "democracy". The Mexican cartels taunt our border patrol while throwing toddlers over the wall.

How's that delightful return to "boring" working out for ya?

Wince said...

The highway is unlikely to be taken down.

Instead, the money will be used to pay “compensation.”

Michael K said...

I just agree with whoever said the next hurricane will be interesting.

Michael K said...

Blogger Humperdink said...
This post reminds me of Clark Griswold (aka Chevy Chase) in the movie Vacation where Clark wanders off the interstate and winds up in the inner city. Leaves the city with a few car parts missing.


Same theme in "Bonfire of the Vanities." They get off the interstate and meet some POCs.

n.n said...

April Fools? #1101000

Francisco D said...

Howard said...
Most toxic dump sites I worked on were in poor POC neighborhoods.

That helps to explain things about your personality- the toxic dump sites.

Was this before or after you became a Marine hero?

Paul said...

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... everything is racist... Every name is racist in it's own way. Even black names are racist cause they are not white names!

Like busing, we need to force people to take names of other races.... yea.. that's the ticket!

Paul said...

bagoh20 said...

"Murders have tripled from July 2020 to February 2021 in Portland, where city commissioners last May voted to cut nearly $16 million from the police budget in response to complaints about police force and racial injustice. Seventeen people have been murdered in Portland in the first two months of 2021, a 1,600 percent increase from the one murder reported during the same time period in 2020."

They can kill each other off over there... let them zero out Portland's population by their own hands. Let nature take that shi*hole back.

They voted for their 'leaders'... let them stew in their on juice.

CStanley said...

The 610 connector really should have been 10, and the part that goes from downtown out to Metairie should be a continuation of Hwy 90 from the Westbank. I’m guessing that’s what they are proposing

I wouldn’t doubt that the land values have increased because the neighborhoods between N Claiborne and the river like Treme and Bywater are now trendy and id bet there are investors wanting to push that gentrification further north. Somehow I doubt that poor blacks in the area are going to benefit.

Butkus51 said...

infrastructure is bad

I'm Full of Soup said...

Amy Stelly is an archtitural designer aka probably a member of our expert class but not a real expert at anything but race hustling. We need to create a word for fake experts.

Sebastian said...

Isn't the existence of NO itself racist?

I mean, subsidizing black people to live in the path major hurricanes and at the mercy of a lake and river--how does that comport with social justice?

Caroline said...

i'm from NOLA, but don't live there now. They are dismantling its history & tradition brick by brick. street by street. Never mind the financial hardship and extreme inconvenience for businesses & residents along the many, many, many offensive streets to repaint trucks, promotional materials, invoices, letterhead etc with whatever new woke designation our Race Overlords decide.

n.n said...

the land values have increased because the neighborhoods between N Claiborne and the river like Treme and Bywater are now trendy and id bet there are investors wanting to push that gentrification further north

Allegations of diversity with "benefits". Politically congruent legerdemain. Clever.

rhhardin said...

It sounds like a gentrification plan. Where will the blacks live.

Kylos said...

I grew up rural. I love highways! Unless you’ve lived in neighborhoods divided by highways, I think it’s hard to appreciate the damage done when the cut a neighborhood in half. Accessibility, property values plummet. In some cases you might have to travel five or so miles to get somewhere that used to be a quarter mile walk. See Ypsilanti MI for an example.

madAsHell said...

Amy Stelly is an archtitural designer

Architects don't need designers.

Tommy Duncan said...

I'd bet that a major factor in picking the routes for the Interstate Highways was tax revenue. Poor neighborhoods don't generate much tax revenue.

On the flip side, many cities in the Midwest fought to have the Interstate Highways routed near them or through them. The highways represented an opportunity for expanded commerce.

I really don't think the Interstate Highways were a way to stick it to any particular group in the way that the IRS stuck it to conservatives or the FBI stuck it to Trump.

Chest Rockwell said...

"See Ypsilanti MI for an example."

What interstate bisects Ypsilanti?

I Callahan said...

What interstate bisects Ypsilanti?

Good question. I-94 is to the south; I-275 is to the east, and US 12 (Michigan Ave) is the main drag, if I'm not mistaken.

Mark said...

I-94 is on the southern border of Ypsi, not running through it, and 23 runs far to the west, separating Ann Arbor from Ypsi.

It is also hard to see where -- or why -- they would have wanted to run a highway through the middle of Ann Arbor, rather than have the 94-23-14 beltway they have, with the city at the northwest corner of the 94-23 intersection. Maybe they could have run 94 a bit north of Briarwood, but that is hardly through the middle of town. What's more, the "downtown" area consists of the area from State and Liberty to Main Street, which runs north-south. There would be zero sense in running a highway through there. Which is all a long way to say that I doubt there was ever such a plan.

Bob Loblaw said...

Most toxic dump sites I worked on were in poor POC neighborhoods.

Statistically those types of sites are in areas where poor people live, regardless of color.

This whole thing makes me laugh. You can almost set your watch on this - a year after they take the first freeway out of a black neighborhood we'll be flooded with articles about black people living in "transportation deserts".

wildswan said...

I think the whole set of infrastructure projects will become so entangled with social justice issues and green issues and alternate forms of transportation (like the streetcars in the Claiborne plans) and rehousing issues and planning and neighborhood meetings that nothing will get done before the money runs out. It will be the California bullet train debacle on a nationwide scale.

Mark said...

Here is a story about proposed major roads involving Ann Arbor, but they were all on the periphery of the main city (and still are today). They would not have run through the middle of anything.

https://annarborobserver.com/articles/the_ring_road_that_wasn_t.html#.YGaWnz8pDIU

ManleyPointer said...

Someone upthread mentioned the removal of the Embarcadero improving SF. But guess which racial demographic is shrinking most rapidly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0FnJDhY9-0

Shitty neighborhoods get a bad rap. They're places where young people can trade their resilience for some equity. We can take incremental steps to make them marginally less shitty. But when we're talking about massive, expensive overhauls, I don't believe it's being done to benefit locals.

Yancey Ward said...

Looks someone may be trying to take down the LegalInsurrection website.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

So does this mean the Left no longer supports Kelo?

Arturo Ui said...

Gaetz 2024? Who's with me?!

gadfly said...

Also bad planning is expanding Amtrak passenger service for Indianapolis. Hoosiers don't ride old-fashioned trains and there is not any trackage in the entire state that supports high-speed rail except for a few miles used by The Wolverine train which runs between Chicago and Detroit at speeds up to 100 mph with stops in Hammond and Michigan City. Bus service is cheaper and far more flexible - but ground mass-transit is dying everywhere except for the Northeast states. Cross-country Amtrak trains are old, painfully slow and unreliable; traveling on tracks owned by the private freight railroads whose trains are green-lighted ahead of the engines dragging a few passenger cars. Only three national Amtrak trains touch Indiana soil and nobody in Indy rides the Cardinal train that services New York NY, Washington DC, Charlottesville VA, White Sulphur Springs WV, Charleston WV, Cincinnati OH, Indianapolis IN, and Chicago IL making one stop per day each direction, three days per week.

gadfly said...

Arturo Ui said...
Gaetz 2024? Who's with me?!

Don Gaetz might be available to run, if he doesn't spend all his money freeing a dead body from Iran but Matt will be serving time in a Florida FCI - unless he can somehow get his "adopted" son, Nestor, to take the fall for y'all.

n.n said...

So, diversity [dogma] wasn't a motive for its construction, but diversity is an excuse for its removal. Progress.

BUMBLE BEE said...

As stated above, I'd expect a Next Generation of wokeness to complain about the highways, ala the Title IX debacle. Protest as the pop stars of wokeness2021 is showing up on cable movies made in 2020. Such clearly phony rubbish as to be unwatchable. There's no Lina Wertmuellers among this generation.

Iman said...

Now let’s deal with the Slauson Cut-off.

Temujin said...

I think this is a good move. Unpopular here in the comments. But none of us live there. We had an expressway cut through our neighborhood, about 2 blocks from my house growing up in suburban Detroit. White neighborhood, suburban Detroit. It was a much needed highway. But it sucked for years as they built it. And yes- it changed the neighborhood forever. No one wants to buy a house next to an expressway. But it was not a long-time, culturally historic neighborhood. It was a relatively young, suburban area made up of subdivisions. Very different.

Later, living in Atlanta, which is one of the most crowded traffic cities in the US, I watched as twice over the years voters rejected a much needed third ring of highway to go around the city. The most northern suburbs and exurbs refused to have a new expressway go through their towns. I get it. It would change those towns. But...how do you get around without it? We left Atlanta because we got tired of the massive traffic.

Still, the Claiborne Expressway is a different tale. And for the most part- those projects get OK'd in poor (not always black, but always poor) neighborhoods because they have not historically had the clout of a, let's say, Alpharetta, GA.

wildswan said...

n.n said...
So, diversity [dogma] wasn't a motive for its construction, but diversity is an excuse for its removal. Progress.

Suppose you had to choose between woman trained in diversity studies or a man trained in engineering to lead the takedown of the Claiborne Expressway. What you want to avoid is a project that becomes a ruin without without ever having been transportation as is happening with California high-speed-rail money pit. You don't want to be left with a line of concrete pylons down Claiborne Avenue with homeless camps arranged around them and snarled traffic off in the distance consisting of fuming commuters sitting and planning to leave New Orleans. But you don't want another brutalist scheme which disregards the community again. Then what?

MadisonMan said...

I'm reminded of the tale of I40 through Memphis. IIRC, it was slated to go right through Overton Park. Well-funded opposition put an end to that idea. The poor lose their houses to highways (or to Urban Renewal, such as Greenbush in Madison). The rich, not so much.

Rusty said...

Tommy Duncan said...
"I'd bet that a major factor in picking the routes for the Interstate Highways was tax revenue. Poor neighborhoods don't generate much tax revenue."
To be honest the interstates that run through Chicago were built to provide revenue to the Cook County and Chicago corrupt political elite. Hence the Kennedy, Eisenhower and Dan Ryan Xways. run where they do. Gotta pay off the cronys. Same goes for the projects.

Known Unknown said...

""I'd bet that a major factor in picking the routes for the Interstate Highways was tax revenue. Poor neighborhoods don't generate much tax revenue."

Eminent Domain is easier to use in poor neighborhoods. Duh.

Known Unknown said...

"Now let’s deal with the Slauson Cut-off."

I once had to give someone directions to the Slauson Cut Off. My proudest moment as a temporary Angeleno.

Michael K said...

Blogger MadisonMan said...
I'm reminded of the tale of I40 through Memphis. IIRC, it was slated to go right through Overton Park. Well-funded opposition put an end to that idea.


Orange County CA can match that. The 241 Toll road (Originally designed as a freeway) was to provide a parallel route through OC for the I 5, which is a main route from LA to San Diego. At the El Toro Y, it splits into two routes, the 405 and the 5 continues east of the 405. The 241 was to join the 5 a few miles north of the junction, providing the eastern alternate but this took it through Lemon Heights, an upscale suburb. Somehow, the Lemon Heights people got the plan changed and the 241 turns further east so it is no longer a parallel route through OC. This occurred around the time Jerry Brown was trying to force people out of their cars, so there was no opposition from the state.

Cal Trans keeps widening I5 in OC so in places it is 12 lanes each direction but the traffic keeps getting worse. The environmentalists eventually blocked the 241 so it no longer joins the 5 at the south end. Since it was no longer a parallel route, it didn't matter much.

n.n said...

Suppose you had to choose between woman trained in diversity studies or a man trained in engineering to lead the takedown of the Claiborne Expressway.

I would want an engineer and a community representative not steeped in diversity dogma (e.g. racism). I can't tolerate racists under the classical or contemporary labels they have adopted.

320Busdriver said...


Blogger wendybar said...
When everything is racist, nothing is.

Waukegan IL is renaming its racist Thomas Jefferson and Daniel Webster middle schools. Latino activists are objecting to two top names under consideration, Barack and Michelle Obama.

“If you’re removing the name of Thomas Jefferson — one oppressor — the name of Obama is another oppressor and our families do not want to see that name,” Contreras said.


A blessed Good Friday to all.



DaveL said...

The "Inner Belt" in Boston would have gone right behind MIT and through what is now the biotech capital of the universe, Kendall Square.

I'm Not Sure said...

"Somehow, the Lemon Heights people got the plan changed..."

The same thing happened in South Pasadena with the Long Beach freeway.

Chris N said...

Did someone report the highway to the Federal HR department?

Iman said...

I once had to give someone directions to the Slauson Cut Off. My proudest moment as a temporary Angeleno.

Such opportunities do not often present themselves... good show!

hstad said...


Blogger MarkW said...
I think this is a great idea. Ann Arbor is one of the only mid-sized Michigan cities that wasn't bisected by an expressway in 60s (the proposed project was blocked), and the downtown is SO much the better for it. Traverse City (another healthy MI city) doesn't have expressway access at all, and that's working out fine too.

4/1/21, 3:47 PM

"MarkW" you're a real "Woke Fan" citing two cities, Ann Arbor and Traverse City, with populations so small, 100K and 15K, respectively. Yep, they really need expressways in those cities? Pure B.S. on your part and a classic example of "Much Ado About Nothing". Other then that - thanks for your vacuous comments.

mtrobertslaw said...

In comparing pre-highway Black neighborhoods with post-highway effects on those same neighborhoods, it would be helpful to compare crime statistics in those Black neighborhoods as they are today, with the crime statistics in the pre-highway traditional Black neighborhoods of the 1920s, 30s and 40s.

Joe Smith said...

"Now let’s deal with the Slauson Cut-off."

Classic Carson : )

GMay said...

"Yet the North Claiborne district received something in addition to its declining atmosphere: the Interstate-10 Claiborne Expressway, a massive, elevated highway bisecting the town that further devastated the existing structure, character, and vitality of many surrounding neighborhoods."

Yeah, the declining atmosphere had nothing to do with shitty zoning, rampant crime, and notoriously corrupt city management. Nah, it was a highway.

Go ahead and believe it just because it was written on the internet.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

There’s very fine roads on both sides- Trump’s voice

Bunkypotatohead said...

It will take 10 years for some gov't planning commitee to design a replacement roadway. Then white unionized contractors will take another decade to build it.
By then noone will remember the reason, and there won't be money left to remove the old one anyways. The whole fiasco will be blamed on Trump.

gbarto said...

It's just a good thing that with Biden as President we have finally reached a point where we are past the bigotry of the past. What we need to do now is to give the kind of government that did this even more power so it can undo it. I would suggest, as a first order of business, that all new highways be required to go through at least ten homes belonging to white people with assets in excess of $10 million, and that any payment by the state for the land be redirected to non-profits that help BIPOCs.

I am not sure whether this is sarcasm or a predictiong.

gahrie said...

Cal Trans keeps widening I5 in OC so in places it is 12 lanes each direction but the traffic keeps getting worse.

Traffic on the 15 going through the Cajon Pass got worse after they widened it. The worst thing is, there's a 1 mile stretch between the Cleghorn exit, and the Silverlake exit, for which the 15 is the only way through the pass for anything without offroad capability. There aren't even any dirt fire roads that connect them, they're blocked off.

Otto said...

I-95 right through Fairfield county,CT.

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Lurker21 said...

The Claibornes were Cokie Roberts's mother's family. A very old Virginia (slaveowning) political family with many branches. William Charles Cole Claiborne went to Louisiana and became the state's first governor. Sen. Claiborne Pell and designer Liz Claiborne were likewise part of the extended family's many branches.