Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Civil Rights

How Does the Threat of Police Violence Affect How You Use the Street?

By Ben Fried | Dec 4, 2014 | 63 Comments

When the news came out yesterday that a Staten Island grand jury had failed to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo for killing Eric Garner with an illegal chokehold, like many people I found the outcome difficult to comprehend. With clear video evidence showing that Pantaleo broke NYPD protocol and a coroner’s report certifying that Garner’s death […]

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Documentary to Explore Racial Discrimination in Transportation Planning

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 29, 2014 | No Comments

Beavercreek, Ohio, nabbed its own infamous place in civil rights history last year, when the Federal Highway Administration ruled that the suburb had violated anti-discrimination laws by blocking bus service from nearby Dayton. The Beavercreek case marked the first time civil rights activists had successfully filed an administrative complaint with the FHWA against a public […]

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How 3 Communities Fought Discriminatory Transportation Policies

By Angie Schmitt | Jul 3, 2014 | No Comments

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. To celebrate the occasion, PolicyLink held a discussion this week about how that legislation has affected transportation policy. Three local community leaders shared stories about how they used legal protections to […]

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Study: Civil Rights Protections Lack Teeth When It Comes to Transportation

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 14, 2014 | No Comments

American transportation policy has a woeful history of civil rights abuses. For a good part of the 1950s and ’60s, using highways to level black neighborhoods was a matter of national policy. And the white flight and segregation that those highways engendered have left a legacy that continues to shape much of America in the […]

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Commemorating March on Washington, Foxx Links Transport to Civil Rights

By Tanya Snyder | Aug 28, 2013 | No Comments

Today marks 50 years since the landmark March on Washington, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his historic “I Have a Dream” speech. I was privileged to join tens of thousands of others on the National Mall this weekend to commemorate the anniversary. In a blog post today, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx noted the […]

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WisDOT Faces Civil Rights Suit Over $1.7 Billion “Zoo Interchange”

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 17, 2012 | No Comments

In the politically polarized Milwaukee region, there are two widely divergent visions of what transportation should do. There’s the Waukesha vision, which might be summarized as all highways, no transit. This suburban Republican stronghold — one of the most conservative counties in the country — has for years been systematically severing the already limited transit connections […]

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